Paradoxical Feminism and Postfeminism in Lena Dunham’S Girls
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“(Don’t) Look at Me!” Paradoxical Feminism and Postfeminism in Lena Dunham’s Girls Masterarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Master of Arts (MA) an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Sarah LAHM am Institut für Amerikanistik Begutachter: Univ.-Prof. Dr. M.A. Stefan L. Brandt Graz, 2015 1 Acknowledgments Thank you, Mom and Dad, for making all of this possible, Dan, for being the best husband ever, and Stefan L. Brandt, for your support and guidance. 2 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4 Defining Feminism and Postfeminism ................................................................................ 6 1. (Post-)Feminist Bodies ......................................................................................................... 8 1.1. The Imperfect Body as Spectacle ................................................................................ 14 1.2. “Riot Grrrl” - The Refusal to Lose Weight ................................................................. 20 1.3. “Throwing” Abortions – Liberated Bodies in New York City ................................... 30 1.4. HPV and the Casualties of Liberated Sex ................................................................... 33 1.5. The Obsessive (-Compulsive) Woman ....................................................................... 36 2. Character Development and Self-Empowerment ............................................................... 39 2.1. Who are the Ladies? – Paradoxical Self-Identification............................................... 41 2.2. Who are the Leaders? – Empowering “Careers” ........................................................ 43 2.3. Problematic Power Relations ...................................................................................... 46 2.3.1. “Grander and More Dramatic Than Any Romance”: Female Friendships....... 47 2.3.2. The Gay Best Friend ......................................................................................... 50 2.3.3. Self-Empowered or “Just a Whore”? ................................................................ 53 2.3.4. Damsels in Distress vs. “Leave Me Alone!” .................................................... 55 3. Looking for the Female Gaze: Contradictory Voyeurism and Scopophilia in Girls ......... 61 3.1. Gazing at Males .......................................................................................................... 64 3.2. (Un-)Pleasurable Screen Images and the Female Auteur ........................................... 66 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 71 Filmography ............................................................................................................................. 74 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 75 List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... 79 3 Introduction “I don’t want to freak you out, but I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice. Of a generation.” (Girls , Pilot) Hannah Horvath, the protagonist of Girls , is high when she tells her parents in the series’ pilot episode that she could be the voice of her generation, while trying to convince them to continue supporting her financially. After watching four seasons of Girls and recognizing its immense success (it has been renewed for a fifth season before the season four premiere), Hannah’s statement seems to have been a true prophecy. Girls has been discussed consistently in the media by critics and viewers, and public interest in Lena Dunham never quite fades. Lena Dunham’s first feature film Tiny Furniture (2010) inspired Judd Apatow and, subsequently, HBO to have Dunham create a television show. Her memoir Not That Kind of Girl was published by Random House in the fall of 2014. Given this, we have to ask ourselves why Dunham’s work is so provocative. What ingredients does it have that provoke fervent discussions and reactions, both positive and negative? And in what sense does Dunham’s Girls represent different elements of feminism, or rather, postfeminism? The first step towards an answer to this question is to list some of the themes that arise when talking about Lena Dunham’s works, especially Girls . Feminism , postfeminism , body image , millennials , generation Y, heteronormativity , femininity , masculinity , violence towards women , rape , postmodernity , consumer culture , urbanity – all these concepts emerge when we talk about Girls , and I have been able to observe numerous paradoxes and contradictions in the ways that these concepts were represented in the show. I argue that many of these paradoxes are present in Girls in order to capture the different and often contradictory facets of postfeminism. The problematic or even ambiguous nature of some of these notions, as well as the cultural significance and controversy of others, calls for scholarly investigations of the show and the application of critical theory to the themes and motifs in Girls . The aim of this thesis is to show that Girls ’ paradoxical representation of feminism and postfeminism renders it a perfect example of postfeminism. This can be said because in Girls , feminism and postfeminism are mixed together in a paradoxical way that perfectly exemplifies the elusive nature of the term postfeminism, being defined as both a backlash against the achievements of feminism and an extension of it, with the potential to improve and develop the notion of feminism further. This paper is going to focus on one of the central areas of Girls with an investigation of the show as a recent and strong example of postfeminism. In this paper, I will define 4 postfeminism in relation to feminism as accurately as possible, all the while keeping in mind that it is generally considered an elusive term. I will then apply the most agreed-upon characteristics of postfeminism, as well as important aspects of second-wave feminism, to Girls . What makes Girls an example of a television show that captures the contradictory definitions of postfeminism is that the young women in Girls are facing numerous contradictions in terms of “re-negotiating traditional roles between men and women” (Kaklamanidou and Tally 2). Specifically, I will analyze in this paper the different ways Lena Dunham represents feminist and postfeminist ideologies and characters in her television show Girls and to what extent these representations are paradoxical due to frictions between feminist and postfeminst elements. For a conclusive analysis of Girls ’ narrative and characters, I will refer to key scholars in the fields of feminist and gender studies, discourse studies, and film studies. Foucault’s theories about discourse and subjectivity continue to be applied to analyses of literature and film. Judith Butler’s interpretations of Foucault will be used for the analysis of power- relations between genders. Since Foucault’s stances have already been appropriated for discussions about gender and feminist studies by many scholars, I will refer to Foucault’s theories as they have been interpreted and applied by Judith Butler. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble , and Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and “Afterthoughts on ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’” have been tremendously influential for feminist film and media studies. Their theories, along with E. Ann Kaplan’s Women and Film , will be applied in this paper to investigate the representation of femininity and the female heroine in Lena Dunham’s Girls , as well as the effect the show has on its female audience. In particular, I am interested in the way Girls treats everyday issues such as female friendship, romantic relationships, the casualness of sex, and the questions and contradictions that arise from these representations when we try to characterize them as feminist or postfeminist. Contemporary discourse about the female body, power relations between men and women, and how the millennial generation presents self-identifies, will be analyzed as well. This paper will investigate the contradictions arising from Girls ’ rendering of the constant renegotiations of how women’s bodies should be portrayed and how corporeal performances should be interpreted in terms of second-wave or postmodern feminism, as well as the consequences of the shifting power-structures between millennial women and men. Close readings of screen images and entire scenes will be integrated into this paper’s analysis of Girls to illustrate contradictory patterns in the show’s narrative structure. In my conclusion 5 I will show that the contradictory or paradoxical plotlines and visual elements of Girls render the show the epitome of postfeminism. Defining Feminism and Postfeminism Many of the paradoxical elements to be detected in Girls arise from contradictions between feminist and postfeminist elements or sometimes even from occurrences of different forms or definitions of postfeminism. One of the definitions of postfeminism describes the movement as a “white ‘chick’ backlash that denies class, avoids race, ignores (older) age, and ‘straight’- jackets sexuality” (Holmlund 117), which can be attributed to Girls in some, but not all instances. Thus,