Continued from the Previous Post
But Lena Dunham is not a "regular" person. Far from it. Her parents have enveloped her entire being into nepotistic shroud of cultural connections. More importantly, however, they bestowed upon her, what I call, the psychological nepotism – a phenomenon specific to wealthy families with no worries for the children's material wellbeing in the future. The ability to provide for their children far beyond their own graves turns these parents into blind believers that whatever their daughters and sons poop out are unmatchable manifestations of incredible talents.
Let me give you an example. I remember many years ago Alec Baldwin telling David Letterman how him and his then-wife Kim Basinger were playing tennis and their three-year-old daughter touched a racquet. Kim started talking incessantly about the child's "being drawn" to the sport and a possibility of John McEnroe "taking a look." Are you catching my drift?
I believe that Ms. Dunham herself is somewhat aware of impact the psychological nepotism has on privileged children. In the third episode of "Girls," when Jessa is introduced to her babysitting charges by their mom, a filmmaker, we learn that the little girls (I think 6 and 9) have several "incredible" projects in the making: painting a toy animal, a mosaic project, a novel that requires editing…
My readers may think I am a "material" bitch stifling "normal" children's creative aspirations. That's laughably far from the truth. I firmly believe that real talents should be encouraged to go the distance no matter how hard the road ahead is. However, my standards are pretty high. On the other hand, "connected" parents turn everything into a tightly managed "artistic" output and treat every piece of a mediocre crap as a fucking masterpiece.
Judd Apatow keeps saying in different interviews that for him writing is an extension of his struggle for self-esteem, while Lena just goes and enjoys herself, merrily banging at the keyboard. And it makes perfect sense: no matter how much success he will achieve, Judd will always need to prove his worth to himself, while Lena Dunham was born with the idea that everything she does – every nursery school drawing, every little story for the English class, every small part she had in a school play, is absolutely, indisputably precious. As it frequently happens, when nepotism is at play, the quality is irrelevant – the products get pushed through all available channels anyway.
The Frustrated CFO 
One final comment, to balance the earlier posts – I am not familiar with Ms. Dunham’s output, so don’t really have an opinion on her one way or the other.
Sadly, I do recognise some of the behaviour that you describe, and I am pleased that you have taken the time to express your thoughts on your excellent blog – a place on the Interweb that I am always happy to visit.
No trolling here, just want to be sure your argument is robust.
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Also, the “stands to reason” line of thinking that you use:
“And it makes perfect sense: no matter how much success he will achieve, Judd will always need to prove his worth to himself, while Lena Dunham was born with the idea that everything she does…”
is not evidence. How can we be sure that Durnham prescribes to that idea – reason, or in this case, assumption, is not enough to determine how she felt.
Sorry if this is pedantic – stands to reason (or makes perfect sense) is one of those things that really gets my goat. It’s too subjective, and has misdirected thinking too many times – it stands to reason that the earth was flat, it stands to reasons that she was asking for it, it makes perfect sense that Jews are the cause of our nations problems etc.
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Objection
“Judd Apatow keeps saying in different interviews that for him writing is an extension of his struggle for self-esteem, while Lena just goes and enjoys herself, merrily banging at the keyboard.”
That’s hearsay – simply your interpretation of Apatow’s perception – that doesn’t really give me insight into Dunham’s motivations, self-perception or internal (rather than public) handling of what she does.
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