New York Times Commenter Very Upset Because GIRLS Ruined Peter Pan Live for Him
I guess I should say this upfront: I am not particularly a fan of the character Marnie Michaels on Girls (I don’t think anybody is, practically), and I’m also not super into a lot of Allison Williams’s work; her palpable earnestness makes it near impossible to believe her as any character other than Marnie, with whom she certainly seems to share a few traits. (I know, I know; it’s fiction. Still.) And yet, despite all that, I was still pretty surprised at a comment left on the New York Times recap of Girls—a comment which just might be all the proof needed to, once and for all, support the “ban comments” movement.
The comment was left by one Robert Copia of Chicago, who “adored” the NBC adaptation of Peter Pan and thought “Ms. Williams was remarkable.” While Copia acknowledges that the musical was universally panned by critics, he seems to think that the reason behind all those downward-facing thumbs is because the super-cynical media just can’t handle anything that wholesome. But apparently Copia decided to seek out more of the remarkable Ms. Williams and tuned into last week’s season premiere of Girls. Um, uh-oh! Because as Copia discovered, last week’s season premiere of Girls featured Marnie getting her ass motor-boated! Copia was shocked at seeing “Ms. Williams in a (unnatural) sex scene, something that dogs do to each other when they meet for the first time,” and not only derides her as being “another degenerate ‘porn star'” but also attacks “her father Brian W.” for being “the most pathetic man in America, for failing to raise his daughter properly.”
Well, I never thought I’d be in a position where I would want to defend Allison Williams, but here we are. Here we are. The very fact that Copia singles in on this one totally common, not-shocking-to-anyone-who-has-had-sex-ever-like-EVER sexual act as being so offensive that it has “killed Peter Pan for minimum 10 years and brought harm to millions of people who loved Peter Pan” is perhaps certifiably insane. There is literally NOTHING mutually exclusive about enjoying a musical theater production featuring a cross-dressing star as a boy who never wants to grow up and watching a television show featuring a bunch of women who also, clearly, never want to grow up. And also, even if you don’t love Williams’s acting or her character on Girls (hello!), it is still possible to critique said work without resorting to insulting her father, who, by all accounts, is very proud of the boundaries that are pushed in the work his daughter does. Because seriously, if anything is going to ruin Peter Pan for millions of people, it really ought to be the whole shitty, racist Tiger Lily-storyline, not the fact that a character on an unrelated TV show enjoys a little ass play from time to time.
H/T to Ester Bloom for pointing me in the direction of this, the best-worst comment ever.
Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen