With Lena Dunham, life imitates the Simpsons (language alert, because Lena) *UPDATED*

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Lena-Dunham-Naked-at-Emmys1Lena Dunham, who is both a physical and emotional exhibitionist, wrote an autobiography describing her sexual escapades as a child with her much younger sister. When conservatives who are not in thrall to this rather pathetic young woman pointed out that what she was describing was, in fact, child molestation that seem to extend far beyond children’s usual “let’s take a peek” curiosity, Dunham was appalled that they would attack her in that way. So appalled, in fact, that she took to Twitter to complain:

Having read through the above, I had two thoughts. First, if Dunham is the voice of her generation, not to mention the product of the most expensive education America has to offer, her generation is in serious trouble. Obscene, incoherent, self-obsessed and (horrors!) ungrammatical — this is the voice you choose to represent you? Oy!

Marge and Homer SimpsonSecond, that last tweet, the one about the “rage spiral” triggered a memory. I’m not much for psychobabble, but I recently saw a Simpson’s show that saw the whole town become transfixed by a feel-good, psychobabble shill. Brad Goodman describes himself this way:

Folks, I’m often asked about my qualifications. Well, I may not have a lot of “credentials” or “training”, but I tell you one thing: I’m a Ph.D. in pain. Now let me show you how you can change your life.

Believing Goodman’s promise to help end chronic nagging (as well as “Depression, insomnia, motor-mouth, darting eyes, indecisiveness, decisiveness, bossiness, uncontrollable falling down, geriatric profanity disorder (or GPD),” Marge gets his video, and she and Homer watch it together. Their shared experience results in this exquisite send-up of psychobabble (emphasis mine):

Marge: That video really opened my eyes. I can see that I’m just a passive-aggressive co-culprit. By nagging you when you do foolish things, I just enable your life script.
Homer: And that sends me into a shame spiral.
Marge: Exactly!

Marge vows, “From now on, I’m going to stop nagging and have more fun.” The next day, Homer reads “Owning Your Okayness” when Marge pops her head into the room.

Marge: Homer, did you eat my whole pan of brownies?
Bart: Uh oh. You’re in for it now, Dad.
Homer: Marge, I’m feeling a lot of shame right now.
Marge: I’m hearing that you feel a lot of shame.
Homer: And I feel that you hear my shame.
Marge: I’m feeling annoyance and frustration, but also tolerance.
Homer: I feel validated by that.
Marge: Good! I’m glad we had this talk.
Homer: Me too. [walks off whistling]

And there you have Lena Dunham who, despite her obvious life-long exposure to psychobabble, still seems to suffer badly from pre-“geriatric profanity disorder.”

Two further, slightly related, points:

First, despite doing a PSA urging young ‘uns to vote (and, in another, Dunhamly vulgar context, urging them to vote Democrat), Lena Dunham can’t be bothered to do so herself.  I appreciate both her epic hypocrisy and the fact that a Dem stays away from the polls.

Second, my high school senior, totally spontaneously, turned to me this morning and said, “You know who I find really creepy?”  “Who?”  “Lena Dunham.”  I’ve clearly raised my child right.

UPDATE:  Am I the only one who finds it interesting that Lena Denham’s sister is lesbian?  Oh, I didn’t tell you why I find it interesting.  I find it interesting because, before the LGBTQ movement became so politicized and untouchable, studies indicated that people who self-identified as gay were also more likely than self-identified heterosexuals to report childhood sexual abuse.

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