http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/lena-dunham-louis-ck-sexism-comedy?mbid=social_facebook
Above is an article comparing the public's reaction to Louie's episoide where the main character Louie meets an attractive wealthy women that is interested in him, and a GIRL's episoide where the main character hannah meets a wealthy attractive man who is interested in her. (both just last a day or two, not a whirl wind romance) For Louie, critics claimed it was a great new episoide and he was welcomed in the TV word. They claimed it was heart warming, quirky, etc. Though, when hannah in GIRLS spent only two days with a good looking wealthy man, as a semi overweight and poor post college girl living in new york, critics claimed it was hard watching Duhnam's outlandish fantasy being played out. The author of this article does a great job showing the similarities of the episoides, and the differences in the public's reactions and what that says about our culture's expectations.
That episode of GIRLS, "One Man's Trash", is one of my favorite episodes in the entire series.
ReplyDeleteI think it's genius, it does so much to let you look into Hannah's brain, but when the episode is discussed, that is often ignored and all anyone can focus on is the fact that Hannah is naked for two days straight with a very hot, older doctor. They're missing the point! Plus, people have sex with lots of different people of different shapes and sizes and for different reasons all the time, so it's obviously a huge problem that it's such shock to the American television audience to see someone that isn't a size two on the screen.
That being said, comparing it to the Louie episode (which I do not/did not watch) just goes to show that this an issue about gender, and not necessarily only about size/weight/attractiveness. It's okay for a man to not be stereotypically good looking and have sex with a hot woman, but when a woman that is deemed less attractive does it, it is criticized to no end. Also, I think the point should be made that neither Hannah or Louis C.K. are bad looking people -- THEY ARE NORMAL LOOKING PEOPLE. Half the women on campus look like Hannah and there is nothing wrong with that.
Great post Paige.