The Show Girls Written by Lena Dunham - Essay Example

Girls The show, ‘Girls’, is a television series that showed on HBO involving characters in their 20s who live in New York and written by Lena Dunham. The show is a reflection of the modern generation full of life as they moved to the city to seek a good life. The show is a refreshing comedy full of humor and real scenes where the characters express themselves though some scenes are awkward. The show focuses mostly on the exploitation of young girls in New York and is full of sex scenes and nudity. The show brings out the social struggles in America because of its portrayal of the social phenomena such as race, class, sex, and gender. The series has poor racial representation as most of the cast members were whites yet New York is a city with a cultural diversity (Herderson n.p). Although the industry has the problem of racial under-representation, the Girls was full of the white characters just like many other shows in America. The series lacks race consciousness as there are no blacks, Hispanic, or Asian women on the scenes yet they form part of the New York population. The fact that the four girls were all white was a big mistake and adding some diversity by incorporating other races would have made a big difference. Racial politics is a common scenario especially in the first three episodes showing that racism is real in the developed world’s (Bell 364). The New York City is the most diverse in the world, but the racial representation is very poor. Gender is an issue in the series as the scenes are dominated by female friendship bringing out the level of feminism in America. The play addresses some feminism issues such as the body image, relationships, and abortion within a certain age group (Lacob n.p). Street harassment of the girls in the city is evident as portrayed by the characters. Most of the emphasis is on the four girls since they are the main characters in the series. The way they manipulate their boyfriends and hook up after every breakup portrays their dominant role in the show. Men here are playing as companions to the girls and can be dumped any time especially after an argument. Sex dominates the show, as young women are self-interested and the scenes full of sexual relationships. Some social issues such as casual abortions, STIs, and body image display are common in the show (Nygaard 370). There are glamorous hook ups in the girls portraying the current trends in young sexuality in many parts of the world. Lena Dunham is willing to display her average-weight body exposing what many view as a non-desirable figure. The casual abortion by the main character, Hannah, brings out the boldness the characters have in bringing out social issues. Hannah does not feel guilty when reporting her friend’s actions to her semi-boyfriend “what was she going to do…have a baby and take it to her babysitting job?" (Zimdars n.p). Hanna also finds out her HPV status because of promiscuity portrayed the careless and easy sex the young generation is engaging in recently. The show, Girls, represent many female characters who cannot act reality scenes that involve social issues such as intimacy, abortion, and nudity. The class is also portrayed in the show as the young, ambitious women live a glamorous life in the city. The girls are busy exploring their post-college era in their classic lifestyle in the city away from their parents. The girls do everything compassionately but with less seriousness and live to satisfy their desires. The girls do not seem interested in working and just want to live happily, as none of them mentions any career goals. Work is not one of their priorities yet they want classic life as Scott and Leonhardt argued, “Class is still a powerful force in American life” (Scott and Leonhardt n.p). Only Marnie works in a gallery and Hannah aspires to publish her essays in a book, but does not work to achieve it. Marnie pays most of Hanna’s bills but later gets tired and declines to pay as she moves out of the shared apartment. The girls engage in partying and drinking in addition to romantic relationships with various boyfriends. Narrative therapy is a psychotherapy approach of using narratives where the therapist asks questions on life descriptions of life events not part of the problematic story of the individual. The people can identify with problems in the narrative and make some meaning out of it. The person analyses his/her strengths and weaknesses and relates with the narrative. According to narrative therapy, the person’s life accounts can be found in stories, plays, or poems and a person can associate with certain characters in the artwork. The artwork may influence a persons character by analyzing it and relating to the actors and the scenes. People can regain their life from the problem through beliefs, principles, skills, and knowledge through simple evaluation of the scenes. The show, Girls, can be therapeutic in a number of ways to the viewers depending on their perception. First, people who have average body weight are well represented by Hannah, who undresses and exposes her weighty body without shame (Zimdars n.p). There are many people fighting with stress and depression associated with their body image. Most of the shows especially the beauty shows consider slim people to be more beautiful and attractive. Average and overweight people feel ashamed of themselves, as they do not consider themselves beautiful or presentable. The show can offer therapy to such kind of people by watching Hanna as she addresses and exposes her body and appreciate their beauty. Second, people with STIs can get some relief once they realize that high-class people also suffer from such illnesses and reveal their status. The characters such as Hannah in the show contracted the HPV, and as tested once she suspected that her boyfriend was having unprotected sex. The viewers can have some consolation if they suspect that they have an STI and go for testing. The girls show that there is no big deal in suffering from STIs and one just needs testing and treatment. The show is good and entertaining, but it has a lot of racial discrimination as all the main actors are all whites. To improve its performance racial representation will be necessary. New York has a high representation of several races such as the blacks, Asians, and Indians who will make the scenes more interesting. By having all the four girls white, the show depicts New York as a city full of discrimination, which is not true as there are several people from all over the world. The show also needs to represent the working class women as no one seems to be interested in serious work yet they all want to live classic lives. These changes will improve the performance of the show and attract several positive comments. Works Cited Bell, Katherine. “Obvie, Were The Ladies!” Postfeminism, Privilege, And HBOs Newest Girls. Taylor & Francis. N.p., 2015. Web. 6 May 2015. Herderson, Maureen. Welcome To Forbes. Forbes.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 6 May 2015.Lacob, Jace. HBO’S ‘Girls’ Is The Best New TV Show Of 2012. The Daily Beast 2015. Web. 6 May 2015.Nygaard, Taylor. Girls Just Want To Be “Quality”: HBO, Lena Dunham, And Girls Conflicting Brand Identity. Feminist Media Studies 13.2 (2013): 370-374. Web. Scott and Leonhardt, Janny and David. Shadowy Lines That Still Divide. The New York Times 2015. Web. 6 May 2015. Zimdars, Melissa. The Tube: On HBOs Girls, Lena Dunhams Naked Body Gives Audiences A Body Image Reality Check - Little Village. Little Village. N.p., 2014. Web. 6 May 2015. Read More