Lena Dunham and Lorde on the “gotcha” feminist question

When a celebrity brands themselves as a powerful woman, sometimes it seems as if that’s all they ever get asked about. Over and over again, they get that infamous question: Are you a feminist? Which, in a way, is good! It’s good that educated people are using their place in the spotlight to talk about an important issue. But, as Lena Dunham and Lorde explained in a recent interview in Dazed, all that attention may not come from the best place. Lena explained it this way:

And it’s not like we haven’t seen this. Our very own fave lady Taylor Swift was a victim of this kind of “gotcha!” question back in 2012, before she fully understood the term. But now look at her. Nobody ever gets anywhere without growth and change, and when celebrities get caught in the middle of this vulnerable time, their words haunt them on blog posts and magazine articles for years.

Even when this does happen, Lorde explains, it’s nothing to turn up your nose at:

Lena has been relentlessly, and rightly, criticized for this when it comes to diversity in her HBO show Girls. She says:

Feminism is more than a one-word answer to a reporter’s question. It’s a movement, a process, that grows and changes with the men and women who identify with it. It’s important that we allow time for that change, and Lena and Lorde are doing the important work of making that known.

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