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The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest Picnic Lightning Edition. It's

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014. On today's show, Lena Dunham's photo spread in Vogue magazine has sparked

a furor. We'll discuss that and the politics of imperfect bodies. And then even as Woody Allen is

being singled out as a great filmmaker by the award shows, he's being called out as a child molester

by his own children. How should we, the bystanders, respond? And then finally, the greatest

punctuation marks in literature. Joining me today is Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner. Hello, Julia.

Hi, Steve. And then subbing in for Dana Stevens this week is David Hagland, who's a,

you were recently named a senior editor of Slate magazine, right? And you're still the editor of Browbeat, correct?

That's right, Steve.

Okay, and Broadbeat is the culture blog of Slate magazine.

All right, digging right in.

Body positive feminist Lena Dunham makes a point on her HBO show Girls of showing off her own,

at least by the standards of Vogue magazine, imperfect body.

So it was a little strange, admittedly, to see her posing slimmed down, hourglassed, and hollow-cheeked, and none other than Vogue magazine.

A glorious and proud imperfection had come up against the standards of so-called perfection, at least as enforced by glossy magazines.

And perfection appeared to win out. This, as it should have, raised in internet firestorm, but should it have resulted in a bounty,

...