Wherever there is a smart and successful person, there will always be a dumb, flailing asshole looking to bring them down. Case and point: the Lena Dunham backlash. Since Dunham first made her splash into pop culture with her hit HBO show, Girls, and now her new book, “Not That Kind of Girl,” she’s had many haters. (In the words of Lena’s bestie, Taylor Swift, “the haters gonna’ hate hate hate hate hate.”) 

Without knowing anything about her background or life, people have joyfully spouted off mean and completely incorrect judgements about the 28-year-old talent, in a blatantly clear attempt to make themselves feel better about how stagnant and uninspired their own lives have become. So, I think it’s time to clear up some of these misconceptions right now. [Editor’s Note: Generally, Buntology tries to at least pretend to be open to others’ opinions, but in this case anybody who disagrees with me is wrong.]

“Her parents are famous, that’s the only reason she’s famous.”

Yes, Lena Dunham was lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family who were involved in the arts, which I’m sure helped her own talents flourish. But her parents are ARTISTS. Her dad is a painter and her mom is a photographer. Besides which, just because your parents are vaguely in the same industry as you doesn’t mean the door is slung wide open. Yes, obviously the arts were encouraged in her household, and having money sure as shit makes it easier to take a non-traditional career path. But by age 20, Lena had already written and directed her first short film, and by 2010 the full-length feature film that she wrote, starred in and directed, Tiny Furniture, had picked up an award for Best Narrative Feature at SXSW. So… that takes talent, and it really doesn’t matter who your parents are. Not to mention that Girls is one of the most well-written, courageous shows on television, and I don’t think HBO cared who Lena’s parents were when they decided to put it on their network. Anybody that uses this argument against Lena are jealous curmudgeons trying to make themselves feel less bad about their shitty lives.

“She’s naked all the time–it’s gross.”

You mean she’s naked all the time and not super skinny? Be honest, it annoys you. How DARE this privileged white feminist phony show her naked body allll the timeee on TV when she isn’t super fucking skinny. Of course, if Lena was super skinny and showing herself on TV, everybody would cry “that’s unrealistic– she’s fat shaming!” But because Lena is AN AVERAGE WEIGHT FOR MOST WOMEN, instead people go: “I mean, I don’t care that’s she’s kind of fat. I’m just sick of seeing her naked all the time.” Hmm, something tells me we wouldn’t be hearing the same outcry if Kate Upton was playing the role of Hannah on Girls.

“There are never any black people on Girls because Lena Dunham is a racist.”

The show is written from the point of view of a white girl living in Brooklyn. This particular white girl obviously doesn’t have that many black friends. Is it because she is a racist? No. It’s probably just because that character hangs out with a lot of white people. I mean, have you BEEN to Greenpoint? It’s white as fuck. If I were to make a show about my life, there wouldn’t be that many black people in it. Is that because I’m a racist? No. It’s just because I’m a 27-year-old white person living in New England, so I happen to know a lot of other 27-year-old white people. You know that expression, “he who smelt it dealt it?” I think the same rule applies here: “he who constantly sees racism everywhere is likely the racist.” So, shut up.

“Lena is comes from white privilege, therefore she is not feminist.”

Huh? Since when are there rules about feminism. I’m so sick of this fucking debate about what’s feminist and what’s not. Here’s an easy way to find out if you’re a feminist: do you believe that men and women should have equal rights? Then you’re a feminist. Still not sure? Well, do you have a vagina and feel proud of that fact? Do you think that you should be able to do all the stuff that men do? Then you’re a feminist. The whole concept of feminism is believing in gender equality, and that women should have the choice to think and do whatever the hell they want. So, as a feminist I choose to think that anybody who thinks Lena Dunham isn’t qualified to be a feminist because she is rich, white and talented is an idiot. If anything, we should be applauding Dunham for using her celebrity platform to bring issues like gender equality to the forefront. By the way, last I checked America is a much more “privileged” country than others. So, does that means that women in Liberia are more feminist than women in America, because in Liberia they are less privileged? Eat a dick.

“She’s a sexual predator who molested her sister.”

Although Lena’s first full-length novel, “Not That Kind of Girl,” has been out for nearly a month, it took a terribly written review on a shitty, right-wing website to garner all of this recent attention.

Basically, there’s a chapter in the book in which Lena describes feeling confused about her own anatomy, and at 7 years old looks at the vagina of her sister–a toddler at the time–for further clarification. Later on in the book, she jokes about how she used to make her sister kiss her on the lips as a trade-off for giving her candy when they were little. Big whoop–me and my twin used to touch tongues in the bathtub together, and that was just a few weeks ago! (Just kidding, but seriously we used to touch tongues.) In another passage–this is the most controversial amongst the naysayers– Lena describes sharing a bed with her sister until she was 17, as her sister was afraid to sleep alone: “Her sticky, muscly little body thrashed beside me every night as I read Anne Sexton, watched reruns of SNL, sometimes even as I slipped my hand into my underwear to figure some stuff out.” Has every teen experienced this? No. Have many teens experienced this? Hell yes. What Lena describes throughout the book is TYPICAL CHILDHOOD BEHAVIOR. Some children are more sexual than others; either way, this experimentation and curiosity is completely normal, and written from an honest and brave point of view. The chick is pouring out her heart out onto the page for your entertainment, and people have the nerve to attack her? Fuck that.

Lena-haters have wanted a reason to crucify her since they first saw her tits in Girls because they are jealous and pissed. They are pissed that she’s young, talented, successful, intelligent, opinionated, and seemingly well-adjusted to fame. And they are jealous that she was ballsy enough to follow her passion while they’re sitting at home making excuses for why they haven’t followed theirs. They are pissed that she did it and they didn’t do it. How about instead of trying to find reasons to hate on a strong 28-year-old woman, you shut the fuck up and start following your own dreams. I think you’ll find it a lot more satisfying.