Lena Dunham’s The Cut profile: 5 things we learned (both good and bad)

Lena Dunham has plenty to say in her revealing profile with New York Magazine’s The Cut, from her physical and mental health to making controversial headlines.

Lena Dunham made the news, again, which seems like an evergreen headline in itself. Shortly after her surgery to remove her left ovary, Dunham sat down with and texted Allison P. Davis for a featured profile with The Cut. Beyond rightfully marveling at Davis’ prose (and high-key shaming our own writing skills), the interview gave us a lot of insight on Dunham’s past and lingering controversies. There’s a lot to digest about this piece, but here are some of the things we’ve learned about Dunham.

1.  She’s choosing a drug-free approach to her post-surgery recovery

According to The Cut, Dunham was released from a Klonopin addiction earlier this year. During the interview, Dunham divulges that the people around her didn’t like her “specific personality on medication.”

While she was prescribed oxycodone post-procedure, Dunham adds that she only takes it after talking to her family and mental health professional.

Despite anyone’s preconceived opinion of Dunham, hopefully, her commentary on her medication addiction will help reduce the stigma about addiction itself.

2. Despite all the critiques about her privilege, she still doesn’t really get it

Davis sums up some of Dunham’s more notorious scandals in her interview, so we’ll leave it to her and a slightly outdated timeline of Dunham’s apologies to catch you up to speed.

When her mother, Laurie Simmons, elaborated on a photography project she curated to showcase gender identities, Dunham noted that she convinced her mother to include her in the project. “I forced you to do me. I pitched really hard. I was like ‘I don’t want to get left out of this’,” Dunham said to Simmons during the interview.

Simmons’ work intended on celebrating Dunham’s trans sibling, Cyrus. Although Dunham, hopefully, didn’t intend to implicitly overshadow the trans and nonbinary representation in Simmons’ art, Dunham abused her position as a cisgender woman by imposing on a project that was meant to feature and celebrate people within in the transgender community.

Feeling left out of a project, which Dunham holds no claim or reason to be involved in, as an outsider of the trans community, isn’t comparable to the discrimination and oppression that people within the transgender community face. Dunham might claim she’s growing with each of her controversies; however, she still hasn’t fully grasped when she should step back from an opportunity, even when it involves family.

After all, certain projects, casting calls and otherwise are meant for otherwise unrepresented communities of people. If a person who doesn’t belong to that community forces themselves into that space, it erases representation for that community to some degree.

3. Since her breakup with Jack, she hasn’t talked to Lorde

Dunham joked about that fan-crafted presentation of all the alleged evidence that Jack Antonoff cheating on Dunham while they were dating. Simultanously recognizing the embarrassment behind the viral ordeal, Dunham told the mag that she still speaks to Antonoff.

Although Dunham doesn’t believe Lorde and Antonoff were ever romantically involved, she hasn’t spoken to her friend Lorde since her breakup with Antonoff.

Dunham tells The Cut, “I don’t think anything happened between them. I can never know someone else’s life. I have never spoken to Ella [Lorde] about it. We haven’t talked since Jack and I broke up. It was awful, and I couldn’t do anything about it except trust that what he was saying to me was true.”

4. She’s dating again, but she’s also apprehensive about the dating scene

Referencing dating after her hysterectomy, Dunham confided in her friend Jemima Kirke, telling her, “Who’s gonna want to date me? I have PTSD and no uterus.”

Dating, online or IRL, is never particularly fun. Sure, dates can be fun, but getting to know someone and allowing yourself to be vulnerable with that new person is always stressful to some degree. So, we get it, Dunham.

However, her comments on dating with a mental health condition and without a uterus are telling of how we, as women, are expected to commit a lot of our self-worth into reproductive systems and mental health. To some degree, it’s a product of internalized sexism, seeing as there are still stigmas about women’s health, our uteruses, and lack thereof.

5. Dunham takes pride in avoiding problematic things that nobody should do

Privilege discourse is everpresent — whether it’s about a specific industry or a specific person. Being the topic of dozens of headlines, for less than positive reasons a lot of the time, Dunham apparently hasn’t exemplified the critiques behind her problematic actions over the years.

In response to Megyn Kelly’s blackface comments, Dunham declared in her interview, “I am so pleased to report that I’ve never done an ethnic costume.”

Implicitly praising herself for doing something she shouldn’t do in the first place makes it seem like Dunham is only searching for validation from the public that has scrutinized her. Self-serving vindication might not be the best way to respond after being accused of racism after she dismissed Aurora Perrineau’s accusation that Girls writer Murray Miller sexually assaulted her, according to the Los Angelos Times.

By commending herself for never having committed a problematic attack — in this case, blackface or any costume riddled with cultural appropriation — Dunham praises herself for doing the bare minimum. It transforms being unproblematic into a competition of sorts, but claiming to have never worn “an ethnic costume” doesn’t score anyone pseudo-unproblematic points. Especially when Dunham has been the topic of discussion when it comes to problematic and racist accusations in the past. (Not to mention, hijacking publicity from other activists.)

Dunham’s claim of never donning “an ethnic costume” comes in the same interview where she allegedly tried to validate her interviewer Davis’ race and claim to the black community. After Davis made a joke to break the tension of a heavier topic, Dunham asked her, “Are both your parents black, Allison?”

The specific implications behind Dunham’s question aren’t clear, but it appears to be a loaded question nonetheless.

Regardless, these aren’t the only things we’ve learned about Dunham from this profile. Actually, there were a lot of WTF standalone quotes that had us rereading the text and context.

What are your own takeaways from Lena Dunham’s new interview? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.