Whether bashing it or showering it with praise, there is no more popular bandwagon to hop on than HBO’s hit show, Girls. For some reason, Lena Dunham’s exploration of sex and the twentysomething female has become the most polarizing series in years, and it’s uniting the most unexpected icons to either speak for it or against it. And in the most recent, and random, rant on the show, NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an essay for The Huffington Post where he took numerous shots (or sky-hooks) at the series.
When talking about the show’s obvious neglect of anyone of color, Kareem said, “Last season the show was criticized for being too white. Watching a full season could leave a viewer snow blind. This season that white ghetto was breached by a black character who is introduced as some jungle fever lover, with just enough screen time to have sex and mutter a couple of lines about wanting more of a relationship. A black dildo would have sufficed and cost less.” Yup, Kareem used the word "dildo."
He continued by saying the show is “too self-conscious, too cutesy, and not that funny.” He added, “We're supposed to find these girls somehow charming because of their flawed characters. Their intense self-involvement is meant to be cute and it can be... at times. But not enough to overcome our impatience with their inability to have any personal insight. They're all educated but fatally ignorant.”
But he’s also willing to give the series a chance, and ends his editorial with, “Girls' heart and mind is in the right place. It wants to be more than the sum of its familiar parts. And sometimes it is. Maybe this season its voice will be louder and clearer and have more to say. It's worth listening for.”
Kareem's eye for criticism is impressive, and it’s refreshing to hear an athlete talk about the type of stuff we all do. We know Dunham has been harsh on her critics in the past, but when Kareem speaks, everyone should listen.
RELATED: The 25 Most Unbreakable Records In Sports History
[via The Huffington Post]
LIKE COMPLEX POP CULTURE ON FACEBOOK
