Lena Dunham blasted for 'tasteless' 'Dog or Jewish Boyfriend?' articleLena Dunham came under fire on Friday for an article published in the New Yorker that Jewish groups are calling “tasteless” and “offensive.”
The piece, a quiz titled “Dog or Jewish Boyfriend?” asks readers to guess which of the two Dunham is referring to in each of 35 descriptive statements.
“He doesn’t tip,” Dunham writes. “And he never brings his wallet anywhere.”
The Anti-Defamation League, the world’s preeminent Jewish advocacy group, said that while humor is subjective, Dunham’s article missed the mark.
“The piece is particularly troubling because it evokes memories of the ‘No Jews or Dogs Allowed’ signs from our own early history in this country, and also because, in a much more sinister way, many in the Muslim world today hatefully refer to Jews as ‘dogs,'” ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement.
“While we understand that humor is its own special brand of expression and always try to give leeway to comedians, we wish that she had chosen another, less insensitive way to publicly reflect on her boyfriend’s virtues and vices,” Foxman added, saying the article “plays with offensive stereotypes” about Jews.
“We are surprised that the New Yorker chose to print it,” he said.
Dunham and the New Yorker were inundated with tweets condemning the article — which appears in the magazine’s Mar. 30 issue — and most of the criticism came from self-proclaimed Dunham fans or longtime New Yorker readers.
“I am so disappointed in both of you,” one Twitter user wrote. As a huge Lena fan and a Jewish woman I am appalled.”
Seriously, @NewYorker? Readers deserve better writers than .@lenadunham.
— gonzo snape (@gonzarro) March 24, 2015
@NewYorker @lenadunham good to see that anti-semitism is still alive and well!!!!
— autumn (@autumnnnnrose) March 24, 2015
This piece is truly awful. MT “@NewYorker: Dog or Jewish Boyfriend? A quiz by @lenadunham
http://t.co/7KJvLA29LR pic.twitter.com/AgxFwH7hZr”
— kristen b (@sighclub) March 25, 2015
@NewYorker should be ashamed for publishing this it is incredibly antisemitic, way to keep offensive Jewish stereotypes alive @lenadunham
— brojenny (@brojenny) March 25, 2015
@NewYorker @lenadunham as a serial Jewish boyfriend, I am not amused…could have been written by Goebbels…Or Himmler
— Howard Shuman (@microbe_man) March 26, 2015
@NewYorker @lenadunham been reading this magazine for 25 years. And I am appalled by this.
— TV Mama (@Tarrenn) March 26, 2015
@NewYorker @lenadunham I am so disappointed in both of you. As a huge Lena fan and a Jewish woman I am appalled
— Amy (@AbFabAmy) March 26, 2015
2015 TheWrap news inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/celebrity_news/2015/03/lena_dunham_blasted_for_tasteless_dog_or_jewish_boyfriendLena Dunham Compares Jews to DogsSelf-proclaimed sexual abuser of her sister Lena Dunham has now turned her rapier wit to the quaint anti-Semitic custom generally reserved for Nazis and radical Muslims of comparing Jews with dogs. Writing in The New Yorker, Dunham penned a piece comparing her dog to her Jewish boyfriend, asking, “Do the following statements refer to (a) my dog or (b) my Jewish boyfriend?”
She then lists a series of descriptions ranging from the silly to the blatantly anti-Jewish. “He’s crazy for cream cheese,” she writes (presumably about her boyfriend). “If it were up to him, every room in our place would be carpeted,” she jokes (presumably about her dog).
Then she gets to the anti-Semitic. “[H]e comes from a culture in which mothers focus every ounce of their attention on their offspring and don’t acknowledge their own need for independence as women. They are sucked by their children, who ultimately leave them as soon as they find suitable mates,” she writes, presumably about her boyfriend (who may be a dog). “As a result of this dynamic, he expects to be waited on hand and foot by the women in his life, and anything less than that makes him whiny and distant.”
Jews are cheap, too, Dunham writes. “He doesn’t tip,” says Dunham. Jews are also Woody Allen-style hypochondriacs: “He has a sensitive stomach and has to take two Dramamine before entering any moving vehicle…Every week it’s some new health issue: urine crystals, sprained foot, beef allergy.” Jews are also hairy! “In fact, he has hair all over his body, like most males who share his background.” And Jews are desperate for hot shikses:
One spring afternoon, we walked to Dumbo to check out a new artisanal-Popsicle stand, when we ran into my friend Jill. Jill is actually more of an acquaintance—I don’t know her well, but I really like her; she curates high-end terrariums and she’s a clog designer on the side. She’s really slim and well dressed, in an all-American, J. Crew-model sort of way. He was immediately all over her, panting and making a fool of himself. It was humiliating. Because here’s the thing: I am not a Jill. I will never be a Jill. And if that’s what he is looking for—some anorexic hipster with a glossy braid and freaking Swedish clog boots she sewed by hand—he should never have set his sights on me in the first place.
The anti-Semitic voice of a generation strikes again.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/lena-dunham-compares-jews-dogs