In today’s round of an exhausting cultural ouroboros circle jerk, Stuart Canterbury, writer and director of Hustler’s porn parody of HBO’s Girls ‘This Ain’t Girls XXX,’ has taken issue with writer and director Lena Dunham taking issue with his topical adult film which takes issue with representations of softcore sex in a show which takes issue with representations of hardcore sex in porn and its impact on contemporary sexuality.
Take an issue, wipe your chest, let’s move along.
In
an unprompted email to
The Atlantic Wire, Canterbury calls out Dunham for what he perceives as her [relatively] conservative hypocrisy, writing, “For the creator of the Q-tip episode which disgusted America to call us disgusting, is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.”
“It is interesting,” he continues, “that Ms Dunham and her supporters are so quick to condemn a movie that nobody has seen yet. The men and women who work in adult entertainment have been vilified and victimized so much, especially by right wing conservatives, that most of us find ourselves on the political left, with pro-feminist leanings. To say that all pornography is anti-feminist is a tired cliché which undermines the right of free sexual choices that a liberated women can make for herself.”
Alex Chance, the actress who plays Hannah Horvath in ‘This Ain’t Girls XXX’ agrees, telling The Atlantic Wire that “If I’m in control of what’s happening, I don’t see any wrongness;” instead, she sees only a similarity between her and her likeness:
“We are both of the non-traditional versions in our different areas. I hope that when women watch porn and watch me they think, Oh, she’s not necessarily this stick-thin girl and she can still do this awesome act or whatever. Because not every girl is skinny and I think that’s what Lena Dunham is trying to promote. Not every girl looks like a supermodel. I hope that she at least kind of gets that from it.”
Richie Calhoun, the actor who’ll play Adam Driver’s eponymous character when ‘This Ain’t Girls XXX’ receives its autumnal release, has also weighed in on the debate, adding that he “dig[s] Girls‘ discussion of the effects of porn on sex in society” and concedes porn “certainly influenced [his] teenage years and early twenties.”
When it comes to Dunham’s response to his professional endeavours, he writes [in an otherwise quite flattering post]
on his Tumblr, “It bothers me that Lena no like.”
“I understand her misgivings, I wish her all the best, and I would totally hit it.”
