In case you were wondering who Lena Dunham even is, well, here she is. I thought this picture (and quote) pretty much captures this actress /director/producer’s spirit of quirkiness and her unconventional attitude. Lena is most known for starting the HBO series Girls (which she directs and stars in) and her influential role in the feminist community. I, for one, have been a fan of Lena ever since Girls first aired in 2012, which I’ve been overly obsessed with for all three seasons.
The show focuses on four post-grad best friends living in NYC and their daily—and extremely realistic—lives; from boy problems, job problems, to more boy probz, Girls leaves nothing up to the imagination when portraying the typical everyday struggles of the 20-something year old girl. Lena Dunham plays the main character, Hannah Horvath, a struggling writer and humor-filled basket case that makes her all the more endearing. Seriously guys, it’s awesome.
Now that you’ve got some background knowledge, we’ll get to the point here. Recently, Lena came out with her first book, titled, “Not That Kind of Girl.” It’s basically a memoir of her life, starting at childhood and documenting various experiences with blunt sincerity. I haven’t gotten a chance to read the book yet, but you can bet I will as soon as I can get my hands on it!
Today as I was scrolling through Facebook, I noticed an article titled, “Lena Dunham Responds to Sexual Abuse Allegations.” Um, what? I quickly opened the article to find that news columnists along with the general public have pointed to specific passages in Dunham’s memoir to backup accusations of her sexually abusing her younger sister, Grace, when the two were very young. A photo of one of the passages, the passage that is giving her the most backfire, is circling around news websites everywhere, proving that Dunham did, indeed, throw the phrase “sexual predator” out there when describing her relationship with her sister at seven years old, through bribing for kisses and other forms of affection that I won’t mention here (You can read the article for yourself).
Now, we all know Lena can be a bit over the top with her “I don’t give a crap” attitude, and I truly believe that she documented these experiences in order to portray herself as a more genuine human being for her readers and supporters, but is this going too far? Dunham has been such an influential figure in the movement for gender equality, but with such a widespread negative reaction stemming from these allegations, it’s hard to not think about what this could mean for her future reputation and career. What do you think?