I watched the Golden Globes last night because I don’t give a crap about football.

No, seriously…of all the awards shows, the GGs are my favorite. Everyone’s tanked by the end of them, and pretty much anything goes.

As in years past, I watched them while simultaneously following along with teh social networkingz. I have many hilarious friends (and friends of friends) on Facebook, so it adds a layer of mirth to the proceedings. Instead of just yelling at the television about what someone’s wearing, you can share your outrage with hundreds of other people.

And what people seemed the most out-of-sorts about (I mean, besides the gloriously absurd-yet-oddly-touching speech by la Jodie) was Lena Dunham.

If you haven’t heard of Lena Dunham, that will change during the course of this week, as everyone picks her apart. I say this because the reaction to her on Facebook was so, well, kind of horrible, that I can only surmise that’s going to be amplified tenfold in the mainstream media.

I’ve never seen her show. I don’t get HBO, so I am perpetually out of the loop as regards its programming. It’s been called “‘Sex And The City’ for millenials,” which is reason enough for me to avoid it, but the thing that did cause me to take note is that Dunham’s character certainly looks more like the women I know than Carrie Bradshaw & Company.

And so I was a bit horrified at the comments I was reading as she accepted her first award of the evening:  Lena Dunham is a “sloppy looking chick” with “ugly damn tattoos” that “ruined” her look. I wanted to say, “Am I the ONLY person sitting here being GOD DAMN DELIGHTED with this?”

Apparently – yes – I am the only person who saw Lena Dunham up on that stage and thought, “Okay, she’s awkward. Yes, she’s surrounded by people who work out 4 hours a day with personal trainers and who likely haven’t eaten solid food for a good 3 days before this show. Yes, she’s sticking out like a sore thumb. Yes, she’s ‘overweight,’ and has tattoos that she’s not ashamed of. AND THAT IS AWESOME.”

It’s awesome because Lena Dunham is an actress who didn’t have to “pack on” 20 pounds to play a role, to the collective ooh-ing and aah-ing of a culture that thinks that’s the bravest thing an actress can do.

It’s awesome because she can stand up there, looking like a slightly younger version of me, what with her few extra pounds and her great tattoos, and be absolutely radiant because she is successful, and doesn’t give a shit what her detractors – most of whom are sitting on their couches not wearing anything even as remotely fancy as that dress – are saying about her weight OR her tattoos. And she shouldn’t give a shit, either.

It’s awesome because it gives me hope. Real beauty is in believing in the value of your story.

Postscript: Since hitting “publish” on this, I have been told by several friends that the show is about as far from “Sex And The City” as you can get, and that it’s “an almost painfully accurate portrait” of life in one’s twenties.  I’d kind of like to not revisit my own twenties, truth be told, but I’m willing to give the show a shot.