Not that Kind of Girl Review
I have had this one wrote up for months just sitting here in my drafts. It was a review I was going to save but in light of recent things I wanted to go ahead, a put it out there.
Personally, I am a fan of Lena's work, I adored Girls, which is why I wanted to read this book when it came out. This book is amazing. If you are a fan or even if you aren't it's a nice easy read. She tells stories of her childhood, college, camp, and even when she started out. All the Stories are written in essay form which I really like. It helps to break down things and I think makes for a quicker read. Some book has a billion pages in a chapter that just repeats it'self and I hate it.
She is really easy to relate to and I found a some what comforting effect from the book in the fact that we have some of the same thought processes. I mean that we both have a strange way of processing things. So it's nice to know that someone out there especially someone you have never met or even famous, has some of the same thoughts or goes through the same internal struggles. Especially ones people don't like talking about. Let's face it some topic people will avoid at all costs. It's nice when they get brought to light and you find that it happens to other. It's nice in the way you realize you aren't alone in it. Everyone goes through weird shit in their life so it's nice to be able to relate. You can tell that she did put a lot of work into laying it all out there. Even though some of the topics such as the one about finding rocks in her sister's vagina were taken out of context. I get how it could be. I would highly recommend this book if you want some heartfelt stories of an awkward girl.
This is my honest review of the book. I am a fan of her work like I said and I know here recently she has said some shit then said some more that has seemed wishy washy. I agree that it does seem like she is doing a 180 from her previous statements. If you are not sure what I'm talking about let me tell you or you can google it for more information. Recently we have all been in made aware of the dirty secrets of Hollywood. Of course, we knew it was there but it was never talked about in this magnitude. Anyways Lena herself has spoken out about women who, themselves have come out about their own sexually abuse/harassment. Let me go ahead a say I admire these women who have been brave enough to do this. It's a hard topic and to come out is to kind of relive it. Last week it came out that one of the writers from Girls raped a girl. Lena and the Girls production team are standing by him. It's an unpopular opinion to go from supporting everyone else til it comes to someone you know doing it.
Honestly, I get where she is coming from, If someone you know well and are friends with does something terrible like this it's hard to believe. You want to be on their side and believe them when they say they didn't do it. It's nothing against the other party in the situation. I think it's kinda of human nature in a way, it's hard to explain. However on the other hand when you are sort of advocate for this movement then come out and support someone who has done it, it does seem fucked up.
This is not me agreeing with it and saying she was right or wrong or whatever. I think it could have been handled so much better than it was. I will be a fan of hers even though I don't agree with the statement of support.
In closing this I do want to say that abuse of any kind is never ok. When someone comes out and tells you, Hey this thing happened to me. DO NOT automatically say no that's not right, or you're lying, or they wouldn't do that. It's ok to be in disbelieve just don't blame the victim or make them feel like it was not taken seriously, or even that it was wrong to come out with it. It's a serious thing and we are just starting to take it seriously.
To all the men and women who have come out. You all are amazing and you will be heard.
