In thinking that the comments on any article about Lena Dunham are always unfailingly misogynistic?

[pandarific]

Exhibit A.

I mean good grief. Of course you should never read the bottom half of the internet, but the venom of these comments - and every article I've ever read about her - boggles me. And at base the comments always boil down to 'shut up'.

I think I might have hit upon what she's done wrong...

1. Being a young female
2. Who has become very successful
3. Early in life
4. Yet has failed to be 'likeable'
5. And does not fall within the parameters currently considered to = beautiful
6. Yet still takes up space in the world

Please tell me I'm not crazy, mumsnet, it IS disproportionate hatred, isn't it? The tide of venom is just so bloody depressing.

The thing is, I'm not a massive fan of Lena Dunham - I love what she writes and think Girls is hilarious but I don't really get the impression we'd be best friends if we ever met. HOWEVER this doesn't mean that I seek out articles about her and write complete and utter vitriol on them and it baffles me that so many people (cough men) think they have the right to tell her to shut up, or dress differently or get off their tv screens because they don't like her. What kind of bloody superior idiot to you have to be to think you can say that to anyone?!

YANBU OP. She does attract some shocking vitriol and it is certainly designed to shut her up. Hopefully she can handle it but it can't be easy to be so demonized for simply telling your story.

People who have never heard of her but came on this thread anyway - Google is your friend

I think she's great - I love that she's a brilliant writer and a great non-conformist. We need more women like her.

I am sure that she attracts a lot of misogynistic comments from men, but I also think that there are a lot of women - myself included - who don't rate her and find it annoying that she has (along with Caitlin Moran) been anointed by the media as the 'feminist' spokesperson of a generation. I tried to watch Girls to see what all the fuss was about and frankly I found it vapid, self obsessed fluff that wasn't remotely representative of the women I know or admire.

But each to their own.

LadyRabbit agree completely. I find both of them patronising and silly. However did we manage without them?

I particularly dislike the idea that Dunham is some sort of Everywoman whilst ignoring her immensely privileged background.

YANBU. Famous men are allowed to look 'normal' and nobody feels the need to attack them for it. Female celebrities must look like models, no matter if they act, sing, present or whatever. If they don't, someone will always feel the need to "take them down a notch".

I don't find her funny and I think Girls is odd, but I agree that she faces torrents of unreasonable abuse.

AnnahMolly Do people try to take her down because she doesn't look like a model or because she's extremely smug, extremely full of herself and really not that funny or interesting as she thinks she is?

I agree. She is fantastic, original and not easily placed and that terrifies people.
She's utterly inspiring

I like girls, but don't think she's some massive talent,like most things in life it probably comes down to luck and the opportunity s avalible.

I don't like seeing woman prase her body as perfection, as she is overweight.

I found various characters in Girls reminded me too much of my twenty-something self - I always thought that was the point, though of LD was only 26 when she wrote it she seems to have been very self-aware (unlike me at 26!)

And anyway the top comments on the daily mail story from yesterday about rape are nice:

Top rated comment
Well those are some of the most mature and thoughtful comments I've heard out of her. Good for her for speaking out and telling her story, it's horrible that happened to her

Agree with Ladyrabbit and Phaedra, both patronising and silly and overrated.

I think it depends where any article on Dunham is, Phaedra. If you read something about her in the DM, then there are loads of people being unspeakably awful about her physical appearance - but then, the DM is full of people being unspeakably awful about anyone's appearance whether they be male or female. I do think that when an article about her appears in a broadsheet, there will be commenters who are shouted down by other commenters in a Feminist form of Godwin's Law where any kind of criticism is labelled misogyny. It's very frustrating.

There are plenty of 'normal' looking women in comedy and drama - Sarah Millican, Katy Brand, Jo Brand, Tina Fey, the list is endless - I don't see Dunham as a trailblazer of any kind but if one has the temerity to say she isn't that funny or extraordinary then somehow that makes you less of a feminist Same with Moran. It's nice that there are loud feminist voices out there, but there are many kinds of women of course, and some feminist voices appeal to me but not others and it is perfectly okay that I should be able to comment on someone who puts themselves in the public arena and be able to say that I don't find them funny without being shouted down with an accusation of misogyny.

I've never watched Girls and have no idea who this woman is, but her book sounds like it might be worth a read.

It's not just Lena Dunham. It's any human with a vagina and an opinion. Or any human with a vagina and no opinion. Yeah, it's just women basically. The very beautiful women with out much to say (publicly) get their pictures stolen and told it's their own fault for taking them in the first place.

The women with opinions should fuck off and shut up.

Oh I think she's fantastic,I love her series I think every young girl should watch her cavort around naked and not giving a fuck, in fact we should ALL cavort around naked, the world would be a much nicer place. It's great to see someone comfortable in her skin who hasn't been botoxed/implanted/lipo suctioned within an inch of her life on telly.

Phaedra, if she was all of those things and looked like a model, I doubt she would have as much hatred directed at he as she does now. Only beautiful women are allowed to be obnoxious, in my experience.

Beautiful obnoxious women are hated even more. She is quite talented and girls is ok- the other girls in it are all gorgeous and every single one of them comes from an extremely privileged showbiz background. So she's not normal. And all my feminist friends are way nicer than the people in the show. The daily mail may hate her but the guardian seems obsessed. I find her a bit yawn. And I expect she'd be extremely irritating and smug. But still, good on her.