Background Image

...

It Completely Sickens Me What Our Culture Is Doing To Women. Last Week I Wore A Big Top And Little Shorts And A Bunch Of Stuff Came Out Saying I Was Without Pants. 'the No-pants Look,' It Said. And I Didn't Go Out Without Pants, I Had Shorts On... If Olivia Wilde Had Gone To A Party With A Big Silky Top And Little Shorts She Might Have Been Told Her Outfit Was Cute... What It Was Really: 'why Did You Show Us Your Thighs?'

-Lena Dunham

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

It Completely Sickens Me

Lena Dunham

...

It Completely Sickens Me What Our Culture Is Doing To Women. Last Week I Wore A Big Top And Little Shorts And A Bunch Of Stuff Came Out Saying I Was Without Pants. 'the No-pants Look,' It Said. And I Didn't Go Out Without Pants, I Had Shorts On... If Olivia Wilde Had Gone To A Party With A Big Silky Top And Little Shorts She Might Have Been Told Her Outfit Was Cute... What It Was Really: 'why Did You Show Us Your Thighs?'

Views: 4

Topic

More From Lena Dunham

A Huge Part Of The American Trans Population That's Often Overlooked Are Trans Teenagers. Many Of Them Are Homeless, And Those Are Not The People Who Are Necessarily Going In For A Custom Suit. But That's One Of The Reasons Why We Were Excited That We Got To Do A Contest With Hbo To Sponsor A Young Person Getting A Suit Made Who Might Not Have The Means To Do It On Their Own.

You Can't Give Any Exciting Speech Without Misremembering Things.

I Still Go To A Party And Say Something Embarrassing To Someone, And Then Write Them A Weird E-mail About It The Next Day, And Then Write Them A Text Because I Think They Didn't Get The E-mail. No Matter What Happens With Your Level Of Success, You Still Have To Deal With All The Baggage That Is Yourself.

Confidence Lets You Pull Anything Off, Even Tevas With Socks.

I've Never Thought Of Myself As An Actor, So Somebody Recognizing Me For That Would Be A Real Shock.

There Is Something Vulnerable About Showing Your Tattoos To People, Even While It Gives You A Feeling That You Are Wearing A Sleeve When You Are Naked.

I Find It Really Awkward To Do A Scene Where I'm Supposed To Seem Like I'm In Love.

Artists Themselves Are Neurotic And Fearful People, And You Can Look At Their Work And Figure Out What They're Scared Of.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Who Has Accidentally Napped.

Hell Hath No Fury

I Can Never Be Who I Was. I Can Simply Watch Her With Sympathy, Understanding, And Some Measure Of Awe. There She Goes, Backpack On, Headed For The Subway Or The Airport. She Did Her Best With Her Eyeliner. She Learned A New Word She Wants To Try Out On You. She Is Ambling Along. She Is Looking For It.

It’s Interesting To See How Other People React To An Oversharer.

I've Been A Little Haphazard About How Nude I Get, And The Only Thing That Keeps Me From Getting Anxious About It Is That I've Had Complete Control Over It.

I'm Always Afraid That I'm Being Unprofessional, Yet I Continue To Sign All My E-mails 'xoxo.'

I've Always Had A Talent For Recognizing When I Am In A Moment Worth Being Nostalgic For.

Self Reflection

I've Always Been Someone In [childhood] Period Of My Life Sort Of The Pains And Anxieties Of Being Young Are The Things That Have Really Stuck With Me.

I Have Been Envious Of Male Characteristics, If Not The Men Themselves. I'm Jealous Of The Ease With Which They Seem To Inhabit Their Professional Pursuits: The Lack Of Apologizing, Of Bending Over Backward To Make Sure The People Around Them Are Comfortable With What They're Trying To Do. The Fact That They Are So Often Free Of The People-pleasing Instincts I Have Considered To Be A Curse Of My Female Existence.

I Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

It'll Be Taught In Homes That It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of A Kid Because He's Gay Or It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of A Girl Cause She's Fat. But That We Have Been Living For So Long In A Culture Where So Many People's Parents Supported Those Beliefs That There Wasn't Any Infrastructure For Children Understanding Right And Wrong In Those Situations, If That Makes Sense.

But I Also Think When We Embark On Intimate Relationships, We Make A Basic Human Promise To Be Decent, To Hold A Flattering Mirror Up To Each Other, To Be Respectful As We Explore Each Other.

Intimate Relationships

Everyone Needs Something From Me.

All My Freakouts Have Been Pretty Private And Directed At Family Pets And/or People I Have Been Dating For Too Short A Time To Freak Out At In That Way.

I've Always Been Someone Who Feels Better, If I See What I'm Going Through In A Movie.

I Know That When I Am Dying, Looking Back, It Will Be Women That I Regret Having Argued With, Women I Sought To Impress, To Understand, Was Tortured By. Women I Wish To See Again, To See Them Smile And Laugh And Say, It Was All As It Should Have Been.

I Always Thought That If You Had Any Real Proximity To Famous People, That Your Obsession With Famous People, Would Wane Is Some Way. Like, I Wouldn't Want To Deep Google Matthew Mcconaughey's Early Relationships For Hours Before I Go To Bed. And It's Just Gotten Worse.

I Feel Lucky In That The Same Way I've Surrounded Myself With People I'm Creatively Comfortable With, I've Surrounded Myself With People Who Are Accepting Of The Way That I Look.

There Is No Way That My Mother Hasn't Influenced My Career. She's My First Critic. She's My Best Critic. She Has The Best Instincts From Writing To Style To Editing, To The Visual Elements Of My Career.

I Feel Prettier With A Naked Face And Chapstick. But A Good Haircut Makes A Huge Difference.

The Idea Of Being A Feminist-so Many Women Have Come To This Idea Of It Being Anti-male And Not Able To Connect With The Opposite Sex-but What Feminism Is About Is Equality And Human Rights. For Me That Is Just An Essential Part Of My Identity. I Hope [girls] Contributes To A Continuance Of Feminist Dialogue

Okay, 'best Party Ever' -- To Me, That's Like Saying 'best Gym Ever' Or 'best Nature Documentary Ever,' Like How Good Can It Really Be?

The Only Time I Felt Like A Weird Exploiter - Even Though I Knew I Wasn't One - Was When I Was Writing A Sex Scene Between Me And My Adorable Co-star [adam Driver] In Which He Had To Tell Me How Much He Loved My Potbelly. It Seemed Like A Weird Wish-fulfillment Thing, Where I'm Directing My Own Fantasy.

I Have To Take My Shoes Off, You Guys.

On Girls I Like Being A Mouthpiece For The Issues I Think Young Females Face Today. It’s Always Shocking When People Question Whether It’s A Feminist Show. How Could A Show About Women Exploring Women Not Be? Feminism Isn’t A Dirty Word. It’s Not Like We’re A Deranged Group Who Think Women Should Take Over The Planet, Raise Our Young On Our Own And Eliminate Men From The Picture. Feminism Is About Women Having All The Rights That Men Have.

My Uncle's A Lawyer And I Remember Going To See Him In Court And Thinking, 'that's Cool, Too Bad I Could Never Be A Lawyer.'

You Know, I Always Think Of Myself As Sort Of Ready For Every Criticism.

I Started Writing Plays, But The Fact That Plays Don't Last Forever Was Too Much For Me To Bear.

I Never Sort Of Thought Of Myself As A Comedy Writer, By Nature.

My Sister Is Bold, Independent, And Not Afraid To Wear Overalls. Some Of Her First Words As A Child Were "that's Not Fair," And She's Been Committed To Social Justice Ever Since. She's My Hero.

Here's Who It's Okay To Share A Bed With: . . . A Heating Pad. An Empty Bag Of Pita Chips. The Love Of Your Life.

Let's Be Reasonable And Add An Eighth Day To The Week That Is Devoted Exclusively To Reading.

Luxury Is Nice, But Creativity Is Nicer.

My Dad Once Told Me That He Would Rather I Had An Old Boyfriend Than A Tall Boyfriend. I Don't Know Why, I Think He's Just Feels Stressed By... He' Not That Short I Just Think The Idea Of A Really Tall Guy Is Super Anxiety Producing To Him. And Now I'm With Neither Old Guy Nor A Very Tall Guy. So Everything Has Worked Out Perfectly.

Can We Call A Moratorium On The Use Of The Term 'ladyparts'? Grazia!

But I Want To Tell My Stories, More Than That, I Have To In Order To Stay Sane.

Of Course You Don't Want Anybody To Feel Shame For Their Sexuality. But You Also Want To Make It Clear That A Loud, A Loud And Proud Approach To Your Sexuality At A Young Age Isn't Necessary To Be A Fully Integrated Person.

I Am Not A Particularly Political Person, But, As A Tribeca Resident, The Commodification Of September 11th Is Offensive To Me.

My Shape Reminds Me A Lot Of My Grandmother, Whom I Was Really Close To. She Died When I Was 13, And We Have A Really Similar Body Type, The Squat New England Woman Who Can Roll Out Dough And Bring In Your Lawnmower. That's Kind Of The Vibe Of My Body, And I'm Into It.

At My Age, No One Is Married, No One Has Kids, No One Has A Career.

I Always Feel That There Are Two Choices For Women. Either Be Totally Confident About Your Non-size-zero Body And Say, 'i Love What I Look Like And This Is Who I Am,' Or Be The Person Who Is Obsessed With Diet And Exercise And Keeping Toned. What Feels More Realistic To Me Is That Some Days I Wake Up And Think I Love How I Look. On Other Days I Say, 'if I Had Real Self-control, I Would Be 10 Pounds Lighter.' That Contradiction Is, To Me, What Being A Girl Actually Feels Like.

We Both Followed Our Hearts And Had No Choice But To Hurt Each Other Deeply.

The Male Capacity For Turning The Negative Into A Compliment Is Really Alarming.

I Am Comforted By The Fact That I Find A Real Range Of Female Bodies Beautiful, And I Hope That Other People Do Too. And Even If They Don't Find It Beautiful I Hope They're Just Glad That Something Like It Is Happening On Tv.

I Didn't Tell Him I Was A Virgin, Just That I Hadn’t Done It “that Much.” It Hurt A Little More Than I'd Expected But In A Different Way, And He Was Nervous Too And He Never Came. Afterwards We Lay There And Talked, And I Could Tell He Was A Really Nice Person. I Commended Myself For Making A Healthy, Albeit Hasty, Partner Choice. I Really Couldn't Wait To Tell My Mom.

Like Summer Sisters Comforted Me Just Because I Was Like, Okay Things I've Seen With My Own Eyes Are Not So Terrible, And Even Though I Knew Adult Gay People And Had Absolutely No Issue With It. And I Just Couldn't Articulate What Made Me So Uncomfortable About The Space That I Shared With My Friends Becoming A Sexual Space. And It Was Very Healing For Me To Read That, And Feel Like It Was A Part Of Other Friendships, Even Fictional Friendships I Admire.

I Sort Of Tend To Equate Tattoos With Prisoners, Punks Or People With A High Level Of Self-confidence. I Don’t Necessarily Have A Covered-in-tattoos Personality.

Self Confidence

I Value My Health And My Happiness. And I've Realized Exercise Can Give Me Both Of Those Things.

I'm Really Lucky Because I Surround Myself Onset With People Who I Really Trust To Give Me Feedback, So I'm Directing Myself.

I Thought About ["summer Sisters" ] So Often As I Was Writing About These Female Characters Who Love Each Other And Hated Each Other And Were Sort Of In Love With Each Other.

I Love What I Do, I Love Every Minute Of It.

I Have Sort Of A Zen Body Philosophy, I'm Sort Of Like: We're One Weight One Day, We're One Weight Another Day, And Some Day Our Body Just Doesn't Even Exist At All! It's Just A Vessel I've Been Given To Move Through This Life. I Think About My Body As A Tool To Do The Stuff I Need To Do, But Not The Be All And End All Of My Existence. Which Sounds Like I Spent A Week At A Meditation Retreat, But It's Genuinely How I Feel.

No One Wants To See A Tattoo On A Stomach.

I Always Imagined That Having A Baby Is Something That I'm Going To Keep In A Private Place, But Maybe My Curse Is That All I'm Going To Want To Do Is Tell Everybody About What My Birth Process Was Like And What My Children's Nightmares Are.

I Also Really Like To Read Good Books And I Don't Have Enough Time To Do It. So It's Really Hard For Me To Imagine Willingly Submitting Myself To A Trilogy Of Books That I've Been Told Are At The Fourth Grade Reading Level Which Isn't A Very Nice Thing To Say But.

I’m Not Super Thin, But I’m Thin, For Like, Detroit

I Have An Authority Problem.

My Parents Are Artists; In Their World, In The World Of Modern Artists, You Are Supposed To Just Go Into Your Studio And Tune Everything Out, And Your Entire Relationship With Your Work Is Supposed To Be A Super Private One. That Was The Way To Do It And You Weren't Deeply Truly Artistic If That Wasn't The Way You Were Engaging The Press.

The End Never Comes When You Think It Will. It's Always Ten Steps Past The Worst Moment, Then A Weird Turn To The Left.

If A Young Woman Is Looking At The Landscape Of Hollywood, What She Sees Is Almost Only Challenges.

It's Okay To Change Your Mind. About A Feeling, A Person, A Promise Of Love.

When Someone Shows You How Little You Mean To Them And You Keep Coming Back For More, Before You Know It You Start To Mean Less To Yourself.

I'm Really Lucky Because My Sister Is A Real Activist Soul And Also Hyper-intellectualized In This Way That's Really Allowed Me To Wrap My Mind Around Some Of The Bigger Intellectual Concepts And Really Understand The Language Around Identity In The Gender Nonconforming Community.

I Am Thinking Particularly Of A Shower I Took Where The Lower Half Of My Body Was Under The Running Water And The Upper Half Was Laid Out On The Bath Mat, Eating A Loaf Of Bread.

I Do Think Girls In Their Twenties Accept Certain Kinds Of Lesser Treatment Than They Would At Other Times In Their Lives.

I Kind Of Look Like Every Other Girl Walking Around.

That's The Feeling [of Relativity] I Always Had About [judy Blume] Books Which I Re-read And Re-read And Re-read.

I Thought I Was Really A Radical, Political Person, Which Of Course I Am Not.

As A Woman Who Doesn't Necessarily Fit The Beauty Standard In Hollywood... I Really Related To The Narrative Of Looking For Something You Felt Comfortable In That Would Properly Express Your Identity, Especially When Your Identity Didn't Feel Like It Necessarily Matched The One That Was Being Imposed On You.

I Always Thought The Saddest Feeling In Life Is When You're Dancing In A Really Joyful Way And Then You Hit Your Head On Something.

I'm So Proud Of Jason's [benjamin] Work. I Can Say This And He Can't, But There's No Group Of Documentary Subjects More Devoted To Their Documentarian. The Vibes Are Really Positive, And I Feel So Lucky.

I Never Set Out To Make Any Statements About A Specific Character, I Just Set Out To Tell What Feels Like Is A Truthful Story, A Person That You And I Might Truly Encounter.

It Is Really Funny How Even Cool Chicks Are Sort Of Like, 'our Moms Covered That Feminism Thing And Now We're Living In A Post-that World,' When That Just Isn't True.

There's People Who Don't Want To See Bodies Like Mine Or Bodies Like Their Own Bodies.

I Felt Highly Anxious In A Way That I Didn't Think Other Children Were.

If Someone Doesn't Answer Your Email Within Six Hours, It Means They Hate You.

For Straight, Hetero People It's Very Easy To Unintentionally Say Something That Might Not Honor People's Identities Fully, And Grace Dunham Is A Really Amazing Educational Resource.

I Mean, I - It's So Funny, I Am, You Know, I Am, You Know, A Working Woman Out In The World, But I Still Live With My Parents Half The Time. I've Been Sort Of Taking This Very Long, Stuttering Period Of Moving Out.

I Think That As Our Country Becomes More Tolerant As A Whole Of Certain Things, Hopefully Becomes More Tolerant, There's A Way That Certain Kinds Of Bullying Will Be Passe And Unacceptable.

One Of The Reasons I'm So Proud Of My Mother Is She Took Her Skills Of Over A 40 Years Photographic Career And Translated That To A Film.

It's Almost Like When You're Young, Your Friends Take On The Romance Role, And Then Guys Take On The Role Of Your Friends Later.

I Can’t Imagine A Passionate Affair With A Native Man

I Learned That People Are Much More Game To Mock Their Own Personas Than You Would Think.

I'm Just Waiting To Be 85 And Be In A Pajama Community. Everyone's Welcome To Join Me.

I Think About My Best Friendship - Which The Marnie-hannah Friendship In Girls Is Based On - As Like A Great Romance Of My Young Life.

You Get Reactions And You Connect To People And I Love Twitter.

I Would Go To Work From 9 To 6, Go Home, Nap For Two Hours, Then Write From 8 To 2 A.m.

Don't Put Yourself In Situations You'd Like To Run Away From. But When You Run, Run Back To Yourself.

Self Reflection

It's Interesting How We Often Can't See The Ways In Which We Are Being Strong - Like, You Can't Be Aware Of What You're Doing That's Tough And Brave At The Time That You're Doing It Because If You Knew That It Was Brave, Then You'd Be Scared.

I Never Thought Of Myself As Like, A Funny Person.

I Frustrate Myself As A Writer. There Are Certain Things That I'll Think, 'well, That Would Be Really Fun To Play... If Somebody Else Was Playing This Character.'

I Love Directing Scenes That I'm Not In Because Suddenly I Really Feel Like A Filmmaker Which Is A Different Thing.

I Quit Acting When I Was 11 Because I Was Cast As A Bouncing Ball In 'alice In Wonderland,' And I Felt Slighted And Wounded.

My Fears Came True: People Called Me Fat And Hideous, And I Lived. And Now I Keep Living.

It Doesn't Occur To So Many People That If You Don't Have A Clear Heterosexual, Gender Confirming Identity That There Are Parts Of Day-to-day Life - Like Using A Bathroom Or Getting Your Clothes - That Just Aren't Going To Be As Easy.

The Biggest Fear That Everybody Has Is Dying. Not To Get Too Meta On You, But I Think Every Fear That People Are Trying To Work Out Is Really Like I'm Going To Die And No One Is Going To Care, And It Doesn't Matter Because God Might Not Exist. That's What People Are Trying To Figure Out. I Wish We All Had One Fear So We Could Think About It Together And Figure Out A Solution, But We're All Doing Different Things.

One Of My Favorite Facts About Jason [benjamin] Is That He Collects Shirts From Tattoo Parlors. He Has A Bunch Of Tattoo Parlor T-shirts, But No Tattoos. And Then He Wears, Like, Vans And Jeans. My Boyfriend Said He Looks Like A Modern Bruce Springsteen, Which Is A Pretty High Compliment.

For Me, My Life Goal Is To Be In A Position Where I Can Wear Pajamas 24 Hours A Day. That's What Makes Me Happy.

Things That Feel Super Personal Actually Feel Really Universal. It's Sort Of The More You Really Identify Something Specific Within Yourself, The More People Connect To It Because Ultimately We Are All Connected In Some Way.

There's A Certain Grace To Having Your Heart Broken.

The Fact Is That I Write Under Duress, Often In My Bed, Often At The Last Minute. I'm Kind Of A Binge Writer I Would Say, Which I Don't Support. I Was Always Kind Of That Way. Probably The Time I Was The Most Regular As A Writer Was College. It Was Like, What Else Is There To Do When You're Living In The Midwest Studying Creative Writing?

I've Always Loved My Own Little Office Spaces No Matter What They Were Like. It's The Virginia Woolf, Room Of One's Own Concept, It's Really Important.

I Took "forever" [by Judy Blume] To The Bathroom To Read [when I Was Eight] And Then I Heard My Mom Coming So I Stuck It Under The Toilet And Went Running Out. And I Went Back Later To Check For It. And It Was Gone.

I Just Hope That I Continue To Keep A Line Between My Private Life And Who I Play, Even If They Are Closely Intertwined, And So I'm Careful. I Don't Even Know Where My Line Is, But I Know I Have A Line.

I Think We All Feel That Way When We're Young We Don't Think Teachers Have Lives. We Don't Think Therapists Have Lives. We Don't Think Doctors Have Lives.

I Wish That Author [ E. L. James] All The Success In The World. It's Just Not For Me.

I Deserved Kisses. I Deserved To Be Treated Like A Piece Of Meat But Also Respected For My Intellect.

I Seriously Consider Television To Be The People's Medium. Like The Idea Of Seeing Your Parents Naked Or Having Somebody Go Down On You And Worrying About Whether You Smell, Or Worrying About Whether Your Body Is Weird Or What Goes Across The Face Of A Person Who's Supposed To Be Experiencing Pleasure But Isn't - Those Are Things I'd Love To Normalize On Tv.

I'm Ridiculous In My Oversharing; My Mom And Sister Are Very Open But A Little More Judicious Than Me... And My Father Is A Decidedly Private Person.

I Just Don't Want To Be Around People Who Don't Hate Everything In Their Life Right Now.

I Don't Really Have A Place Where People Can Reach Me Via Email Because It Got A Little Overwhelming. People Tweet Things At Me Like, "oh Dm Me For A Great Story That You'll Definitely Need To Use On The Show," Which I Don't, You Know, Dm Them.

My Weight Fluctuates Depending On My Mood And My Current Devotion To My Fitness Routine.

I Think Breakfast Is The One Meal When You Don't Have To Eat Animal, Maybe.

I Feel Like I Don't Watch That Many Shows With Death.

I Didn't Drink In The Essence Of The Classroom. I Didn't Take Legible Notes Or Dance All Night. I Thought I Would Marry My Boyfriend And Grow Old And Sick Of Him. I Thought I Would Keep My Friends, And We'd Make Different, New Memories. None Of That Happened. Better Things Happened.

Directing Is About As Visual As I Get And I Will Leave Artmaking To The Rest Of The Family.

Mine's [fans] A Lot Of Like Weird Guys In Prison. So I Don't Need To Answer Them.

It's Not Brave To Do Something That Doesn't Scare You. Performing In Sex Scenes That I Direct, Exposing A Flash Of My Weird Puffy Nipple, Those Things Don't Fall Into My Zone Of Terror.

I Hate To Be The Person That's Like, "we're Doing Something That's Never Been Done Before."

My Mom Knows Pretty Well How I See Her.

There’s Always An Article Coming Out, Saying, ‘the New Thing Is Funny Women!’

I'm Always Having To Be Told To Brush My Hair.

Running Had Always Been Off The Table For Me. It Just Looks Embarrassing When I Do It. I Viewed It Like Learning A New Language - Best To Learn It As A Child.

None Of My Actions Have Ever Sort Of Been Motored By The Search For A Husband Or Wondering If I Was Going To Have A Family Someday Or Wanting To Live In A Really Great House Or Thinking It Would Be Really Great To Have A Diamond.

I Think That People In The Phase Between Being Someone's Kid And Being Someone's Parent Have Always Been Uniquely Narcissistic, But That Social Media And Twitter And Livejournal Make It Really Easy To Navel-gaze In A Way That You've Never Been Able To Before. People Taking Pictures Of What They Eat And Showing Them On Their Facebook. People Assume That People Have A Level Of Interest In What They're Doing That's Maybe Far Greater Than It Is, Although There Is An Audience For All That Stuff.

Katherine Heiny's Work Does Something Magical: Elevates The Mundane So That It Has The Stakes Of A Mystery Novel, Gives Women's Interior Lives The Gravity They So Richly Deserve -- And Makes You Laugh Along The Way.

Basically, Anything A Sexual Predator Might Do To Woo A Small Suburban Girl, I Was Trying.

I'll Start By Saying That "fifty Shades Of Grey:" It's Like I Don't Have. An Elicit Confused Relationship To My Sexuality. So I Don't Need A Book Like That.

A Girl's Night For Me Is With A Member Of My Family On The Couch, Eating Takeout, Watching Something Good, Going To Sleep Early, It's So Boring, But It's Just What I Need!

Women Want To Control Other Women Because They've Been Controlled Themselves. It's A Cycle Of Control. I'm Not Blaming Women For That, But I Am Saying We're Part Of A Toxic Culture That's Feeding All Of Us The Same Messaging.

I Went To An Amazing School In Brooklyn Called St. Anne's That's A Really Kind Of Creative Hot Bed.

I Have To Remind Myself That When You Exercise, There Is A Natural Calm That Comes From Knowing That You Did Something With Your Body That Day. Actually Going And Working Out Makes Everything Else Easier And Better.

I'd Always Loved Movies, But It Wasn't Some Sort Of Desperate Love Of Celluloid. It Was Literally Like, "i Want To Write Things, And I Want People To See Them More."

I've Only Recently Realized That I Have A Radically Different Relationship With My Parents Than A Lot Of People.

Girls Are Trained To Say, ‘i Wrote This, But It’s Probably Really Stupid.’ Well, No, You Wouldn’t Write A Novel If You Thought It Was Really Stupid. Men Are Much More Comfortable Going, ‘i Wrote This Book Because I Have A Unique Perspective That The World Needs To Hear.’ Girls Are Taught From The Age Of Seven That If You Get A Compliment, You Don’t Go, ‘thank You’, You Go, ‘no, You’re Insane.

I Think Of My Body As A Tool To Do The Stuff I Need To Do, But Not The Be All End All Of My Existence.

Here's What I Have To Say About Being Married: Someday You Will Look At Him, Hating Him With Every Fibre Of Your Being, Wishing That He Would Die The Most Violent Death Possible. It Will Pass.

I Felt Like My Parents Were Always Involved With Abstraction, And I Wanted To Do Something Very Specific.

I Feel Like You Don't Know If Someone's Equipped For A Romantic Relationship Until They're Out Of Their Twenties.

Romantic Relationship

Escapism For Me Can Come In The Form Of Someone Else's Reality.

What A Snarky Jerk. (obviously, I Later Slept With Him.)

I Consider Being Female Such A Unique Gift, Such A Sacred Joy, In Ways That Run So Deep I Can't Articulate Them. It's A Special Kind Of Privilege To Be Born Into The Body You Wanted, To Embrace The Essence Of Your Gender Even As You Recognize What You Are Up Against. Even As You Seek To Redefine It.

I Think Some People Are Really Connected To Who They Were As Children. And Some People Aren't.

I'd Love To Write Something For A Male Protagonist. That's Sort Of The Next Frontier For Me. I Think It'd Be Really Amazing To Write The Kind Of Parts That I Love For Women But For A Guy.

I Don't Want To Get Married Until All Gay People Can Get Married.

Marriage Equality

It's Really Hard To Grow With Another Person.

Basically My New Litmus Test For People Is, Do They Make Me Hear About A Blow Job They Gave In The First Ten Minutes Of Us Talking? And If They Didn't Then I Can Feel Excited.

Scandal Has Made Wine And Popcorn Seem Like A Viable, Even Healthful, Meal.

The Thing That's So Hard About Being A Kid Is You Don't Have Enough Knowledge To Explain Things Yourself.

My Parents Were Open About Sex. And My Dad Makes Paintings That Have A Sexual Component And It Still Scares Me.

My Relationship To Eating, My Relationship To Critiquing My Own Shape, All Of That Has Changed Since I've Started Viewing My Body Much More As A Tool To Do My Work.

For Anyone That Has Ever Done A Sex Scene, It Takes On The Feeling Of Learning A Ridiculous Dance, Like The Electric Slide. It's Not A Sexy Experience.

Now If You Went To Someone's House To Look For Them, You Would Be A Psychopath.

On A Personal Level, I'm Proud Of Grace Dunham For Being So Staunchly In Her Identity. It's A Very Unusual Thing For A Young Person. I Think She's Been Very Strong About It.

I Had No Clue What Anyone Was Talking About Like, You Know I Don't Think I, I Don't Think Any Of The Depictions Of Sex Were More To Me Than Just Like An Image Of Two People's Arms Rubbing Together [when I Was Eight], I Just Had No Clue.

When You're Writing A Script You Have The Option To Embellish On Life Or Switch The Order Of Events Or Make It Generally More Cinematic. I Would Stick Too Closely To My Own Experience And Not Necessarily Think About The Fact That It Needs To Have An Event Happen. Realising That I Could Channel My Own Experience Into A Story That Was Slightly More Cinematic Was A Very Important Moment For Me - Allowing Myself To Accept That The Kind Of Screenwriting I'm Doing Is A Work Of Fiction.

If You're Writing, You're Starting In Private. It Can Really Be This Amazing, Private, Freeing Experience. Forget That It's For Other People - That Comes In Later.

Instagram What You Think Is Funny And Exciting And Try Not To Include Any Animal Abuse!

Feminists Believe That Men And Women Should Have The Same Opportunities. If You Are A Feminist You Believe In Equal Rights As A Whole. That’s Not A Concept You Can Really Shoot Down.

Positive, Healthy, Loving Relationships In Your Twenties... I Don't Know If Anyone Would Disagree With It: I Think They're The Exception, Not The Norm. People Are Either Playing House Really Aggressively Because They're Scared Of What An Uncertain Time It Is, Or They're Avoiding Commitment Altogether.

The Way In Which You Share Your Body Must Be A Choice. Support These Women And Do Not Look At These Pictures.

I Remember It Made Me Feel Better Because So Many Of My Friends At School. Were Doing That Stuff And Doing That Stuff On Sleep Overs. But I Just Didn't Feel Ready. It Wasn't Like I Had Any Judgment Of It Being Two Women. It Would Have Scared Me As Much If Not More. I Was Like A Three Month Period In Which All The Words Sleep Over Was Code For Was "let's Get Together And Touch Each Other's Vaginas." And I Was. Haunted. And I Remember Going Home And Feeling Like I Couldn't Tell My Mother Even Though She Would've Understood And Probably Laughed.

It's Very Easy For Me To Say What Success Is. I Think Success Is Connecting With An Audience Who Understands You And Having A Dialogue With Them. I Think Success Is Continuing To Push Yourself Forward Creatively And Not Sort Of Becoming A Caricature Of Yourself.

I Think Romantic Comedy, When Done Right, Is My Favorite Genre. It's Just A Genre That's Very Human.

I Remember Asking My Mom, "do You Think That I Will Ever Have Enough Money To Live Outside Of Your House?" And She Would Be Like, "you Just Never Know."

I Think That Social Networking Makes People More Connected, Yet More Distant, So There Are People With Less Ties To Real Friend Groups And Less A Sense Of Self.

I Think Grace [dunham] And I Are Always Working From A Personal Place, And The Fact That These Were Issues That We'd Been Talking About In Our Own Families Really Clicked, But Also Jason's [benjamin] Passion About It And His Clear Sense That This Was Going To Be Something Emotional And Remarkable To Watch. It Was Very Hard Not Get Excited About It And Want To Help In Any Way We Could.

I Think Women Are Conditioned To Stand By Their Man And Watch Them Make It To The Top, But Most Men Never Believe The Person They Get Into A Relationship With Is Going To Rise Any Higher Than She Was When They Met. It Takes A Very Special, Evolved Person To Be Able To Deal With Change Within A Relationship.

I Probably I Went Into My Room Alone [when I Was Six] And I Was Just Like, How Have I Even, How Can I Even Continue On This Earth With This Terrible, Terrible Knowledge [about Sex].

Every Time I Start Feeling Sexy I Trip.

I Refresh Twitter As Thoughtlessly As Some Twirl Their Hair.

From What I Hear, [ "fifty Shades Of Grey" ] Is Not A Way That I Feel Like I Need To Be Turned On Or Like A Hole That Needs To Be Filled In Me.

There Is Nothing Gutsier To Me Than A Person Announcing That Their Story Is One That Deserves To Be Told, Especially If That Person Is A Woman. As Hard As We Have Worked And As Far As We Have Come, There Are Still So Many Forces Conspiring To Tell Women That Our Concerns Are Petty, Our Opinions Aren’t Needed, That We Lack The Gravitas Necessary For Our Stories To Matter. That Personal Writing By Women Is No More Than An Exercise In Vanity And That We Should Appreciate This New World For Women, Sit Down, And Shut Up.

I Think If You Feel Like You Were Born To Write, Then You Probably Were.

I Actually Didn't Enjoy Being A Child Particularly At All Even Though I Had Nice Parents In A Comfortable Place To Live. Just Because I Was Too Confused In Generating Too Many Answers For Myself That Just Scared Me More.

The People Accusing Me Of Being Productive Don't Know How Hard It Is For Me To Just Bend My Elbow Sometimes.

Don't Wait Around For Someone Else To Tell Your Story. Do It Yourself By Whatever Means Necessary.

You Should Always Go Where There Is A 'you-shaped' Hole In The World.

I Feel Like A Lot Of The Female Relationships I See On Tv Or In Movies Are In Some Way Free Of The Kind Of Jealousy And Anxiety And Posturing That Has Been Such A Huge Part Of My Female Friendships, Which I Hope Lessens A Little Bit With Age.

I Have Work, And Then I Have A Dinner Thing. And Then I Am Busy, Trying To Become Who I Am.

I'm Glad If My Work Can Make A Difference.

Making A Difference

I Thought I Wanted To Be A Journalist Or A Novelist.

My Mom Said The Term Heavy Petting Existed A Lot When She Was In High School.

I Think That It's Very Important To Be With Someone Who Makes You Feel Like The Best Version Of Yourself. In Some Sense, Your Partner Is A Mirror, And You Have To Like What They're Reflecting Back At You.

Reflecting Back

There Is A Sort Of Backlash Of People Who Feel Like You're Not Representing Them Accurately, And You Want To Say As Elegantly As You Can, "i Wasn't Trying To Represent You I, Was Just Doing What I Could Do To Make Being Alive Easier For Me." And If It Helped Anyone Or Made Them Feel Comforted In The Process Then It's The Greatest Thing You Can Ask For.

You Just Have To Work, We All Have To Work Really Hard To Take Care Of Ourselves And Feed Ourselves Good Information, Just Like We Feed Ourselves Good Food. Feed Ourselves Good Books And Good Messaging And The Things That Make Us Feel Like We Can Be Connected With Ourselves And Others In A Deeper Way.

It Completely Sickens Me What Our Culture Is Doing To Women. Last Week I Wore A Big Top And Little Shorts And A Bunch Of Stuff Came Out Saying I Was Without Pants. 'the No-pants Look,' It Said. And I Didn't Go Out Without Pants, I Had Shorts On... If Olivia Wilde Had Gone To A Party With A Big Silky Top And Little Shorts She Might Have Been Told Her Outfit Was Cute... What It Was Really: 'why Did You Show Us Your Thighs?'

My Boyfriend's A Musician, And I Think When He's On Stage Is The Only Time He's Not Worrying. And So That's The Reason He Keeps Doing It Is Because It Gives Him That Sort Of Experience Of Weightlessness That I Only Get Out Of Being Sort Of, Deep Into Writing Something Or Really Lost In A Moment On Set, Like It's Available To Me In These Select Moments Through My Work.

Sometimes I Was So Bored That I Started Arguments Just To Experience The Rush Of Almost Losing Him.

My Parents Were Very Supportive When I Was Growing Up And Have Been All The Way Through.

I Don't Think Anyone Would Want To Come To My Gallery Show.

I Used To Think Twitter Was A Waste Of Time And Sort Of Ran Counter To My Ability To Be Productive And To Write And Now Twitter Feels Like A Really Cool Part Of The Creative Experience.

My Thoughts On Body Image Are Simple: If You Are Being Kind To Yourself Mentally And Physically You Never Have Anything To Be Ashamed For, Ever.

Trending Author

Benjamin Netanyahu

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Category