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July 15, 2015 4:41 PM   Subscribe

 
Good for her and her fans, I guess. I've defended her in the past, but I'm finally done with the self-aggrandizement and perpetual need to be the center of conversation. Wish I had something more useful to say. The fact that she's all-in on Hillary Clinton tells me that her brand of politics is not going to align with mine all that well.

(Did Girls really premiere only three years ago? It feels like part of a different era, somehow.)
posted by naju at 5:21 PM on July 15, 2015 [6 favorites]


Lenny, said Dunham, will be for “an army of like-minded intellectually curious women and the people who love them, who want to bring change but also want to know, like, where to buy the best tube top for summer that isn’t going to cost your entire paycheck.”

So the same vapid, consumerist, explicitly apolitical/anti-critical fauxmenism as Jezebel and xojane and like, every other 'feminist' media property of the last five years at least that wasn't explicitly started by WoC or queer women or trans women or disabled women or [some locus of intersectionality I'm forgetting here] women. Even Tavi Gevinson's magazine is at least pitched at young women.

Her ideas are not intriguing to me and I do not wish to subscribe to her newsletter...

The project will be self-funded at first, but slowly establish revenue streams from a mix of carefully selected advertisers and, as Konner put it, “e-commerce that collaborates with independent female artists and designers in ethical, affordable, and witty apparel and design items.” (In other words, Dunham’s spin on affiliate links, which fashion bloggers have been using for years to fund their enterprises.)

... not that it's gonna last long.
posted by The Master and Margarita Mix at 5:31 PM on July 15, 2015 [17 favorites]


Yeah, trying to be as fair and open-minded as possible, I still snorted when I got to the bit about radical politics. I bet this'll get pretty radical.

Also, I usually really like Anne Helen Peterson, but I thought it was really weird that she took time to mention what Dunham was wearing... I thought that was a practice that was being led out behind the barn
posted by the phlegmatic king at 5:36 PM on July 15, 2015 [3 favorites]


Its inspiration is less Feministing or Jezebel and more “Rookie’s Big Sister,” as Grose put it,

yay! yay yay yay!

"or Goop meets Grantland." "We love Goop,” Dunham said.

noooooooo
posted by thetortoise at 5:44 PM on July 15, 2015 [7 favorites]


“We love Goop,” Dunham said. “Jenni and I have always been obsessed with Goop. We feel strongly that even if some of it is aspirational, it’s aspirations like ‘I want to know how to take care of my body and soufflé something.’”

My favourite Goop moment is the pizza recipe that starts with building a wood burning oven in your garden.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:57 PM on July 15, 2015 [36 favorites]


I'm disappointed but not surprised that someone who admitted to and joked about molesting her sister over a period of several years can still get work.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:58 PM on July 15, 2015 [9 favorites]


Its inspiration is less Feministing or Jezebel and more “Rookie’s Big Sister,” as Grose put it

Thanks, I'll be perfectly happy over here just watching and cheering Tavi Gevinson as she does her thing and ages and her perspective changes instead. No need at all for someone as odious as Lena Dunham to insert herself as the useless Big Sis in that scenario.
posted by amelioration at 6:03 PM on July 15, 2015 [9 favorites]


She is literally the last person I would want my young daughter/nieces to read, so, yeah, no. I'm out on this.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:06 PM on July 15, 2015 [9 favorites]


I'm disappointed but not surprised that someone who admitted to and joked about molesting her sister over a period of several years can still get work.

I'm guessing you didn't read the book but read a coupla articles that were only about this topic.
posted by sweetkid at 6:15 PM on July 15, 2015 [15 favorites]


It takes all kinds.
posted by chaz at 6:26 PM on July 15, 2015


(Not to mention that newsletters like Skimm have successfully targeted the exact demographic Lenny is pursuing, even after the demise of the much-loved Daily Candy.)

Well, Skimm is a compendium of factually incorrect garbage written in the voice of a privileged white woman seeking to preserve her shallow knowledge of the world, so hopefully Lenny can do better than that.

Goddamn am I still ANGRY at how Skimm handled Ferguson. I unsubscribed back then but it still stands out in my mind.
posted by sallybrown at 6:31 PM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


(But I will subscribe to Lenny on the off chance that something by Mary Karr or Molly Lambert will turn up.)
posted by sallybrown at 6:36 PM on July 15, 2015


(Did Girls really premiere only three years ago? It feels like part of a different era, somehow.)

I recently re-watched the first half of Season One, and it felt a lot older than three years old. At the time it seemed refreshingly different, but while it is still really good and I think will hold up with time (and I was struck by all the small moments that I had missed on my first viewing), it no longer feels different at all.

I'm not the target market for this newsletter at all, so it doesn't sound very compelling to me. I wish her luck, though -- she is smart and deserves success (along with the equally deserved criticism).
posted by Dip Flash at 7:25 PM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's funny, someone recently told me that email newsletters (?!) were having a moment of trendy hipness, and I was like "uh whatever you say" but I guess it's...true?
posted by threeants at 7:29 PM on July 15, 2015


I get irritated that she's published in the New Yorker but then I remember to classify her with Borowitz and Shouts & Murmurs. She's kind of like a slightly more charismatic Xeni Jardin or Violet Blue.
posted by Nevin at 7:37 PM on July 15, 2015 [3 favorites]


This is great news! According to the article, Jenni Konner is starting a feminist newsletter with her friends (including Doreen from The Hairpin, and that one girl who made Creative Nonfiction). I love her work. Thanks, oceanjesse, I'll be sure to sign up.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:00 PM on July 15, 2015 [2 favorites]


Malia looks like her dog died in that picture.
posted by boo_radley at 8:13 PM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


ugh I wish it were easier to adequately express being less than optimist or enthusiastic about this project (and suspect that it will be, among other things, kinda racist), and also not contribute to the vile way that lena dunham is routinely discussed in the media and on this site.
posted by likeatoaster at 8:16 PM on July 15, 2015 [17 favorites]


I'm disappointed but not surprised that someone who admitted to and joked about molesting her sister over a period of several years can still get work.

With all the reasons to trash Lena Dunham that are available to us, can we not trot out this garbage?
posted by Maugrim at 8:19 PM on July 15, 2015 [2 favorites]


I for one love the majority of Lena Dunham's work, and wish her all the best with her new project.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:42 PM on July 15, 2015 [7 favorites]


I'm guessing you didn't read the book but read a coupla articles that were only about this topic.

From the looks of things in here most folks didn't even make it through the linked article, so eager were they to express what they dislike about this woman.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:08 PM on July 15, 2015 [13 favorites]


I am grateful for Lena Dunham because liking her is now one of the key litmus tests I use to tell if a first date is going to lead to a second date along with personal opinions of Beyoncé and Donald Trump.

answer key: gross, goddess of all life, super gross
posted by Hermione Granger at 9:27 PM on July 15, 2015 [12 favorites]


TIL I am not Ron Weasley after all.

Like oceanjesse, I like and respect L.D. a lot, but still find her frustrating. She seems incredibly opportunistic, and it may be deliberate. She took a long cold look at the economic shape of America when she emerged from college, and realized that milking her Downtown New York Art World heritage, and the pop-musician-like equivalence of her message and her self, were the only way to stake out a place from which to speak. It reminds me in a way of Liz Phair, who came under criticism for going big -- but who clearly wanted to succeed in the world at large, not to live and die with the '90s Wicker Park Chicago indie music scene, so she climbed as high and as hard as she could.

(We can still bond over the repugnant Trump, though!)
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:39 PM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]


She seems incredibly opportunistic, and it may be deliberate.

"Oppurtunistic" is the female equivalent of "entrepreneurial" for men.
posted by happyroach at 11:11 PM on July 15, 2015 [32 favorites]


Ugh let this die before I let my daughters get email.
posted by holybagel at 11:18 PM on July 15, 2015


someone recently told me that email newsletters (?!) were having a moment of trendy hipness
Yep - Pop Loser
posted by unliteral at 11:20 PM on July 15, 2015


RSS NEVER DIED, DAMMIT.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 11:21 PM on July 15, 2015 [6 favorites]


I share the same opinion of Dunham as a lot of you, so I wanted to snark over this in a heartbeat...

But it's good to see Laia Garcia (from Rookie) and Doreen St. Felix (Buzzfeed, NYT and other places... Here she's part of a great, inclusive and insightful NYT podcast about hip-hop) on board.

Fingers crossed but erasure's still a thing POC have to worry about. We'll see what happens a few issues from now.
posted by raihan_ at 1:56 AM on July 16, 2015


Chill out you guys.

White women can still have opinions, with her background and pedigree Lena Dunham of course is going to go with elite new york politics and *deep breath* ya know blandly progressive women oriented newsletters written by a blandly feminist celebrity, maybe we could use more of those.
posted by pmv at 2:24 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Its inspiration is less Feministing or Jezebel and more “Rookie’s Big Sister,” as Grose put it,

This really really desperately feels like it's trying to hitch it's wagon to something a lot more authentic that people actually respect without an asterix. It makes me think of those oft parodied by everyone from Tim & Eric on down commercials in the format of "You loved $THING... Well then you're going to go crazy for $SUPERTHING!". It's sooo pepsi commercial mentioning coke.

Maybe i'm just a cynical fucking asshole, but whenever someone describes something as "we're going to be like this cool thing, but in a way that sets us apart from that cool thing that they don't quite cover" i roll my eyes. It always seems to disregard all the careful years of work that went in to making that cool thing cool and generally well regarded.

Also, really, an email newsletter? I realize i might have gone a bit hard recently on older-people-not-getting-young-people, but that's like this level of "heh...ok".

Email is a thing people under 30 use to sign up for things, retrieve passwords, send in resumes, and approve craigslist posts. Maybe your parent or grandparent fires one off to you sometimes.

I'm honestly kind of shocked it's not a share button equipped short form article site ala buzzfeeds journalism, or a straight up sharply designed tumblr.
posted by emptythought at 2:36 AM on July 16, 2015


You know, this seems like a not evil thing created by a not evil person who is very talented and works hard at her craft.

I get the Goop dislike and I was surprised to see Dunham represent it, but this is not Evil Hitler Newsletter.
posted by angrycat at 3:22 AM on July 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


Email is a thing people under 30 use to sign up for things, retrieve passwords, send in resumes, and approve craigslist posts. Maybe your parent or grandparent fires one off to you sometimes.

Isn't Lena Dunham under 30??
posted by escabeche at 4:55 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm guessing you didn't read the book but read a coupla articles that were only about this topic.
As a matter of fact, I read the book. The part that most media outlets excerpted was damning, yes, but (a) while I disagreed with her blithe tone, there is a precedent for toddler-aged children exploring other kids' bodies (including their siblings), which made it easier for me to excuse that...and (b) there was so much more detail of sexual abuse that wasn't limited to that one incident. The stories that Lena told about masturbating in bed next to her sister, bribing her with candy for deep kisses and other sexual acts, dressing her like a "biker whore" (as she described the costume on her IG) were troubling enough for me to return the book to the library. The incident where she explored her baby sister's body wasn't a one-off incident, and her "ain't I a stinker" attitude towards it was pretty troubling.
With all the reasons to trash Lena Dunham that are available to us, can we not trot out this garbage?
My knee-jerk reaction to this is "lolwut". I mean, this is documented, this is something she has admitted to doing, and this happened over a long period of time. Bringing this back to the subject at hand -- and speaking as someone who has worked in a child-development psych lab for the past year -- having someone with a background of sexual abuse write a newsletter for emerging adults is troubling. This is like having Roman Polanski edit the Girl Scouts' newsletter or something.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:03 AM on July 16, 2015 [15 favorites]


Why wouldn't you let your daughters read her newsletter?
posted by 3zra at 5:21 AM on July 16, 2015


escabeche: "Isn't Lena Dunham under 30??"

Yeah, but emptythought is 25. Compared to that, Lena Dunham, at age 29, already has a foot in the grave.
posted by Bugbread at 5:44 AM on July 16, 2015


Not that I'm applying this to anybody here exactly, but the thing about affluent white feminism is that there are a hell of a lot of affluent white feminists who like to say that what they REALLY want to see is edgy stuff, intersectionality, women of color, people taking real chances, whatever. But when things lack polish, they don't throw money at them to make them better, they go right back to liking the same things that affluent liberal white women have always liked. So, yes, of course this isn't what I want to see, but it's not for me. I guess it's for the person who looks at the pizza oven in the garden thing above and thinks "building a whole oven, how silly" and maybe "nobody has gardens in [insert major city]" instead of the people who, even in flyover country, still consider "having a yard" to be the stuff of ludicrous fantasy.

Affluent white people who want to hear from voices that aren't other affluent white people need to start going out and deliberately looking for those things instead of waiting for those people to somehow get enough attention to start websites/newsletters/magazines. That's a thing people who already have platforms do, and the people who already have platforms are mostly people who already have money. The thing about the broken system we exist in is that all those queer/disabled/POC/etc women are going to be a long time ever getting the kind of resources that Lena Dunham has.

In the meantime, she appeals to the sort of person who wants to think of themselves as progressive but only as long as that doesn't interfere with their shopping. That's not so much a problem with her as with how many of those people there are.
posted by Sequence at 6:27 AM on July 16, 2015 [18 favorites]


Sequence: "[Lena Dunham] appeals to the sort of person who wants to think of themselves as progressive but only as long as that doesn't interfere with their shopping. That's not so much a problem with her as with how many of those people there are."

This is so perfectly stated that I have to echo it.
posted by Jeff Morris at 6:39 AM on July 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


All of this and the first newsletter hasn't even been sent out yet!
posted by armacy at 9:32 AM on July 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


Product Hunt started as an email newsletter, was started by someone under 30, and is one of the hottest online startups out there. I think it's a little tedious to be like "young people use THIS platform, old people use THAT platform haha the olds don't get it." It's just another form of personal in group branding. There's no reason that Lenny will ultimately fail because of its medium.
posted by sweetkid at 9:35 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


The cool thing is no one has to subscribe. I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty about the ill-considered stuff she ends up writing in it.
posted by naju at 1:10 PM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


It is possible for policing of privilege to turn into policing on behalf of privilege.

Men don't get exposed to this kind of hate on Metafilter. Who here is really confident that misogyny has nothing to do with it?
posted by howfar at 2:39 PM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


I am.
posted by Bugbread at 3:05 PM on July 16, 2015


Men don't get exposed to this kind of hate on Metafilter.

White men don't. But open any Kanye thread....
posted by shakespeherian at 3:36 PM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Men don't get exposed to this kind of hate on Metafilter.

Just once I would like to see someone back this type of comment up, whether in regards to how the media treats x or how a website treats y or whatever, with some sort of reasonable evidence, rather than just using them to polarize a debate.
posted by Maugrim at 4:00 PM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yeah, said about the general internet population, I would totally agree. Even in MeFi, talking about non-business issues, I might agree. But Metafilter hates businessmen and business plans. MeFites like websites and services, but once the issue of funding via advertising comes up, it's open hate festival, regardless of sex or race.
posted by Bugbread at 4:20 PM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


Isn't Lena Dunham under 30??

That's not really the point though. It's a complete disconnect from the target audience, was what the point was.

A lot of people younger than me don't even use facebook, much less email.

I also think, in relation to the snark about her only being a couple years older than me, that's still a fairly large gap when it comes to mediums of publishing and communication. She was graduating from college when i was finishing high school. A pretty big sea change of how people do stuff online has happened in 4 years repeatedly.

Feel free to snark this off as haters potshots, but i was legitimately surprised at the format, and this isn't just an excuse to talk shit or something.
posted by emptythought at 6:23 PM on July 17, 2015


She talks in the article about wanting to foster a "slow internet" so email seems like a better part of that strategy than buzzfeed sharey things. I mean Rookie has a print edition and that's so 1956 or whatever
posted by sweetkid at 7:43 PM on July 17, 2015


(I really like the Two Bossy Dames e-mail newsletter. And their signup page includes a gif of Lauren Bacall shaking her shoulders saucily!)
posted by ChuraChura at 3:01 AM on July 20, 2015


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