Actress Lena Dunham said she felt no surprise at the sudden rise of MAGA due to the misogyny she claims to have experienced while making her HBO series Girls.
Speaking on the Girls Rewatch podcast, Dunham said that she was not shocked by the rise of MAGA, claiming that she experienced misogyny from conservatives in the 2010s.
“There were so many people who when the voices of like the really alt-right or MAGA or conservative voices, Proud Boys, whatever started to rise and people were like I’m so shocked by the way people are talking,” Dunham said. “I was like, ‘I’m not.’ Those voices existed in the comment section. I was experiencing those voices in 2012.”
“There were so many angry seemingly men and some women dissecting the show in these like incredibly conservative terms. Like yes, there were people in Brooklyn who found us irritating… I always had a lot more respect for that,” she continued. “But there was also a big contingent of conservative people looking at it almost like evidence of a certain kind of moral decrepitude and also making big judgements about our physical bodies, our sexuality. It was really interesting to realize kind of what a surprise that was to some people.”
I love Girls, and found Lena Dunham's thoughts on the misogynistic backlash to the show, and how it previewed today's far-right, to be perceptive. She also addresses the relevant class critiques.
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) July 9, 2025
Male artists get to be neurotic, snooty, even predatory, and no one bats an eye! pic.twitter.com/8hsO4kgTdr
As Breitbart News reported, Lena Dunham revealed this week that she worked with Planned Parenthood to create an abortion storyline for her Netflix series Too Much.
Even though Dunham has promoted herself as a pro-abortion feminist, her HBO show Girls surprised right-leaning viewers in its decision to feature the character of Hannah choosing to keep an unplanned pregnancy; her new show Too Much features an opposite storyline.
“It felt right for the story; it felt true. And I thought, there’s a way to talk about this and make it emotional and honest, but also not make it something that she needs to regret or feel shame about,” she told Variety.
“Obviously, after Roe v. Wade was overturned it became really important to me,” she continued. “And also living in England and the shock of them seeing what was happening, that was huge too. It’s alarming and terrifying.”
Dunham said she observed “people’s fear and their pain” about abortion restrictions following the repeal of Roe v. Wade. To achieve her vision of an abortion storyline that avoids shame, Dunham said she collaborated with Planned Parenthood.
“She’s not having a hard time because of the abortion,” Dunham said. “And the abortion is a choice she can make for herself to choose herself and to choose her life.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
