Lena Dunham's Naked Body: Why the Obsession?

Tim Malloy, a TV critic for The Wrap, said these now infamous words in a pseudo-question for Lena Dunham:

“I don’t get the purpose of all the nudity on the show. By you particularly. I feel like I’m walking into a trap where you say no one complains about the nudity on ‘Game of Thrones,’ but I get why they’re doing it. They’re doing it to be salacious. To titillate people. And your character is often naked at random times for no reason.”

Dunham responded saying, “It’s because it’s a realistic expression of what it’s like to be alive, I think, and I totally get it. If you are not into me, that’s your problem.”

And so began the feminist internet debate on mainstream and feminist-centric news sites alike, such as Michelle Dean, a writer for Flavorwire, calling Dunham’s nudity radical and “weaponized.”

“Lena Dunham’s nakedness on ‘Girls’ is revolutionary and needs to be applauded, without reservation,” Dean wrote. “The show, by consistently putting that ‘imperfection’ in front of us, is demanding that we interrogate our devotion to our beauty standards. And all the men on the Internet who are so anxious to let you know that they don’t find Dunham attractive? They are, if nothing else, proof positive of the need for this ongoing interrogation.”

Alicia Menendez along with Katie McDonough (Salon) and Jill Filipovic (The Guardian) discussed whether these criticisms are worse when delivered online or in real life.