HBO show “Girls” goes for laughs with abortion
But in Girls, the abortion talk is the comic relief.
The show’s second episode, “Vagina Panic,” is partially set in a Manhattan health clinic. Shoshanna, Marnie, and Hannah have shown up to support their fourth friend, flighty, pregnant Jessa (she’s the Samantha of the group). But Jessa’s too flaky — and too frightened — to go to the clinic herself. She spends the afternoon drinking White Russians and hooking up with a stranger as her friends leave her increasingly angry messages like this: “Uh, hey. You’re pregnant when you don’t want to be. So you might want to come have your abortion now. Thanks.”
Instead of segregating humor from the episode’s central issue, Girls finds humor in that issue itself.
~ Hillary Busis comparing how HBO’s Girls and Sex In the City handled the abortion issue, Entertainment Weekly, April 23
A teenage girl schedules an abortion, but is so ambivalent and terrified that she gets herself drunk first. That’s supposed to be funny?
Anyone who finds humor in that needs to turn in their feminist card immediately.
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Welcome to Armegeddon.
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It is called gallows humor. But really, you are supposed to fast before having a surgical procedure…drinking alcohol and then going for an abortion can be fatal to the mom. So how funny is that?
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Welcome to Armegeddon.
It’s the end of the world as we know it,but I feel fine . . .
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Is nothing sacred anymore? I guess not.
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LOL, phillymiss! I was thinking of Def Leppard, but we’ll go with R.E.M.!
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They’re not teenagers, though. Did you assume that just from looking at the picture? The characters range from 21-25, and the woman seeking an abortion is 25.
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This definitely doesn’t put women in the light of competent, responsible, self actuating adults. These, uh, girls act like they haven’t exactly grown up.
They make their video game playing male peers look far better in comparison.
World of Warcraft nerds look positively sophisticated compared to the picture this show paints of, uh, Girls.
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Linda, thanks for the correction. I thought they were teenagers because the show is entitled “Girls.”
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The truth is if that girl is portrayed as hesitating or not quite sure about keeping her appointment, then they would do a service to the world by being honest about showing the aftermath. Women who have abortions that aren’t entirely sure they want one, even up to the moment of the abortion, will struggle afterward in a huge way. If they were honest about showing consequences on television shows, abortion could truly be rare. They would show consequences, REAL consequences to premarital sex, sexually transmitted diseases, adultry, divorce, abortion….tv would be a real bummer! ha ha But at least it could have positive affect on the decisions and issues that REAL people face every…instead of this type of junk, joking about a painful thing, instead of having a kind conversation with their friend and making sure she REALLy wants to have that abortion.
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How very true Jana.
Women are hesitating for a reason.
I love how the sidewalk counselor, John Barros(who counsels outside the OWC in Orlando)puts it…..they are in the valley of decision!!
Some are just waiting to be offered anything that might empower them. And it ain’t abortion.
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Precisely-they’re not teenagers, but radical feminism has reduced them to infantile behavior-spoiled children who are incapable of taking care of their own children, making abortion look like a sensible solution.
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Sounds like you’re all making a bunch of assumptions about a show you haven’t seen. You know what they say about assumptions…
The pregnant character doesn’t want an abortion but she doesn’t want to be pregnant either. She ends up miscarrying, and it’s not really packaged as a comedic event- sardonic maybe, but certainly not “for laughs” as the headline would (mis)lead you to believe
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I realize we need to engage our culture — but with television, critiquing it at all is little different than judging a jumper’s form as he plummets to his demise from a bridge.
The problem is not with how some particular program’s done — the problem is what programming has become (and why): its inevitables.
There comes a point where critiquing the idiocy dignifies it by missing the opportunity to model the novel notion of paying it no heed at all. Some things are better unknown by everyone than known enough to be critiqued by anyone.
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I’m sorry, did someone say this is “gallows humor?” Well, gee, if abortion isn’t murder why would you call it that?!
I guess abortion IS murder, go figure. o_0.
It doesn’t matter if a woman “really wants an abortion” or is being coerced: the baby is just as dead either way.
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One dead.
One wounded.
It does matter as we need to step up and offer women better than abortion.
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So this is what passes for tv these days? No wonder the internet is now my favorite way to waste time. :)
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What is truly sad is that the American public remains silent while the writers, producers, actors, and stations make an obscene amount of money creating social “norms” that are not normal by any stretch of the term. There was one comment about the necessity of fasting before surgery, absolutely true. Let’s review T.V. from the 1960s forward, which points to the silence of the majority of morals. I do not watch cable or T.V. to entertain because to me, it lost the entertainment value a long time ago. Instead of talking about what was wrong, boycott the sponsors and station. Start being vocal about how this is not only unhealthy for any body whether underage or not. If “life” is precious then so is the life of the person pregnant and portraying alcohol as a way to cope is completely wrong. Abortion is wrong because it ends a life, portraying the “Mom” in any manner other than with dignity and respect is furthering the sex trafficking that a lot of American people seem to stand against then do behind closed doors. It’s time to get “sex” off T.V. and start standing up for human rights, especially females against what the media has created!!! It’s time for programs to protect dignity instead of profiting from it!! The selling women whether through advertising, programs, or sit-coms must be corrected in order to begin basic human rights. Whether you like it or not, the media is teaching children and adults with a “sex” for sale mentality. If you want the right to freedom of speech, start by telling the media to stop selling women for sex! It’s time to teach abstinence period.
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Read:
Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story Of How The Left Took Over Your TV
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JDC, cable got too expensive and in my area you really can’t get many channels without it, so now I don’t have a television. Theres only a few shows I watched anyway, so I really don’t miss it.
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