Lena Dunham—or, more accurately, the newest in a long line of Gawker articles criticizing Lena Dunham—has ignited a controversy positing her as 2014’s answer to Amanda Palmer. Palmer, for those for whom 2012 is but a vague Pitch Perfect-induced haze, attempted to pay the musicians backing her on tour with “beer and hugs,” resulting in an online furor centered around the fact that Palmer had just raised a million dollars on Kickstarter. A week later, Palmer relented.
Lena Dunham has not raised a million dollars on Kickstarter, but she did get a reported $3.7 million advance for her book Not That Kind Of Girl. She’s also charging $38 a ticket to attend her book tour, and is the gainfully employed creator of a popular HBO show. That’s enough for Gawker to condemn her, with an article quoting a New York Times piece that mentions how the “sand artist, ukulele player, a cappella singers, gymnasts, performance artists and stand-up comics” who responded to Dunham’s call for opening acts on her book tour are “performing free of charge.”