Up to a Point: They Made Me Write About Lena Dunham

The Daily Beast ^ | 13 Dec 2014 | P J O'Rourke

[Rummyfan]

My editor called and said, “Do a column on this Lena Dunham flap!”

And I said...

Actually, back up. What I did NOT say was, “Who the hell is Lena Dumbwhat?”

I’m a 67-year-old guy. I live in rural New Hampshire. I don’t subscribe to US Weekly, assuming that still exists. I watch football, basketball, and hockey on TV and sometimes “The Bass Pros” on Outdoor Channel.

The only Lena I know of is Lena Horne, a wonderful performer, who is not involved in any flaps, and who is also dead.

But I’m a writer. That is, I was a writer for 40 years. Now I’m a “content provider.” And the Internet has declared that “content is free.” So when I get a call from someone who—startling as this is in our times—pays me…

But the Internet isn’t all bad. I can Google “Lena Dunham.”

She created and stars in (young content consumers please excuse this aside to readers who are as out-of-it as I am) a television series on HBO called Girls.

Ms. Dunham is 28. I was under the impression that “girls” is a demeaning term for adult women. The title must have something to do with this hipster “Irony” thing, which I confess I don’t understand. The root of the word irony is in the Greek eironeia, “liar.”

[glasseye]

Double bacon please.

[pithyinme]

PJ O'Rourke was the only reason I ever read Rolling Stone. The link to the Brietbart article is very interesting. There is no doubt Lena is lying about something here. If I was the Barry who was smeared by here... I'd be lawyering up.

[BBell]

The last 28-year-old who could have written a memoir worth reading was Alexander the Great in 328 B.C., after he’d conquered the known world, but he was too busy conquering the rest of the world to write it.

P J O'Rourke is the best.

[ex91B10]

PJ O'Rourke was the only reason I ever read Rolling Stone.

And National Lampoon (way back when...)

[Huntress]

If his daughters really are named Poppet and Muffin, he should be taken out and shot.

[CorporateStepsister]

“I was under the impression that “girls” is a demeaning term for adult women. The title must have something to do with this hipster “Irony” thing, which I confess I don’t understand. The root of the word irony is in the Greek eironeia, “liar.””

It’s all about refusing to grow up.

[PCPOET7]

wow I read something on the daily beast that I did not want to burn after words

[Pollster1]

"If his daughters really are named Poppet and Muffin, he should be taken out and shot."

He and his second wife have two daughters (Elizabeth and Olivia), and a son (Clifford). His first wife was Lena Horne's granddaughter (I just point that out because he mentions that Lena).

[Tax-chick]

He and his second wife have two daughters (Elizabeth and Olivia), and a son (Clifford).

He refers to them in his writing as Muffin, Poppet, and Buster.

[iowamark]

The young people in Girls are miserable, peevish, depressed, hate their bodies, themselves, their life, and each other. They occupy apartments with the size and charm of the janitor’s closet, shared by The Abominable Roommate. They dress in clothing from the flophouse lost-and-found and are groomed with a hacksaw and gravel rake. They are tattooed all over with things that don’t even look like things the way a anchor or a mermaid or a heart inscribed “Mom” does, and they’re only a few years older than my daughters.

The characters in Girls take drugs. They “hook up” in a manner that makes the casual sex of the 1960s seem like an arranged marriage in Oman. And they drink and they vomit and they drink and they vomit and they drink and they vomit.

[FreedomPoster]

They must have spent hours in makeup with Lena for that picture. She looks almost normal. Every other picture I have seen (not that many, admittedly), she looked, well, like she was dressed in clothing from the flophouse lost-and-found and groomed with a hacksaw and gravel rake.

[servo1969]

My favorite-

The characters in Girls take drugs. They “hook up” in a manner that makes the casual sex of the 1960s seem like an arranged marriage in Oman. And they drink and they vomit and they drink and they vomit and they drink and they vomit.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“The young people in Girls are miserable, peevish, depressed, hate their bodies, themselves, their life, and each other. They occupy apartments with the size and charm of the janitor’s closet, shared by The Abominable Roommate. They dress in clothing from the flophouse lost-and-found and are groomed with a hacksaw and gravel rake. They are tattooed all over with things that don’t even look like things the way a anchor or a mermaid or a heart inscribed “Mom” does, and they’re only a few years older than my daughters.
The characters in Girls take drugs. They “hook up” in a manner that makes the casual sex of the 1960s seem like an arranged marriage in Oman. And they drink and they vomit and they drink and they vomit and they drink and they vomit. “

IMO anyone who lets their young kids watch shows like this are guilty of very poor parenting. Watching these shows leads the pre or young adolescent to think that the behavior in these shows is normal and expected. For example, if a show repeatedly shows teens having sex on the first date, that is what they think they are expected to do when they start dating. After all TV shows that is what all the cool kids are doing. These shows are not entertainment, they are essentially instructional videos whether they were meant to be or not.

[Tax-chick]

Lena Dunham has pretty eyes, a clear complexion, and a good haircut. If she wanted to, she could look unremarkably nice. Clearly, she doesn’t want to: she wants to look awful.

[Bigg Red]

If I was the Barry who was smeared by here... I’d be lawyering up.

***
I still am not familiar with this female, although I learned far more than I want to know about the show by reading the original article. O’Rourke says that the accused student was not registered at the school that this skank went to.