Lena Dunham and Anne Hathaway have at least one thing in common: They've both taken a lot of flak for doing their jobs and, as far as we can tell, being themselves. In Anne's case, it began immediately after her very earnest, tearful Oscars acceptance speech (and post-ceremony interviews), when people took to Twitter en masse to voice their annoyance — even to say, quite literally, that they hated her. While we've got no problem with reasoned critiques of a performance or a work of writing, an unfortunately large portion of these attacks stoop pretty low — and go for personality and appearance instead of sticking to opinions and points of view. And no matter what you think of these two (incredibly successful) young women, that's neither fair nor productive.
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Never one to sit idly by, Lena Dunham came to Ms. Hathaway's defense. While the actress has been garnering sudden and extreme hatred for, apparently, no reason other than that she's "annoying" (so relevant), Dunham makes a good — albeit, we would like to think, obvious — point:
Ladies: Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth. Let's save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren't advancing the cause.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) February 26, 2013
Of course, rage ensued, because that's just how it goes when Lena Dunham Tweets. Feel free to check out the responses to her Tweet, but we don't exactly recommend it (reading some guy complain that Lena isn't "advancing the cause" because she takes off her shirt on TV also happens to fall under the "not productive" category). Once more, the Girls creator rose to the cause:
Hey ragers. "The ones who aren't advancing the cause" I mentioned aren't always, or mostly, women. Case in point: I saw your boobs.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) February 26, 2013
Once again, don't bother reading the responses. They're even worse than the first time around. We've all had our differences, but we're on Dunham's side here (and, by extension, Hathaway's). Everyone has the right to personal feelings about Anne Hathaway and Lena Dunham, their respective demeanors, artistic work, acceptance speeches, etc.
But there's no reason we can't all grow up and respect one another, right?
Photo: Courtesy of Fox 2000 Pictures.