Minorities, volatile identities and (mis-)identification: a holistic reading of HBO’s 'Girls'

Abstract

Lena Dunham’s series Girls has sparked interest and controversies, particularly during its first seasons, due to its purposeful title and its content, frequently oscillating between feminism and postfeminism. This article aims to examine the title implications in terms of representation and identification, as well as a series of textual questions posed within the last seasons, not proportionately investigated yet, in order to trace and discuss omissions and to portray the characters’ further development. For this reason, we first use the series as a map to explore the notion of girlhood in the contemporary setting, and venture comparisons with womanhood, manhood and the notion of the child. Furthermore, we wish to reveal debates on racial and gender exclusion. Finally, we employ a transversal reading based on the discussion of positive and negative criticism but also on other structured readings of Girls. We comply with the paradigm of mis-identification or partial identification as a queer form of viewing the show that allows careful examination through various angles on the one hand, and recognizes the author’s attempts to adjust to the audiences’ feedbacks on the other. On the whole, we consider Girls to surpass trivialities that are common in contemporary quality television, even by failing to be a common denominator of girlhood.