Lena Dunham Feels Unsafe And Worried After Watching Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ Video

Taylor Swift and Kanye West in ‘Famous’

Lena Dunham, the actress/writer creator of the HBO series Girls, is not a Kanye West fan it seems. She posted a long reaction to West’s latest video ‘Famous’ on Facebook, describing it as ‘one of the more disturbing “artistic” efforts in recent memory’

Out of all the celebrities, Lena Dunham was certainly the last one I would have suspected to react this way. Isn’t she always naked in her show Girls? Doesn’t she often portray disturbing to very uncomfortable sex? She is the queen of awkward sex scenes on TV, and there are a lot of them in her show, but she is now complaining for a few naked wax figures? As she explains, she was exposed to the most bizarre and disturbing art because of her artist parents, however, she can’t stomach to see the waxy naked buts of Cosby and Trump: ‘Because I know that art’s job is to make us think in ways that aren’t always tidy or comfortable. But this feels different’, she writes. But of course, it all goes back to her friendship with Taylor Swift and other women, who are also lying in that giant bed: ‘I don’t have a hip cool reaction, because seeing a woman I love like Taylor Swift (fuck that one hurt to look at, I couldn’t look), a woman I admire like Rihanna or Anna, reduced to a pair of waxy breasts made by some special effects guy in the Valley, it makes me feel sad and unsafe and worried for the teenage girls who watch this and may not understand that grainy roving camera as the stuff of snuff films.’

What is she talking about? Seeing Taylor Swift or Rihanna’s naked breast is not even close to be on my list of things that could traumatize a teenage girl. How this could make any ‘women feel unsafe even in their own beds, in their own bodies’ as she says?

I can’t believe I am defending Kanye on this one, but I thought Lena Dunham was familiar with what we call art and fantasy, she made a career out of it, and if art can and even has to make us uncomfortable as she says, why is she arguing on this one? This ‘Famous’ video is barely controversial to me, I just found it a bit creepy because the wax figures looked dead, but beside this, it is not promoting rape, or making anyone unsafe, except Lena. This is not real life, these people were not naked in the same bed ever, but I presume Lena knows that. Coming from a person who has been in trouble in real life for writing about exploring her little sister’s vagina at 7… I am not sure I understand her point. At the end she is only defending her good friend Taylor, who very probably felt uneasy (to say the least) at the idea of her wax double lying in bed next to Kanye with all these people. That’s the only explanation I can come up for the most hypocrite reaction of the year so far.

But this may be a blessing for Kanye…  Two days ago, he tweeted ‘Can Somebody sue me already’ and was probably expecting way more reactions after the screening of ‘Famous’, but since nobody seemed to care enough, Dunham’s reaction is actually very welcome.

Here is Lena Dunham’s Facebook post:

`Peeking From Between My Fingers: some disjointed thoughts on the ‘Famous’ video

Like many pop culture addicted Americans, I wait with bated breath for what Kanye West will do next. Aside from his Twitter mayhem, he has created some really “next level shit” as the kids would say. I could also happily watch Kim Kardashian West chip the paint off a window ledge for hours and be fascinated. I admire that whole family, love the way they depict women as better in numbers and masters of their own destiny. I’d spend all summer at Kamp Kardashian. But it’s possible to hold two competing thoughts in your mind and the Famous video is one of the more disturbing “artistic” efforts in recent memory.

Let’s break it down: at the same time Brock Turner is getting off with a light tap for raping an unconscious woman and photographing her breasts for a group chat… As assaults are Periscoped across the web and girls commit suicide after being exposed in ways they never imagined… While Bill Cosby’s crimes are still being uncovered and understood as traumas for the women he assaulted but also massive bruises to our national consciousness… Now I have to see the prone, unconscious, waxy bodies of famous women, twisted like they’ve been drugged and chucked aside at a rager? It gives me such a sickening sense of dis-ease.

I was raised in the art world by a dad who painted aggro scenes of sexuality and war and a mom who, ironically enough, has photographed some butt naked life-sized dolls of her own. I live for the nude rabble rousing of Carolee Schneemann and Hannah Wilke, for Kathy Acker’s arty porn, for Paul McCarthy’s gnomes with butt plugs and Vito Acconci masturbating under the gallery floor and Carrie Mae Weems shedding a blinding light on the pleasures and terrors of black womanhood. If it’s been banned, I’ll probably love it. Because I know that art’s job is to make us think in ways that aren’t always tidy or comfortable. But this feels different.

I’m sure that Bill Cosby doll being in the bed alongside Donald Trump is some kind of statement, that I’m probably being trolled on a super high level. I know that there’s a hipper or cooler reaction to have than the one I’m currently having. But guess what? I don’t have a hip cool reaction, because seeing a woman I love like Taylor Swift (fuck that one hurt to look at, I couldn’t look), a woman I admire like Rihanna or Anna, reduced to a pair of waxy breasts made by some special effects guy in the Valley, it makes me feel sad and unsafe and worried for the teenage girls who watch this and may not understand that grainy roving camera as the stuff of snuff films. I hesitated a lot about saying anything cuz I figured the thinkpieces would come pouring in. But I didn’t see this angle being explored as much as I had hoped. It’s weird to feel like you’re watching alone. I bet I’m not.

Here’s the thing, Kanye: you’re cool. Make a statement on fame and privacy and the Illuminati or whatever is on your mind! But I can’t watch it, don’t want to watch it, if it feels informed and inspired by the aspects of our culture that make women feel unsafe even in their own beds, in their own bodies.

Y’all, I’m so sick of showing up to the party angry. But at least I brought cake.’