Is it bad to say that I wasn't a fan of HBO's Girls?

I watched Girls for the first time this weekend after everyone and anyone I knew seemed to be raving about it.  I succumbed after seeing this Jezebel article about Girls’ latest episode and a gif with the quote “I don’t even want a boyfriend. I just want someone who wants to hang out all the time, and thinks I’m the best person in the world, and wants to have sex with only me.” I’d been told that Girls was very realistic and that quote, plus the questioning of conventional beauty standards in regards to relationships really got to me. I was sure I was going to like it before I even saw, from all that I’d been hearing, it was like Sex and the City but for today’s 20-somethings who are just that much more confused about where we are going to our lives. In the end, I realized that Girls isn’t a show for me, yet it’s incredible popularity makes me worry about even writing something against it.

I guess it is like Sex and the City for the post-college crazy party generation, but watching it, I realized that I hated that you can even today be asked if you are Carrie, Miranda, Samantha or Charlotte from the clearly defined characters of Sex and the City. So, watching Girls, I didn’t want to be  Hannah, Marnie, Jessa or Shoshanna. The thing about TV shows where you pick your favorite character is that they become your role model and, actually, none of the characters from Girls are that great. Each episode I would skip at least a part of it because I ended up getting too embarrassed to keep on watching, despite the addictive quality of the show. The drama in each episode seems so far from my own life, I found myself not being able to relate anymore.

Even more importantly, Girls, whilst somewhat realistic of the 20-something experience, seems to miss out on large swathes of it. I love the fact that the actresses are “real,” meaning they don’t appear super glossy and are worrying about money like me, yet they seem to have lives only a a handful of people I know have. Whilst usually I have an attitude of everyone should do what makes them happy, each episode of Girls made me more confused about their life choices.

Part of it may because it is so real, but the realness of a life that I don’t have. I found it hard to attach myself to Hannah or Jessa when I would never make the same choices as them. Moreover, Hannah’s relationship with Adam only makes me distrust men’s intentions and become someone who wants to wait for men to come to me. Yet, wait a second, that’s exactly against the feminist ideals that I believe in. I believe everyone should do what makes them happy, and in my case, often it is approaching guys myself, instead of feeling like I am at a beauty contest waiting for someone to approach me.

Let’s face it. Girl’s is not a revolutionary feminist sit-com. It’s a sit-com about girls who live in today’s New York. Yes, they can be empowered but they aren’t always; in fact, Hannah is often not empowered. And yes, I do want “someone who wants to hang out all the time, and thinks I’m the best person in the world, and wants to have sex with only me” but, seriously, unlike Hannah, I actually don’t want a boyfriend.