"I think we can agree with the idea that the beautiful girls that get all the boys get written about.They don't usually write." --Lena Dunham in V Magazine, January 2013.
This is the problem; agreed. And I doubt whether Ms. Dunham knows that the--ahem--body of women writers looks like either.
I'm hoping that the magazine provides more context for her words; I find her statement particularly disheartening because I'm preparing a talk on the sexual politics of literature that's drawn from an essay about how "the muse speaks," which argues that the muse has been speaking (writing) for years!
I would really like to think we women have moved beyond the muse category and that one doesn't have to be the "socially rejected quirky girl" to establish one's self as a writer.
Insufficient data to comment. I can't say I know what women writers look like, en masse.
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem; agreed. And I doubt whether Ms. Dunham knows that the--ahem--body of women writers looks like either.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping that the magazine provides more context for her words; I find her statement particularly disheartening because I'm preparing a talk on the sexual politics of literature that's drawn from an essay about how "the muse speaks," which argues that the muse has been speaking (writing) for years!
I would really like to think we women have moved beyond the muse category and that one doesn't have to be the "socially rejected quirky girl" to establish one's self as a writer.
* knows "what" the body of women writers looks like . . .
ReplyDeleteIs this the girl from the show girls? If so, hmmm.
ReplyDeleteConversely writers manage to have boyfriends so that argue ent fails.