AS YOU ARE probably fully aware, the Primetime Emmy Awards took place in Los Angeles last night.
It was perhaps the most diverse Emmys ceremony ever with Viola Davis making history by becoming the first ever African-American actress to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Other African-American actresses to win trophies included Uzo Aduba and Regina King.
Last night, Lena Dunham took to Instagram to applaud the “radical women” who were at last night’s Emmys.
The actress posted a photo of Barbra Streisand holding an Emmy Award and wrote, “This pic is dedicated to the radical women I worship from up close and afar who were all over tonight’s Emmys.”
She then went on to namecheck several of the night’s winners and nominees, including Amy Schumer, Amy Poehler and Frances McDormand.
But she attracted the ire of many followers by neglecting to namecheck Viola Davis and the other women of colour in the post. Others took issue with Dunham using a photo of a white woman to celebrate an historic night for black performers.
Dunham later denied that she forgot them and told a follower that she was simply looking for the actresses’ Instagram handles. (She later updated the post and namechecked all three actresses.)
She also defended her choice of photo.
I hear you but I love what Barbra represented at the time she represented it- a distinctly and unabashedly different woman taking the world by storm. And that’s what all the lady Emmy winners did last night.
But people were still having none of it.
This evening, Dunham shared a photo of Viola Davis and defended last night’s post, blaming the omissions on tiredness.
Y’all I could never forget Viola. Her work, her power, her speech. I was trying to remember every Emmy winning woman in my late night post last night (I do my own Instagram and I often do it half asleep) and updating the names in real time- in the first iteration of the post I called her simply Viola as I didn’t know she was an insta presence.
“In any case, today isn’t about me defending myself,” she continued. “It’s about celebrating all that was historic and beautiful about last night. Congratulations.”
Many have applauded Dunham for acknowledging the error, while others have called on the actress to “practice what [she] preaches” and cast actors of colour in Girls.
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