ColumnLove or hate Lena Dunham, you’ve got to admit that the young woman has a lot of interesting ideas. One of her better ideas that was recently released into the cyber world is the Lenny Letter.

Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, Dunham’s recurrent creative partner in crime, created a newsletter called Lenny Letter. The newsletter is targeted to entertain 20-and-30-something women who are progressive, feminist, and diverse. In Letter No. 1, Dunham and Konner describe the letter as a place where “new voices” could feel comfortable speaking loudly about issues they care about. And, the duo hopes this medium can remain “a snark-free place for feminists to get information: on how to vote, eat, dress, fuck, and live better.” We hope so, too.

While Lenny only has one issue so far, it’s off to a solid start. The premiere issue is filled with great writing and diverse topics, but it’s the Lenny Letter interview with Hillary Clinton that really made this opening issue shine.

Hillary Clinton isn’t exactly known for giving kick-ass interviews. Clinton tends to come off as ridged and monotone whenever a reporter asks her about her impending presidential run. Honestly, though, who could blame her? All reporters ever ask Clinton about is her email scandal, her husband, and her likability — who wouldn’t respond to that line of questioning in an unenthusiastic manner?

Luckily, Lenny doesn’t have to follow the normal journalistic formula that other news outlets do because it is a niche publication. We’re wondering if it’s because of this newsletter’s relatively small reach that allowed Clinton to do what we consider to be one of the better interviews in her career.

Dunham had a great collection of questions she asked Clinton during the interview. She asked about police brutality, student loan debt, Clinton’s youth, and more. But it was Dunham’s question about feminism that got us most excited:

LD: I think the question on every Lenny reader’s lips is: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

HC: Yes. Absolutely. I’m always a little bit puzzled when any woman, of whatever age but particularly a young woman, says something like, ‘Well, I believe in equal rights, but I’m not a feminist.’ Well, a feminist is by definition someone who believes in equal rights! I’m hoping that people will not be afraid to say [it] — that doesn’t mean you hate men. It doesn’t mean that you want to separate out the world so that you’re not part of ordinary life. That’s not what it means at all! It just means that we believe women have the same rights as men, politically, culturally, socially, economically. That’s what it means. And if you don’t believe that about yourself as a woman, please, go ask yourself: Why? What is holding you back? And it’s not going to be good for you as a woman to be denying the fact that you are entitled to equal rights. And so, yes, I’m a feminist, and I say it whenever I’m asked.

LD: Hallelujah!

We’ve got to second Dunham’s “hallelujah” response, too. It’s incredibly refreshing to hear a smart and successful woman shout out loud that she is, indeed, a feminist. It also was nice to read Clinton’s thoughts on how she feels about women who don’t consider themselves feminists. Her response was kind and thoughtful — women who think that feminism isn’t needed should be asked (in a kind manner): why?

And while Clinton’s thoughts on feminism were great, it also was enjoyable to read her reflections on her youth. Clinton was an incredibly talented young woman herself, but she was still confused about what she wanted to do with her life. It was quite surprising to read that Clinton wasn’t sure she wanted to get married and was scared she’d lose her identity. All women have these feelings and thoughts, and it was great to read how Clinton worked through that period of time.

Now, we’re not saying that this interview has put all of us at EcoSalon in the “Clinton For President” camp, but we’ve got to admit that we do like her a heck of a lot more now.

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Image of Lenny Letter from the newsletter’s Facebook page

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Lenny, a feminist e-newsletter by none other than Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, is launching this fall.

Since the announcement, the Internet’s been all…

And for good reason. I mean yes, technically the last thing we need is another celebrity lifestyle newsletter that does nothing but point out things we can’t afford and ways our lives could be prettier—but that’s what will likely make Lenny stand out from the pack.

If there’s one thing we all love about Lena and Jenni, it’s that they’re accessible, hilarious and talk about things that really matter—to all of us. We can always count on them to say what needs to be said. The newsletter will be aimed at 19- to 34-year-olds and will cover “feminism, style, health, politics, friendship, and everything else,” according to the website. With their slogan being “There’s no such thing as too much information,” I have a feeling Lenny is going to be just as buzzworthy as their show.

Writers will be recruited from Dunham’s network of celeb friends (natch), with Jessica Grose acting as editor-in-chief (known for her work on Jezebel and Slate), as well as Laia Garcia (of Rookie fame) as associate editor.

Dunham told Buzzfeed:

[Lenny will be for] an army of like-minded intellectually curious women and the people who love them, who want to bring change but also want to know, like, where to buy the best tube top for summer that isn’t going to cost your entire paycheck.”

We won’t know until the fall whether Lenny will become the Goop-with-grit we’ve been waiting for—all we can do until then is daydream about what might eventually grace the newsletter… like what a Lenny issue might look like if written entirely by the characters of ‘Girls’:

How to Successfully Live in Brooklyn Without a Job
by Hannah Horvath

This Is How the Rest of Your Life Should Look
by Marnie Michaels

Daddy Issues: A Retrospect
by Jessa Johansson

QUIZ: Which Sex and the City Character Are You?
by Shoshanna Shapiro

Why You Need to Ditch His Sorry Ass Already
by Ray Ploshansky

His Weird Sex Fetishes—Explained
by Adam Sackler

Have you subscribed to Lenny yet?

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GIFs via Giphy.com

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Perhaps it’s the influence of the movie “American Hustle” and 1970s style. Or maybe it’s just CEO and founder Dov Charney’s fetish. Whatever it is, American Apparel mannequins have pubic hair now.

Gothamist first spotted the bushy American Apparel mannequins in New York City earlier this month. The Huffington Post spoke to a store associate who said the au natural-looking mannequins were meant to drum up Valentine’s Day sales by conveying the “rawness and realness of sexuality.” Word.

I recently had a baby. How about mannequins with smooshy, puffy bellies that make it difficult to see one’s own pubes? Oh, wait. Global News reports: “At David’s Bridal, mannequins soon will get thicker waists, saggier breasts and back fat to mimic a more realistic shape.” It’s a start. How about stretch marks?

A Swiss mannequin campaign that highlighted people with disabilities went viral last year.

And back in Manhattan, people are flocking to the East Houston Street American Apparel stores, taking pictures in front of the bushy Barbies. I’m assuming many women stop to stare on their way to get Brazilian waxes.

Maybe some of the credit goes to Lena Dunham and HBO’s “Girls”, which has no issue showing bodies as they are. You know, real women who don’t look like supermodels, or mannequins, as the case may be. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a “perfect” body. But it shouldn’t be an aspiration. After all, we get what we get in this life. We should work towards the healthiest version of ourselves–not trying to emulate women we’ll never ever look like. Surgeries to boost our bust or shrink our thighs, or even just ripping out our crotch hair certainly could be time better spent. Like shopping for a new wardrobe at American Apparel. I think the campaign’s working, Dov.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Images: michael kalus, Gothamist

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A weekly look at sex and culture, by the numbers. 

Manners are important—in life, in the bedroom, and in the boardroom. This week’s Sex By Numbers highlights some lapses in etiquette, including one we never thought we’d have to correct: answering the phone during sex.

A few weeks: Now that the much talked about pregnancy of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is over, everyone can commence criticizing the length of her relatively short maternity leave before she returns to work. We say: it may not work for everyone, but let mom make her own decision.

50 Years: Rachel Carson’s seminal environmental work Silent Spring was published 50 years ago. At the time, no one could quite believe a woman wrote the piece, leaving some readers to “assume from the author’s knowledge that he must be a man.” Decades later, the representation of women in science is still low.

1 million: One more reason to be jealous of the super cool and witty “it girl” Lena Dunham: an advice book based on anecdotes from her life is being shopped around to publishers with a price tag of $1,000,000.

33%: Percentage of 2000 polled Brits who think it’s socially acceptable to pick up a phone call during sex. Um, no.

50%: A study widely criticized for being an oversimplification (and a “slap in the face for gender equality”) found that the divorce rate for couples that shared housework was 50% higher than couples where the woman does the majority of the work.

Double take: It’s never a good thing for a celebrity when an old sex tape gets released. For Kanye West, it’s proved particularly bad, considering his on camera co-star is a dead ringer for his current real-life girlfriend, Kim Kardashian. One can only hope she won’t notice.

20 Weeks: UK Women’s Minister has said that it’s “common sense” for the legal abortion limit to be lowered to 20 weeks.

50: Think single ladies over 50 have lost their spark. Don’t be so rude. An Australian study found that these women “are more likely to have a one night stand than their Gen X or Gen Y daughters.”

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On the HBO show Girls, HPV went viral, but is there really less stigma about STDs?

In 2005, I learned I had HPV. The overwhelming emotion I felt was relief. I was relieved it wasn’t the warty kind that shows – it was the asymptomatic kind that turns into cervical cancer if you don’t catch it. And mine was bad enough that I had to have a cone biopsy and then part of my cervix scraped off in a LEEP procedure. Yet, with legs in stirrups and a needle in the vagina, I was still relieved not to have any physical evidence. Sick, right?

We don’t like to talk about STDs, which is why what happened on Girls is so interesting and why I started thinking back to how I felt in 2005. On the show, the lead character, Hannah, learns she has HPV. She takes to Twitter and after a few drafts types: “All adventurous women do,” which is something her friend said when Hannah shared the news.

Emily Nussbaum’s recent post in the New Yorker’s Culture Desk makes great points about the significance of this moment in TV history. She writes, “… Hannah’s telling other people – and of course herself – that her worst experiences are not humiliations and stains: they’re adventures. (They’re material.)”

It makes for great TV, but what does this scene say about how real women talk about STDs? On the one hand, here I am using my own adventure with HPV as material, right? And there were tons and tons of post-show “All adventurous women do” tweets. But, if I – and I’m a perpetual over-sharer – am still sort of unsure how I feel about sending my own story into the public realm, what does that say about the stigma surrounding STDs?

About half of all men and more than three out of four women have some form of HPV -all the adventurous ladies, put your hands up! – at some point in their lives. Now I’m not a mathematician, but it seems to me that if so many people have some version of this thing, we should be able to talk about it. But we don’t.

The symptomatic among us eventually hit up a doctor, find out the truth and get treated. The asymptomatic among us that have health insurance, or access to a clinic where we can get our annual exams, eventually go in for a pap smear and learn the news. The unlucky, uninsured women without access to testing or treatment -or even basic knowledge about HPV – are at high risk for cancer. Cancer that could be totally prevented if people had easy access to testing and the HPV vaccine.

The ultimate message of Girls is empowerment – like women reclaiming the word bitch. But should we be empowered? Is acquiring HPV an “adventure?”

I got HPV because, like many women, I was on the pill and, in the moment, didn’t even mention a condom. I was either too embarrassed, too afraid of rejection or too trusting of a guy who seemed fine – and in his mind was fine because as a guy he had no way to know he had HPV.

What it comes down to is “Hey, join the adventurous ladies club!” is not a good message for the 25% of women who don’t yet have HPV. The better message might be that sex can be weird and embarrassing, and no matter what Trojan commercials tell you, condoms aren’t sexy. But you know what else isn’t sexy? An STD. Warts. Cancer.

Ultimately, I’m glad Girls started the conversation, and I don’t watch HBO for PSAs, but I do think empowerment would be better defined as having the lady balls to protect yourself in the first place.

Photo: HBO

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