Not That Kind of Girl

This book of essays is mostly about consent, body image, and complicated feelings towards sexuality. Dunham is really funny, wry, self-aware, and outrageous. She also is obsessed with and allergic to shame, and I love that about her.
Lena Dunham is really good at putting a voice to experiences people don't normally talk about. Like the shame of ending up in unhealthy relationships or nonconsensual situations in part because you were seeking something there, or being unable to name when something happened was wrong. The shame of deeply needing to be desired and important, shame of our interest in our bodies, and other people's. What makes her such a good artist is her relationship to artifice and self-revelation. Being an artist is an act of artifice, of curating aspects of your existence to be shared, and so is being a person. There is something so beautiful and ridiculous about that. In Dunham there is this desire to reveal everything ugly and make it beautiful by sharing it, like the light of human mutual understanding will cleanse it. I really love that about her, even if at times it repels people because it swings into self-indulgent narcissism. There is something so innocent about that impulse, and also deeply brave.