Lena Dunham, a self-described “bleeding-heart liberal with a near-constant urinary-tract infection,” has a case of the sads. She’s totally bummed that Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards didn’t win TIME Magazine‘s “Person Of The Year Award.”
In an interview with Richards, Dunham lamented that the honor was awarded to German Prime Minister Angela Merkel instead of Richards, the CEO of the nation’s largest abortion provider. Throughout the exchange between the two, Dunham peppered Richards with praise over how “glamorous” she looked or how goddess-like she behaved during her testimony before a recent Congressional oversight committee hearing.
The interview was riddled with cringe-worthy comments from Dunham.
She began the interview by gushing about how “glamorous” Richards looked:
Lena Dunham: Hi! You look so glamorous and you’re in front of a blackboard. This is my dream situation in which I would find Cecile Richards. You’re exactly where I would have dreamed you would be [in front of a blackboard that appears to be covered in strategic brainstorming and diagrams].
Judging by the transcript, Richards appeared to be largely unphased by the slobbering praise:
Cecile Richards: We’re here in the nerve center of Washington, D.C.
LD: Reader demand for this interview since the first day we launched has been so massive. So this is very exciting. I wanted to start out by saying how sorry we are about what happened in Colorado, and how painful that must be for Planned Parenthood.
CR: Thanks. I appreciate it.
The interview somehow managed to get even worse. For example, Dunham asked Richards for leadership advice for all the girls out there who have trouble deciding what to eat:
As a leader, how do you deal with these challenging and even tragic moments? So many of us have trouble just making a lunch order. What is it like for you to have had to lead Planned Parenthood through these historically challenging moments this year?
Because, you know, girls are bad at making up their minds and don’t eat very much to maintain their girlish figure.
Later, Dunham praised Richards for her cool-under-pressure performance during her testimony before those awful, misogynistic congressmen.
“For so many of us, you went in a heroine and emerged a total goddess,” Dunham said. “What was your approach to handling that moment? How did you prepare and how did you relax?”
“You managed to stay completely poised and even maintain a sense of humor,” Richards, the head of an organization that kills healthy unborn baby girls and then sells their butchered body parts to the highest bidder, replied.
Ironically, Dunham’s own questions were themselves dripping with misogyny. I have a hard time imagining anyone asking a man how he was able to prepare and relax for a Congressional testimony, or asking him how he’s able to manage doing his job and ordering lunch at the same time, or praise him for being “poised”–a term largely reserved for women. Or talking about what a rare and amazing sense of humor he has.
Come on, Lena!
From one girl to another: don’t act surprised when another woman is funny. Don’t make the first words out of your mouth a statement about the looks or wardrobe of the woman you’re interviewing. And when it comes to lunch, everyone knows the first rule of feminism is to assume that women have healthy appetites and don’t need help when ordering food.
If you’re going to call yourself a bleeding heart liberal and a feminist, Lena, at least talk like one.
