Speaking of questionable fashion . . . I've been laughing about this picture for a few months. I thought I'd macro-blog about it now because it's still funny to me. But its utility outside of my enjoyment is low. I've already shared it with friends and many group messages. What's a boy left to do?
Should I feel bad for Lena Dunham? I often make jokes at her expense with my friend Annie Kate. Here's a recurring one: remember when Lena Dunham dated Jack Antonoff? This was during the Obama administration when Dunham had Girls and her book coming out.
So Dunham was dating Antonoff. And they said they wouldn't get married until gay marriage was a reality. And hey, respect for that. Then the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. See Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015). But THEN, in 2017, they broke up!
I shouldn't laugh about this, but I do. I also laugh about Dunham's performance in Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (my favorite film of last year). Dunham is in like two scenes as Gypsy, and all her line reads are bad. I'm no actor, but even I, a layman, could tell.
Again, I shouldn't laugh, but should I feel bad? I think Dunham's career is indicative of a new "boom and bust" popularity cycle. I'm not talking about "cancel culture," mind you. I mean a sped-up version of Warhol's "fifteen minutes" cliche. Social media has prolonged the relevancy of certain celebrities. But I argue it has abbreviated the relevancy of others. Let me explain . . .
I associate Dunham with Grimes, Iggy Azalea, Noah Centineo and Jennifer Lawrence. These are celebrities that have filed a particular niche for a shorter fifteen minutes. Grimes was an indie artist with a dark aesthetic before Billie Eilish's ascendancy. Iggy Azalea was a white rapper when the now-hegemony of rap still stomached some white rap.
Outside of music, Centineo was streaming's go-to teen heartthrob. And Lawrence was the leading lady before every movie had to star either Margot Robbie or Adam Driver. Lena Dunham? She was the funny, East Coast feminist on TV before Broad City was on Comedy Central.
All these stars were hot until they quickly were not. Grimes started dating Elon Musk. People noticed Azalea's blaccent. Tik Tok made fun of Centineo's neck. Lawrence's "I like pizza" gimmick got old.
For Dunham, it was a double-whammy. First, there was the Vogue controversy. Then, there was a dialogue about a particular chapter in her book. All this made Dunham a lightning rod for the online discourse on white feminism. This is a position she likely put herself in.
Could you attribute this fatigue for all five to a constant online presence? Who knows. Is my coined "boom and bust" cycle a bad thing? I don't even know.
I'm not even on Twitter anymore and I tend to get sick of the same celebrities for the same reason. But should I feel bad for them? I think Once Upon a Time, featuring Dunham, is instructive in this discussion. Because in a way, all these celebrities are like DiCaprio's Rick Dalton.
I'm not going to do the movie reviewer thing and recap the whole plot. All you need to know is, in the movie, Rick Dalton is a self-described, washing-up actor. He was hot when he starred on Bounty Law, but now he's doing "featuring" gigs as the black hat in TV pilots. On top of that, his next-door neighbors are the biggest actress and director in 1969 Hollywood.
In a way, Rick's early arc isn't all that different from Dunham's. But Rick is more sympathetic because we also see him behind the scenes. He cries about his career to Cliff, he flubs his lines. But we also see him knock a scene out of the park and go on to success in Italian productions (spoiler). So, of course, I feel bad for Rick!
I can't say the same for Dunham. Would she be more sympathetic if we saw her struggle with her lines off-screen as well as on-screen? Maybe. Like Gypsy, all we see of Dunham comes from a few brief interactions.
So maybe the casting of Dunham is sorta genius. I'm 100% sure none of the casting agents had this same reasoning, but a boy can project. Once Upon a Time is great because it's about timeless predicaments like relevance. It also satisfies my main film criteria.
And relevance isn't just a concern for celebrities. We'll all be wrong someday. Just look at me, posting on a medium that hasn't been relevant since the Bush administration. What will I even macro-blog about next post . . .