Tuesday, May 1, 2012

HBO'S Girls: Post-post feminism for a young audience

HBO'S new series "Girls" tells the story of Hannah, a woman in her twenties, fresh out of college who has to learn to deal with the real world. The real world, being the life of an adult. Hannah is an essay writer who, after her parents decide to stop supporting her, is forced to bum off of her friends in order to find a job. The series uses the tagline "living life one mistake at a time" and producer Judd Appatow says he hopes the show will provide insight to "realistic female." And it does. That is, at least spoiled middle class white girls who complain that their parents don't give them enough money. Not such a bad thing.

Hannah is just the new millenium's version of Carrie Bradshaw for a slightly younger audience. She's not quite over represented, but she has not got a job on the show yet, but somehow maintains life by bumming off her friends. She spends her time having sex with a disgusting-dominating-actor-friend-with-benefit, Adam. She goes through some "hard times" with her queer family of girls who, just like her manage to slacker lifestyles in Manhattan (sounds familiar). The show has a great cast of characters. There's Marnie, the uptight one that complains that her boyfriend is too nice, Jessa, the free-spirited one who has no interest in relationships or maintaining a real job and Shoshana, the prissy on out of the bunch who is still a virgin.

It's refreshing to see a show about "women who act like men," as Carrie herself might call it. The men on the show are either sensitive wimps, assholes and even sex objects, something extremely rare in any media. This show is indeed, all about the Girls point of view. Yes, they're still straight, white manhattinites complaining about white people problems and for whom life seems so glamorous, so easy yet we still feel bad for them when they cry. And at the same time, there's little redeemable about them. In the second episode they're talking about an abortion like its cookout. Despite all this I am now addicted to this show and it's certainly nice to watch something about the way girls communicate, bond and have sex that's not written from some man's imagination.