HBO's "Girls" does nothing for me. A Mid-Season 2 Review
By Jenn Studebaker | February 15, 2013
Maybe it’s being in my early thirties. Maybe it’s that I was not born into money or privilege. Maybe it's that I'm an Austinite and not a New Yorker. Maybe it’s that I’m just a dick, but I don’t identify with the characters on the HBO series, "Girls." I have struggled through this season, but last Sunday was too hard to watch. To me, these “girls” are far too two-dimensional. They are insecure about almost everything. They have no real goals or passions. They enjoy sex, but it’s often a hard to watch the awkward dance with no real direction or purpose. While there is an effort put into women’s view of sex, it doesn’t go far enough.
Women like me are fierce and driven. We are highly educated. We are extremely giving, yet slightly evil. We know our strengths, and we use them.
When it comes to work, we are passionate and know our direction. We are the hardest workers in the office not because we have something to prove to anyone, but because that’s who we are. We know what we want, and we find a way to get it, but we are also ethical.
When it comes to sex, we are deliberate and confident. We know our bodies as well as our minds. We don’t need men for sex if we don’t want them. Women like me are not the ones left in the middle of the night or kicked out of bed. We make our own choices. We are not the prey; we are hunting right alongside the men. Women like me are not awkward with our sexuality or sex; we are awkward with society accepting our sexuality and sexual needs.
I find it hard to watch Girls because I don’t want to be that kind of woman. The characters’ lives all resolve around what man they are with or not with. How can we expect men to see us as equals with this sort of depressing suffocation? How can we label this a step forward for women?
