girls

We haven't seen Lena Dunham's hotly anticipated HBO series Girls yet (Jay-Z, send us those screeners if you're done with them, please), but this review by Asawin Suebsaeng for Mother Jones has us a little nervous for Sunday night.

Emily Nussbaum's cover story for the current issue of New York magazine, "It's Different for Girls," is about how Lena Dunham's hotly anticipated new HBO series is, well, different. As much as an HBO show about white 20-somethings in New York can be different, anyway. And it's a great profile piece for anyone interested in the show (which I am), as it gives some insight into how it's being made and how Dunham is operating as the show's creator and star. What I don't understand, though, is how this profile inspired this cover:

Save a few outlying exceptions, I watched most of these films on Netflix and streamed a number of them. This is how I saw Argentinean writer-director Lucía Puenzo’s 2007 feature debut XXY. It’s a touching coming-of-age film about Alex Kraken (an excellent Inés Efron), a 15-year-old intersex girl who decides to stop taking medication to suppress her masculine features. She recently relocated to a seaside village in Uruguay with marine biologist father Néstor (Ricardo Darín) and mother Suli (Valeria Bertuccelli) to avoid social stigma. Her mother invites family friends from Argentina to their new home with the intent to discuss a sex change operation, which Alex doesn’t want.

Dressing up and pretending to be an adult is a natural part of childhood. Adults (just like fairies, kings, or queens) hold a bit of allure and enticement for young kids, making it a treat to pretend to be them for a while.

Yet, in today’s consumer-driven culture, the notion of "aging up" kids is happening in a way that has taken all the fun and pretend out of it. Clothing that is marketed towards kids, especially girls, looks less "girly" and more like smaller versions of outfits found in the tween and teen sections of stores.

I lived in France for a short time in my carefree younger days, and I have fond memories of their refreshing attitudes about sex (and also soft cheeses): Ne t'inquietes pas! C'est naturel! and so on. However, call it the American prude in me, but I am thoroughly creeped out by this new line of lingerie for girls ages three months and up by the French company Jours Après Lunes. Making out on a park bench or not shaving your armpits or what have you is one thing, but putting a bra on a four-year old is something else entirely.

You know how we've all been wondering how MTV could continue to air Teen Mom and 16 & Pregnant while avoiding the topic of abortion? Nearly one-third of teen pregnancies end in abortion, yet the popular MTV shows have skirted the issue for a few seasons—until now.

Ah, a new twist on the classic rags-to-princess-riches tale: An American woman dreams of royalty, moves to London, continues to obsess about royalty, meets the man of her dreams, and... starts a luxury princess camp. Yes, royal enthusiast Jerramy Fine has launched Princess Prep Camp. Now, for just £2,545 (that's $3,995) per child—girls only, natch—the eight-year olds in your life can live at the height of excessive opulence, complete with a butler, for one week (airfare not included).

Notes on Alain Berliner's 1997 Ma vie en rose, which remains one of the few fictional films about transgendered children.

My thoughts on Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence, an adaptation of Doris Pilkington Garimara's book about her mother and female Aboriginal relatives, who escaped an Australian re-education camp in 1931.

A discussion of 2009's Toe to Toe, writer-director Emily Abt's full-length feature debut about two teenage lacrosse players who develop an interesting relationship despite differing racial and class backgrounds.