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Gloria Steinem Doesn’t Know What Girls Is

Gloria Steinem==Brooklyn Museum's Annual Gala
Photo: Ryan McCune/PatrickMcMullan.com

Gloria Steinem’s name has been attached to the Girls debate since late March, when Frank Bruni invoked the legendary activist in an attempt to wrap his mind around the show’s “bleak†sex scenes. (“You watch these scenes and other examples of the zeitgeist-y, early-20s heroines of ‘Girls’ engaging in, recoiling from, mulling and mourning sex, and you think: Gloria Steinem went to the barricades for this?†he wrote.) Since then, countless discussions about Girls’ significance, feminist and otherwise, have erupted across the Internet; just this morning, Dunham came under fire for telling the New York Times that she doesn’t enjoy “airport chick-lit,†an admission that was deemed unsisterly by Jennifer Weiner. So when Vulture caught up with Steinem at last night’s Brooklyn Artists Ball, we thought she might be able to weigh in on the Girls argument. Had she seen the show, we asked? “I don’t know what it is,†Steinem replied. And that was that. So, does this officially kick off Backlash Phase Two? Discuss.

Gloria Steinem Doesn’t Know What Girls Is