After six seasons, Girls is ending. This show about self-discovery, friendship and love has been an instrumental part of my life since the beginning of 2012. It is our generation’s Sex and the City; though nothing can ever truly replace Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big, Girls was a more raw and unapologetic approach to womanhood in the 21st century. This show is the ‘voice of our generation,’ to say the least.
The creator and one of the four stars, Lena Dunham, created a show that brought forth conversations that needed to be addressed. In its first season alone they also touched on sexual harassment and STD’s taboo topics that I had yet to hear about honestly on television. The second episode featured Jessa, played by Jemima Kirke, preparing to get an abortion. With her friends by her side, they were in it together. That’s what I truly love about the series, the bond between the women. Though all different in every aspect–their jobs, their financial status and their romantic relationships–they still had this ability to come together and support one another.
It’s not to say that the show didn’t have it’s own set of issues. The feminism portrayed is not intersectional. The series began when the term feminism started to be uttered daily. It is the epitome of third-wave feminism with dialogue and actions wanting to spill over into the fourth-wave. The lack of minority characters could not be fixed by a few dates with a black actor, and there is a sense of entitlement. Four white and cisgender women could not, and did not try to accurately portray the issues of colored women, classes they did not belong in, or the LGBTQ+ community. And as a self identifying intersectional feminist, I can appreciate that.
A stride that the show did make in its time on the air was the inclusion of body positivity. Nudity is important to the show and its cultural landscape. It started a conversation outside of just the viewers. Dunham’s female body was one not typically seen on screen but one seen in real life and acknowledges that sex is typical for any size body.
As I tuned in each week, I was able to learn about the normality of not exactly knowing where one is supposed to end up in life. These girls are not perfect and they don’t try to be; they are self-sabotaging and have made mistakes, but they are also smart. They knew when it was time to say goodbye to a job that was holding them back, goodbye to men who made them feel horrible and goodbye to accepting less–of themselves and others. They’ve grown throughout the series and as hard as it is for me to say goodbye, I’m proud to say that I’ve grown with them.
Hannah, Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna navigated life and New York “one mistake at a time” and reminded me that “all adventurous women do.”
Photo Credits: vogue.com