I’m certainly one of the only people left on the planet who outwardly admits to liking Lena Dunham. I understand what’s insufferable about her. She’s whiny and elitist, and so far to the left that it’s a little outrageous. A classic social justice warrior. But I so admire her writing that I’m able to overlook it. GIRLS, to me, is one of the first shows that accurately captured what it’s like to be a millennial, and I really just loved it and her for that reason.
Since then, Lena Dunham has been a leftist troll. She purposely says outlandish things to get a rise out of people, and then becomes offended that they reacted exactly the way she wanted them to. When people claimed she “raped her sister,” I defended her. I read the passage, and nothing in it screamed assault. It was weird, but it was not assault.
And now, I’m not really sure what to say in response to the fact that Lena Dunham wishes she’d had an abortion. That’s right. From her podcast:
I always thought that I, myself, didn’t stigmatize abortion. I’m a — uhh — abortion rights activist. It’s a huge part of who I am. But one day, when I was visiting a Planned Parenthood in Texas a few years ago, a young girl walked up to me and asked if I’d like to be a part of her project in which women share their stories of abortions.
I sort of jumped. “I haven’t had an abortion,” I told her.
I wanted to make it really clear to her, that as much as I was going out and fighting for other women’s options, I, myself, had never had an abortion. And I realized then, that even I was carrying within myself a stigma around this issue. Even I, the woman who cares as much as anybody about a woman’s right to choose felt it was important that people know that I was unblemished in this department.
So many people I love — my mother, my best friends — have had to have abortions for all kinds of reasons. I feel so proud of them for their bravery, for their self-knowledge and it was a really important moment for me, then, to realize that I had internalized some of what society was throwing at us, and I had to put it in the garbage.
Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.
Clips of this quote are some of what I read. Surely, there has to be more. There has to be some point she’s making that people are glossing over to delight in their outrage, right? So I listened myself. And you can too. Starting at 13:30
https://soundcloud.com/womenofthehour/choice-season-2-episode-5
Nope. Homegirl just says she wishes she’d had an abortion.
People are none too pleased. I understand the importance of working to destigmatize abortion, but this is just fucked. You don’t work to destigmatize mental illness, or rape, or fucking abortion by wishing you’d experienced these traumas. And Lena’s statement frankly does the opposite of what she intended for it to do. In saying she “wishes” she had an abortion, she’s attempting to say that she’s so accepting of this choice, that she’d be willing to claim it as her own. But what she does, instead, is make it seem frivolous. She takes away the very real difficulty of this decision and the after effects it may have on your mental health. And that’s frankly just kind of fucked..
Nice Move214
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Veronica Ruckh
Veronica (@VeronicaRuckh) is the Director of Total Sorority Move for Grandex, Inc. After having spent her undergraduate years drinking $4 double LITs on a patio and drunk texting away potential suitors, she managed to graduate with an impressive GPA and an unimpressive engagement ring -- so unimpressive, in fact, some might say it's not there at all. Veronica has since been fulfilling her duties as "America's big," a title she gave to herself with the help of her giant ego. She has recently switched from vodka to wine on weekdays. Email her at veronica@grandex.co
@VeronicaRuckh
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