Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Circular

I mean, why wouldn't one purchase a self-help book from someone who got $1 million or more to write one?

Random Lena Dunham question: much is made of her privilege, the nepotism angle, all that. But are her parents people we're supposed to have heard of if it weren't for Dunham? They are artists, they have whiteness-privilege, they live in some kind of lower-Manhattan loft, they aren't Mr. and Mrs. Joe the Plumber, I get it. But was this all, like, handed to her? This is a serious question (not enough so that I'll take time out of lesson-planning to Google it) because I want to know exactly how to feel about her stratospheric success.

3 comments:

Autumn Whitefield-Madrano said...

What, you hadn't heard of Laurie Simmons's early color interiors before "Girls"? Yep, Dunham is more famous than both her parents; it wasn't until that meme about the lineage of all the stars went around that people started snarking about it. Yes, being connected in any way helps, undoubtedly, but from the amount of attention she's gotten for this you'd think we were talking about Paris Hilton.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Thank you! This had been bothering me.

I think part of it is her costars and their legit-famous parents, but it's also that "Girls" (caveat - I've only seen the first episode) depicts privilege that isn't being channeled into anything all that impressive. So the classic show-about-slackers problem - we forget that we're watching hard-working performers/artists portraying slackerdom.

Shybiker said...

Having famous parents will open a door but you have to exhibit skill and industry to go through it. There are legions of examples of kids getting opportunities and not moving past them, for lack of talent.