#lena dunham boyfriend

[lookthetart]

Uff I'm trying to finish normal people bc I don't like to leave it unfinished but I've never encountered before a piece of fiction in which all characters are so wildly unlikeable that just seeing them appear on screen irks me

[gothicprep]

even better, re: the cut: the ‘I think my husband is trashing my novel on goodreads’ article is the first of a NEW advice column by the same author of the disastrous ‘lure of divorce’ personal essay from last week.

lol i was debating talking about emily gould when that essay came out, but i figured "nobody cares about your weird interest in gawker media lore" and decided against it. but i'm going to interpret this as permission to just go crazy on main.

context for readers who don't know: emily gould, on valentine's day, published an essay that's ostensively about divorce, but it's actually about a lot of other things. not even *a* divorce, because she decides against getting divorced at the end of the essay. i wouldn't bet on anything that comes after the end of this essay, but that's a separate question.

it's probably important to establish who emily gould is for what i'm about to say to make any sense: she was a media darling in her 20s. she was one of the first people to get Very Famous from blogging, an editor at gawker, and probably the best known writer there during the mid to late 2000s. very american apparel indie hipster sleeze era personality. could probably be described as a "literary sex symbol" insofar as the literary world has those things.

there were two things that she was famous for in this era. one of them was this post she put on gawker about how she had broken up with her boyfriend and it was a massive success. if you comb through old archives, people were talking about this like it was the brangelina split. i want to say this was a dam breaking moment for a particular kind of personal branding/internet personality that involved revealing things about your personal life, which eventually took over more broadly and gave rise to the culture we have now online. the other thing was this very unfortunate appearance she had on larry king live or something after she'd been taken to task for the "gawker stalker" feature on gawker, where people would send in tips about celebrity sightings around the city. someone sent in a tip about jimmy kimmel being drunk and obnoxious in a bar, and because kimmel is the world's biggest baby, he flipped out and went on this whole tirade about how it was a threat to his safety. in reality, he was just mad that someone saw him drunk in public and said something about it. kimmel and a few other guys confronted her about this on larry king. she looked like a deer in headlights and either wasn't prepared/hadn't been prepared for what was coming. like kimmel told her she was going to hell on live television. mess. there was also some really public drama she had with lena dunham but i don't really remember the details.

she never really disappeared between then and now. she's been writing for the cut for a while, which i guess you could say is her aging into a different kind of women's journalism. she's published a few books, but she hasn't really found her footing since her breakout success in her 20s didn't turn her into the established writer she probably hoped she would be. there was a time where it seemed like she was positioned to be this generation's joan didion, but that didn't end up happening.

so that brings us up to this essay, which was preceded by the last little bit of gossip that i need to get out of the way, even though she mentions it in the essay. in her personal newsletter, she made a crowdfunding request for money to "taking an infinite hiatus from hetero marriage and monogamy. they are a trap for women, full stop. sometimes a trap can be cozy. mine was, until it wasn’t." she does mention she's having a manic episode. she's upfront about the fact that something is going on with her.

anybody who's at all familiar with gould and her financial challenges must question the wisdom of giving money to this, but she presents it very much in the spirit of "men are pigs. men are trash. divorce that man now." and as we learn later, gets money from lyz lenz, who has a book out that's basically the feminist case for divorce and being a single mom.

so gould is not just neck deep in this divorce literature, but producing it to some extent. maybe a crowdfunding request isn't truly a literary form, but it's written in a persuasive way that fits with other writing in the liberate yourself through divorce canon. but the valentine's day essay, while i don't think it's great, i do think it's interesting how it breaks from form. it's not an anti-man personal essay, and these always are. so it was nice to read something a bit different. well, maybe not different, but retro.

i've never been a fan of gould's work, but it did get me wondering "what itch are people trying to scratch when they read essays like this?" because it's like the reader wants them to be an explicitly moral fable, but they want it to be racy and spicy. like one of those mid century pulp novels with a painting of a woman on the cover looking kind of slatternly with a lot of makeup on. it'd be called something like "wild trash" and the subtitle would be "she couldn't wait for her divorce". it's smut about a woman who's sinning gratuitously and flouting society's expectations. and usually with these books, there'd be some kind of cosmic comeuppance for her where she'd get syphilis and die in a pauper's prison or whatever.

and i think people come to stories like this because they want to read something like that. you're gonna read about a woman who was debauched and all the naughty behavior in graphic, titillating detail. and at the end, you get served up a nice, neat conclusion. her husband divorces her and finds love with a kindergarten teacher from iowa. so it flouts the "rah rah divorce him" essay and the pulpy personal essay that some people want. if you're going to write a 3,000 word apology, at the very least, it is a novel take on it.

but i think what the problem is with an essay like this is that it's very... dated in its style. the expected thing with personal essays in the 2020s, the thesis of them usually boils down to something about what a great person the essayist is. most of them do this. that's why you get privilege disclaimers in them – the point of the essay is how the essayist is sensitive and kind and wonderful. even when there are flaws, they're overcome, or something systemic lead this to happen. a flawed woman is because patriarchy made her thus.

to give a better example of the kind of thing i'm talking about, you'll see an essay in the atlantic or new york times magazine and it follows the same formula. Woman Has Personal Life Grievance. Step Back. Here's Why This Is A Big Issue In Society, Bolstered With Statistics. Here's Why If This Woman Was Black Or Poor Or Gay Or Trans, It Would Be Even Worse. Back To The Personal Anecdote... you know what i mean? it's a very well established formula, but you can't have that with "also i'm a dirtbag". once you're talking about society and societal issues of which you're just a little representative – because those are the stakes. it has to be universal – you can't just be talking about yourself.

and then there's this question of personal writing more generally. you aren't a fictional character, you're yourself. and whether you want it to be or not, every personal essay is going to function like a cover letter. it's presenting you to the world. and i don't like these, but i don't want gould's style of personal essay to come back either. it straight up ruined a lot of women's lives who wanted to get their foot in the door in media, got $75 from xojane to write something lurid about their personal lives... and their career never took off. so now this is just on the internet forever.

this old piece in slate sheds a light on just how exploitative that whole thing was.

"don't make life decisions based on emily gould's writing" is useful advice for more reasons than one.

[biftabaereloaded]

Tbh life is awful right now, no money and family matters are just getting more stressful for me and they’re like but lubna why are you doing this to yourself like tbh I hate that I can’t if I could I would but I can’t hijabify and play the social game and just muslimfy and get married to who they want and my dad is like even if hell isn’t real you should just live like us live like us and pressure to break up with my boyfriend is so real they just make me like break down it’s like I know it’s me because like whatever I do if I don’t keep pretending or go back and give up on this life thread I’m trying to catch their social is ruined like my sister in law or sisters or whatever was like questioning me in the nice but secretly bitchy way underhanded bc they think I’m estranged and like I’m nust 😶 everyone trying to catch me out and expose my ass like WHORE WHORE WHORE like my soul is gone are you happy feel like I will prob end up breaking up with my boyfriend and end up a spinster in my dad house bc I’m not arranged marrying some retarded faggot my parents pick out like we are not on the same wavelength you are not having my womb lol it’s mine. Lena Dunham hysterectomies self.

[tourturedfolkloredepartment]

Taylor songs that aren’t about her ex’s or brakes up because not every Taylor song is about brake ups.

"A Place in this World" (about finding herself in the world)

"The Outside" (about feeling lonely)

"Tied Together with a Smile" (for her bulimic friend)

"Mary's Song (Oh My My My)" (for her neighbors' love story)

"I'm Only Me When I'm With You" (about her friends)

"Fifteen" (about her best friend Abigail Anderson and their experience in high school)

"Breathe" (about losing a friend)

"The Best Day" (for her mom, Andrea Swift)

"Change" (about having hope for the future)

"Mean" (in response to an overly critical review of her performance at the Grammy awards)

"Never Grow Up" (about her feelings about growing up after she moved out of her parents' house in 2010)

"Innocent" (for Kanye West)

"Long Live" (for her fans and bandmates)

"When Emma Falls in Love" (speculated to be about her friend Emma Stone's love life)

"Castles Crumbling" (about the fear of not being liked)

"Eyes Open" (for The Hunger Games Soundtrack)

"Safe & Sound" (for The Hunger Games Soundtrack)

"Ronan" (for Maya Thompson, whose son, Ronan, died of cancer)

"22" (about her 22nd birthday and having fun with her friends)

"The Lucky One" (about fame)

"Starlight" (for Ethel Kennedy, her ex-boyfriend Conor Kennedy's grandmother)

"Nothing New" (about being frightened by change and losing what you have, specifically as a woman in the music industry)

"Forever Winter" (for a friend who was struggling with mental health and addiction)

"Sweeter Than Fiction" (for the One Chance soundtrack)

"Welcome To New York" (about her newfound freedom when relocating to New York)

"Blank Space" (about the media's false perceptions of her)

"Shake It Off" (about her indifference towards her critics and their negative view of her)

"Bad Blood" (about her feud with Katy Perry)

"I Know Places" (about the media's scrutiny of her. Though it is told from the point of view of Swift's relationship, it is really about the media.)

"You Are In Love" (about Jack Antonoff's relationship with his then-girlfriend, Lena Dunham)

"New Romantics" (about Swift and her friends' experience with dating)

"I Did Something Bad" (about the public's and media's hate toward her in 2016)

"Look What You Made Me Do" (about her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian who leaked a heavily-edited private phone conversation between them leading to public backlash through snake emojis against her in 2016 and her following disappearance from the public for an entire year)

"This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" (about her feud with Kanye West)

"The Man" (about the sexist double standards in society)

"The Archer" (about her insecurities, anxiety, and existential crisis)

"Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince" (about disillusionment and disappointment towards U.S politics)

"Soon You'll Get Better" (about her mother's, Andrea Swift, battle against cancer)

"You Need To Calm Down" (about pride and trolls needing to calm down)

"ME!" (about embracing individuality)

"Beautiful Ghosts" (for the Cats Soundtrack)

"Only The Young" (telling young people to vote in order for things to change)

"cardigan" (part of a trio of fictional songs about a teenage love triangle; also about Swift's relationship with her fans)

"the last great american dynasty" (about the parallel between the sexist gossips Rebekah Harkness and herself had to endure)

"my tears ricochet" (about her feelings of resentment toward Scott Borchetta)

"mirrorball" (about feeling the need to always please people and create new art)

"seven" (about the innocence of childhood)

"august" (part of a trio of fictional songs about a teenage love triangle)

"this is me trying" (about regret, accountability, low self esteem, alcoholism and existential crisis)

"mad woman" (about gaslighting and the sexist taboo of female anger)

"epiphany" (for and about the parallel between doctors and nurses' service during the COVID-19 pandemic and soldiers' service during World War II, especially her grandfather)

"betty" (told from the perspective of a teenage boy trying to win back the love of his life)

"the lakes" (about escapism)

"no body, no crime" (fictional scenario in which the narrator kills her friend's husband after her friend's death whom she suspect him of being responsible)

"happiness" (about realizing that her pain over the loss of her first six albums will not last forever)

"dorothea" (a story of someone reminiscing about memories of a now-famous old friend)

"long story short" (about surviving a darker part of her life and healing emotionally)

"marjorie" (for her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay)

"closure" (about Scott Borchetta and how forgiving is not necessary to move on)

"evermore" (about battling and resolving hardships, illustrated by enduring a harsh winter)

"it's time to go" (a song about leaving bad relationships, not necessarily romantic ones)

"Carolina" (for the Where the Crawdads Sing Soundtrack)

"Anti-Hero" (about her insecurities and anxieties)

"You're On Your Own, Kid" (about her growing up and how she has changed herself to be accepted in a relationship)

"Vigilante Shit" (about taking revenge on a man)

"Bigger Than The Whole Sky" (about the loss of a loved one)

"Dear Reader" (a song where Swift attempts to give the listener [or reader] life advice)

"Florida!!!" (about escapism and having a fresh start)

"Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" (about how the media perceives her)

"Clara Bow" (about the struggles of fame in the industry)

"I Hate It Here" (feeling like she doesn't belong and escapism)

"thanK you aIMee" (about Kim Kardashian and the drama between them)

"Cassandra" (about not being believed during the summer of 2016)

"Robin" (for a small child)

[jewishbarbies]

Lena Dunham also wrote an essay titled “Dog or Jewish Boyfriend?” some time ago. It’s about choosing between her dog and a Jewish bf and weighing out the pros and cons of both, but that’s self explanatory.

According to the Anti Defamation League (ADL): “Others will take issue with the very idea of comparing a dog and a Jewish boyfriend.  The piece is particularly troubling because it evokes memories of the “No Jews or Dogs Allowed" signs from our own early history in this country, and also because, in a much more sinister way, many in the Muslim world today hatefully refer to Jews as “dogs.””

But she’s ethnically/culturally half Jewish herself, through her mom, so I don’t know if she can be called antisemitic about her own culture.

y’all how many times do we need to go over this. YOU CAN BE JEWISH AND BE ANTISEMITIC. it doesn’t matter what or who you are - you’re fully capable of perpetuating the bigotry targeting your group. if anything, being jewish just makes the antisemitism WORSE, because she should know better and clearly doesn’t.

[whatiwillsay]

Taylor swears she’s a mastermind but can’t have her nasty ass boyfriend reactivate his IG to apologize publicly. The internet will drag him for a day and move on. Ppl want their pound of flesh and if it’s not from him it will be from her. How is it going to look when they start bringing up how her friends Blake and Ryan got married on a slave plantation, her ex John Mayer had a “white supremacist dick” and all the racist shit Lena Dunham has said? PR moves only work when people fall for them. If you’re gonna be conniving at least be good at it

one thing taylor is not is conniving she has too heavy a hand a lot of her moves are telegraphed

[changebydjo]

sorry but sw*fties just now realizing taylor might not be trusted after she has a racist boyfriend is like….she’s literally the same as she’s always been lmao. this is the same person who tried to sue someone for trying to bring awareness that nazis use her and her imagery for the alt right and instead of taylor speaking out abt not wanting to be associated w white supremacy, she instead wants to come after the person bringing it to awareness. this is the same person who is STILL friends w lena dunham, known to be racist and sexually assaulted their sibling and outing them. this is the same person who never speaks out about issues unless she can either profit from it or if it affects her personally. this is the same person that she has always been and she’s never going to change that no matter how much everyone tries to victimize her

[magxit]

People who were like she will never she cares too much about her reputation... girlie is bestie with Lena Dunham, how many times her fans told her to drop her and she never did.

.

Sidenote, Matty does not have a jacket. He is now just wearing his black long sleeve shirt he took off his flannel. That person hanging all over Gracie is her boyfriend and not Matty.

[denimbex1986]

'...Taylor was joined by Kate Moss, Stella McCartney, Andrew Scott and Phoebe Waller Bridge while old pals Cara Delevingne and Lena Dunham, who both live in London, also joined the party...

Phoebe matched Taylor's style in a £2,065 camel coat from Stella layered over a head-to-toe black look, beaming as she left the restaurant in a black cab with her Fleabag co-star Andrew, who couldn't stop smiling after the fun night out.

Andrew is a good friend of Taylor's ex boyfriend Joe Alwyn with the two's Tortured Man Club group chat alongside Paul Mescal believed to have inspired the title of Taylor's latest record, The Tortured Poets Department, a claim which Andrew has since downplayed.

The actor has previously revealed he texts Taylor, gushing recently that he messaged the star to congratulate her on TTPD, gushing: 'I think she is just a force of nature, just an extraordinary human, and this album is really, really amazing.'

The singer meanwhile is an outspoken fan of Andrew's pal Phoebe, having first met when Phoebe hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2019 where Taylor was the musical guest...'

[influencermagazineuk]

Taylor Swift Parties with Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Lena Dunham in London's Notting Hill

Taylor Swift has found herself a new London girl squad, enjoying a night out in Notting Hill on Tuesday as she takes a break from her Eras tour. The 34-year-old singer, who will be back on stage in Liverpool on Thursday night, let her hair down at the Argentinean restaurant Casa Cruz with a new posse of girlfriends. File Image, Kuya JDL, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Joining Taylor were fashion icon Kate Moss, designer Stella McCartney, actor Andrew Scott, and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Her long-time friends Cara Delevingne and Lena Dunham, both London residents, also attended the party. Completing the group were the Haim sisters, Este and Danielle, and music legend Chrissie Hynde. Taylor looked stunning in a black corset layered under a tailored grey coat, accessorized with a clock choker necklace, a nod to her album Midnights. She completed her look with towering red heels that matched her lipstick shade. Kate Moss, 50, dazzled in a white satin pencil skirt and matching blazer, finishing her look with fishnets and platform heels. Stella McCartney was the designer of choice for the evening, with Taylor, Phoebe, and Cara all sporting her designs. Taylor's corset costs £1,150, while her pinstripe wool coat is £1,509. Phoebe matched Taylor's style in a £2,065 camel coat from Stella, beaming as she left the restaurant with her Fleabag co-star Andrew Scott, who couldn't stop smiling after the fun night out. Andrew is a close friend of Taylor's ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Their group chat, the "Tortured Man Club," is believed to have inspired the title of Taylor's latest record, The Tortured Poets Department, though Andrew has downplayed this claim. The actor recently revealed he texts Taylor and praised her new album, saying, "I think she is just a force of nature, just an extraordinary human, and this album is really, really amazing." Taylor is a known fan of Phoebe, having first met her when Phoebe hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2019 where Taylor was the musical guest. In 2020, Taylor wrote a letter supporting Phoebe for the Time's 100 list of the most influential people. Read the full article

[youareinlove]

this reminds me of that talk show where lena dunham was asked who was taylor’s worst boyfriend and maggie was by her side lmao

...i forgot that happened

[hoodoverhollywood]

The Long and the Short of It: Lena Dunham on Her Nail Journey

My babysitter Noreen wore long acrylics in frosted pink that, to my five-year-old self, were the epitome of glam. I loved to watch her hands as she fried a grilled cheese, finger-combed watermelon-scented mousse through her bangs, or twisted the phone cord as she chatted to her boyfriend, Gene. Even when one broke and she had to hold it in place with a Band-Aid, I swooned at the impossibly adult…

[bisluthq]

I was kinda with at least some of what deux was saying until she went on abt calvin harris lmao. like, ya, taylor has love and respect for calvin who she wrote songs bragging abt cheating on and wanting to leave and publicly tried to insinuate that he took writing credits away from her, had lena dunham out there calling him her least favorite boyfriend

idk man I think she has a measure of love and respect but Taylor is messy as shit. She didn’t ask Lena to say that imho - Lena is on her own wavelength lol and it’s the same as Kelly (no spelling questions because that’s her actual name like that’s a real name) shitting on Joe lol like I don’t think Taylor asked for it but I also don’t think Taylor cares.

with deux though you’ve gotta like filter complete bullshit from partially true from “yeah I bet that happened” and often sources are what helps with that. Like a girl saying “I saw Joe and his date at dinner and they hadn’t booked and sat down at the communal table but then got harassed by Swifties and so they left” seems like something one could see happen when out and about. “A friend of a friend worked for a management company and has intimate details about Joe’s breakup” is… not like that.

and re the boys’ reactions similarly like idk who she’s talking to?

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Honeydew

Devereux Milburn’s HONEYDEW (2021, Shudder) starts like gangbusters. Its first hour sets up a New England farming community afflicted with a wheat fungus that can cause gangrene, seizures and even madness. Rylie (Malin Barr) and her actor boyfriend Sam (Sawyer Spielberg) have traveled there to research her dissertation. When their car breaks down, they stumble on a remote farmhouse and ask for help, only to wind up staying the night. The woman running the farm (Barbara Kingsley) is a bonafide eccentric, and Kingsley is very funny in the role as she drifts off during conversations and plies the disbelieving couple with food and small talk. Adding to the weirdness is the presence of her son, Gunni (Jamie Bradley), who she says was kicked in the face by a bull. He’s barely verbal and watches Max Fleischer cartoons while sucking on lemon wedges dipped in sugar and bleeding occasionally from the eyeball and a facial wound. So far, so good. There are tensions within the couple that add to the humor, particularly when the two dieters sneak food behind each other’s backs, and everything is well-played and well-shot. Of course, you know there’s going to be something deadly behind the silliness, and when it emerges, the film goes sour. Part of the problem is that the secret is derivative of other films pitting city people against rural folks. The other part is that Milburn cuts corners. In two instances, where we need to see scenes we suddenly cut and just see their results. And in one of those cases, the result doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Nor does the film ever follow through on the wheat fungus. Maybe it’s just a given, but this is a case where things need to be spelled out just a little bit more. There’s also a WTF cameo by Lena Dunham. She’s virtually unrecognizable, but if you realize it’s her, you’re likely to be distracted wondering how she wound up in this film. It’s enough to make you wish you were watching a marathon of GIRLS’ most annoying episodes.

[best2daynews]

Lena Dunham denies using n-word after Donald Glover joke: 'Never used, nor would use'

Actress Lena Dunham denied using the n-word on the set of her HBO show “Girls” after Donald Glover joked about it during an awards show. The actor-musician referenced his time on Dunham’s show while presenting an award to writer-producer Paul Simms at the Writers Guild Awards on Sunday. Glover, who previously played a boyfriend of Dunham’s character Hannah Horvath, recalled filming a sex scene on…

[preraphaeliteknight]

The leaked photos were from Selena’s phone or that’s what gaylors said ? - we don't know where they came from. But the likeliest thing is that they're from either Joe or Taylor's phone. Why would they be from Selena's? Why would she have intimate photos of her friend and her boyfriend? Fans said the photos came from Selena because there are also some leaked photos of her. But there are leaked photos of lots of celebrities. That doesn't mean they all came from the same place. If you really think Taylor sent photos of herself to one friend, then you could just as easily say she sent them to another. Why Selena specifically? You could suggest Lena Dunham, for example. Things to do with her have leaked as well. Tbh, I think fans just make things like this up because they don't like not knowing everything about her life and don't want to admit it lol

Yeah, it was a hacker who got ahold of them and the how doesn’t really matter as much as it being invasive and gross.