An artist should be paid. I might understand it if these acts were opening up at a bar. But this is multimillionaire and liberal-defender Lena Dunham acting hypocritically. These folks aren’t performing at a bar, they’re performing at beautiful theaters.
“Paying dues” is an entirely different things. One doesn’t pay dues at famous and beautiful theaters. At whatever point it is that you reach that level, you deserve to be paid. It’s clear that your talent is worth viewing and is worth paying for. So these artists deserve to be paid.
I love Girls. I love that it depicts characters that are sometimes hard to love. I’m absolutely willing to forgive Lena for the same reasons I tune in to Girls. But she shouldn’t be putting these artists - who probably love Lena and obviously were happy to perform for free because “OMG I get to open for Lena Dunham!”, but that isn’t a scapegoat for not paying for openers.