Add this to your WTF files for today: Media Watchdog group Feminists United for Gender Equity in the Media (FUGEM) is demanding that HBO and Lena Dunham change the name of their popular show about 20-something females from GIRLS to WOMEN. “I think it’s shameful,” group co-chair Amy Wassernam states in a recent press release concerning the action. “Our generation fought long and hard to convince society to stop calling full-grown women ‘girls,’ but this younger generation is taking the movement a giant step backward. Besides,the characters get older every season, and continuing to call the show GIRLS really sends the wrong message to young women.” Wassernam and her organization created the “No GIRLS Allowed” campaign to try to pressure the network into renaming the show. In addition to a soon-to-be-launched Change.org petition, the group is reportedly asking NOW (The National Organization for Women) to call for a boycott of the network until the change is made. “We’re certain they will understand the importance of taking an action like this,” co-chair Lisa Simmons is quoted as saying.
The group points out that the history of the word “girl” is fraught with negative connotations for women. “You don’t see adult men being referred to as ‘boys’ very often,” Simmons said. “There were the Beastie Boys, and then the Backstreet Boys. But you also had Boys II Men, and I think that says a lot.” Wassernam agrees. “The time for silently accepting this sort of affront to women’s empowerment is over. We demand equal rights for ‘Women.'”
Representatives from HBO have declined comment on the issue, but creator Dunham, who herself is an avowed feminist, recently tweeted: “Maybe it’s time for GIRLS to grow up.”
