I think this tendency towards autobiographical interpretation is what frustrates me about reaction to this film AND Girls. People refuse to separate Dunham from her characters, and seem to insist that she's celebrating the pseudo-artistic, pseudo-intellectual meandering of twentysomethings. In other words, people appear to be arguing that she's an entitled white twentysomething interested only in marketing to and glorifying her own group of other entitled white twentysomething "hipsters" (ugh...) when I don't see much evidence that that's what she's doing. In any interview I've seen with her, she comes across as very genuine and passionate about her storytelling. Sure, she's "quirky" and is coming from a different place than a lot of people, but the criticism just seems ridiculous to me.

In other words, I think your last paragraph is entirely accurate.

"hipster" is such a meaningless and unnecessary designation though.

When your first film includes your mother, sister, and their apartment as major players, with yourself in the lead role, you risk giving the impression that you've mined your life for material. If that's not the case, it takes time for the impression to fade and leave the reality to stand on its own.

"Hipster" seems like it started in its current sense as a stylistic designation (ironic and/or cheap-retro clothing), but to me it describes a person who engages culture in a superficial way in order to create an impression of superiority, especially in breadth of knowledge, obscurity or idiosyncrasy of taste, or integrity-via-consumption (esp. beer, clothes, music, film, kitsch).

As Dunham understands, just because you've "mined" your life for material doesn't mean it can't function as fiction and also work in many other registers than "This is what life is like for me" (which is, I think, a very constraining one). And as tachyonEvan said, many of her critics seem to assume otherwise.
I'm not sure I understand why especially those, if it's about the more general ways of engaging with culture as you say? I've met arrogant know-it-alls who pose and pretend to know much more than they actually do from pretty much every age and background, regardless of the topic of conversation (sports, wine, history, pop culture, socialites who go to the opera or an art opening to be seen rather than from an earnest desire to see the art, the economy/business). I don't see how an existing term that can be used to describe only some who fit this people as some kind of subset of the culture, and I'm one of those who've gotten tired of the word because it's so vague and overused, for some describing almost anything they don't like as long that bears some resemblance to perceived pretense (but usually only thrown around in reference to all manner of young city-dwellers). Anyway, here's something else to move to the thread on "hipsters" as it's really about that discussion of the label more than about Tiny Furniture.

Apparently Lena Dunham is a "mogul" now.

To be fair, that's not something Dunham said about herself but something some dope at BuzzFeed slapped on an article as a sub-head.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar critiques Girls

This really was a very nice piece. thanks for the link.

Dunham is a mighty talented writer, with a real knack for capturing honest, personal moments. I've become a big fan of Girls, and I'm pleased at how far she's come since Tiny Furniture (which I did not care for).

However in person she can be rather obnoxious...her DGA acceptance speech made me cringe.

It worries me, because she has it fully within her capability to destroy her career...she is outspoken enough, that one wrong tweet or comment could do a lot of damage...she came close with the whole Karla Homolka quip way on back.

I'm just a nobody filmmaker, so my advice probably isn't worth the paper it's printed on, but if I could offer her some career advice, it'd be to lay off twitter for a while, and buy herself a cabin tucked in the woods of upstate New York, or Connecticut, far from the ever-so-intoxicating world of the NY jetset. Better yet, get out of the country, and see the world outside of the insular, self involved bubble she has so ably chronicled with her work up to now.

She has great talent, but it is still very raw. If she works on that talent, hones her writing and keep true to herself, she could be a truly great voice in the culture. But if she believes the hype of the media conglomerates who see her as a commodity to be exploited, if she just coasts on the steam she's built up in a short time, before she knows it the world around her will have moved on to the NEXT wunderkind, and she'll be joining Diablo Cody and Nia Vardalos as another flavor of the month who traded in a particular schtick with diminishing returns.

A case can be made that Diablo Cody has been actually a bit underrated now since her flavor of the month aura wore off. A little of that "overrated when they were popular, underrated when they were not" kind of thing going on.

Nia Vardalos, though, always had only one script in her I think.

What is crucial for Dunham to remember, is that both Vardalos and Cody effectively did themselves in by cashing in on their accrued "entertainment capital" with projects of dubious quality, which were marketed as "From the writer of..." yet severely lacking in quality. For Vardalos it was Connie and Carla and I Hate Valentine's day (she didn't learn her lesson the first time), for Cody it was Jennifer's Body.

I would agree with you that Cody is a bit smarter, and with time Young Adult may be better received. But you're right, in hindsight Vardalos was a one trick pony, the one monkey in a thousand who banged out a good script on the typewriter...and even then, honestly, I doubt she would've gotten ANYWHERE had it not been for standing so ably on Tom Hanks' shoulders.

Dunham's problem right now, is she needs to keep challenging herself. Right now she's being praised by sycophants as a genius and all that, and if she starts to believe it, it's all over. As far as I'm concerned, her rise to the top was the easy part. The hard part is staying there.

This made me laugh.

Next Episode Of 'Girls' To Feature Lena Dunham Shitting Herself During Gyno Exam While Eating A Burrito

I like Lena Dunham now, she's suffered enough