Here is a criticism I think is important, but doesn’t mean Girls, specifically, is a bad show. Pointing out the lack of representation in Dunham’s show is good so that it’s in her consciousness, but ultimately, she is making a show that is drawn from her own experiences, and trying to insert a token character into the specific world she comes from is not the solution to a legitimate objection to lack of diverse representation in TV and movies in general. The solution isn’t to make works so broad so that everyone is represented. The solution is to make works that are specific so that everyone is represented broadly.
What I mean is that the lack of, for example, a black character in Girls isn’t bad per se, but the existence of a predominantly white ensemble in the midst of so many other predominantly white ensemble programs is problematic. There needs to be more productions featuring other racially-dominated casts, and mixed casts. It’s a broad problem that gets unfairly tossed at a show that people are targeting anyway, probably because they see it as a smart show and this is something it may have legitimately overlooked. It’s not something people will throw at How I Met Your Mother, though.
Continue reading on the next page…
