Apparently, Lena is a writer for a TV show. I don't know. Honestly, I looked her up, never heard of her, never heard of her show either. I really don't watch TV much so, it's not surprising that I have never heard of her. It seems she is quite loved by many in Hollywood and appears to be revered as some typical leftist/feminist. The very first time I heard about her was over a book she wrote this last year, "Not That Kind of Girl."
The first wave of attention was garnered over some passages in her book that referred to her relationship with her sister. In the book she makes some unusual statements about growing up with her younger sister and exploring her sister's body. Okay, we've all heard of children who sex-play but the stories that are in Dunham's book are unnecessary and creepy.
She claims she would bribe her sister with candy in order to kiss her. She also states that she would lie in bed with her sister while she would sex-play with herself and even goes so far as to describe herself as behaving much like a sexual predator.
The worst of all these jaw-dropping confessions has to be:
One day, as I sat in our driveway in Long Island playing with blocks and buckets, my curiosity got the best of me. Grace was sitting up, babbling and smiling, and I leaned down between her legs and carefully spread open her vagina. She didn’t resist, and when I saw what was inside I shrieked. “My mother came running. “Mama, Mama! Grace has something in there!”
My mother didn’t bother asking why I had opened Grace’s vagina. This was within the spectrum of things that I did. She just got on her knees and looked for herself. It quickly became apparent that Grace had stuffed six or seven pebbles in there. My mother removed them patiently while Grace cackled, thrilled that her prank had been such a success.When Lena was criticized about these passages and their undeniable creepy and bothersome imagery, she lashed out. She took to Twitter and went into what she referred to as a "rage spiral" because apparently this woman has never been criticized for her behavior and even more vexing is the fact that she believes her actions to have been normal.
Let me just tell you what I find terribly alarming. The way Lena writes this passage conjures up images of erotica. "Carefully spread... She didn't resist..." The child is one year old, she is likely accustomed to having her diaper changed. The addition of describing her sister not resisting is superfluous and smutty.
Then she goes on to say her mother didn't even ask her why she was looking at her sister because "This was within the spectrum of things that I did"? Why would a mother accept this as appropriate behavior? What on earth is the matter with her mother? The passage forces us to question this mother since a child of one year is not prone to stuffing things into their private area.
Where does a one-year-old gather pebbles, then later place them inside their vagina, and somehow have the acumen of believing they were playing a prank? Huh? I guess because her mother is apparently a brain-dead idiot, Lena thought her audience would also believe such an insipid story. It's fairly obvious to anyone with a few neurons that either she or her mother were placing objects inside of that poor baby's vagina. So yes, this story should indeed cause one to be alarmed. Why Lena is so shocked by the reaction she received only shows how truly sheltered this woman has been up until now. Of course the other explanation is she just made the whole thing up.
Just as the dust was settling from these passages, more claims from her book about a man raping Lena while she attended college began to be discussed in the news.
As for this story, Lena offers up some pages describing a bad date. A man named Barry who was a ...wait for it.... CONSERVATIVE on her very liberal Oberlin College campus, who wore purple cowboy boots, had a mustache, worked at the school library, and had a voice like Barry White took her out and then had rough sex with her. She later confesses in the book that the sex was not only rough but unwanted.
As it turns out, there was indeed a Barry that went to Oberlin during the time period she describes and he was indeed a prominent conservative on campus. There were no other Barry's at the college during that time and certainly no other conservatives that even remotely fit into her description of who this man was. Breitbart's website did an exclusive story about figuring out who this "Barry" character was. The man they found has no idea who Lena is and he has been fighting to clear his name. For months he tried getting Random House (the publisher), and Dunham to clear his name.
On September 30th, 2014 Lena's book was released. It would be the the first week of October that Barry would contact an attorney about clearing his name. Not until Dec 8th and 9th would Random House and Dunham publicly clear Barry's name. Random House has also offered to pay any legal fees Barry has incurred. Lena writes:
To be very clear, “Barry” is a pseudonym, not the name of the man who assaulted me, and any resemblance to a person with this name is an unfortunate and surreal coincidence. I am sorry about all he has experienced.Her article carries on about her and her views and her ideas. She offers no empathy for the man she very clearly set-up from the beginning. If the man wasn't Barry, then why did you chose that name? Why was this man her target? Is it because she has such a hatred of conservatives she believed it to be funny to ruin an innocent man's life, rather than go after the ACTUAL man that violated her? Or is this just a made up story created to attack her adversaries?
Here's another passage that bothers me:
I have a certain empathy for the journalists who asked me questions like whether I regret how much I drank that night or what my attacker would say if he was asked about me. These ignorant lines of inquiry serve to further flawed narratives about rape, but these people are reacting to the same set of social signals that we all are — signals telling us that preventing assault is a woman’s job,..."Yes, yes, it IS a woman's job to do whatever she can to prevent an assault. I don't understand how feminists can preach to people about empowerment and then drop the ball when it comes to advocating for women to empower themselves by taking care of themselves, protecting themselves. I agree, there are many cases in which a woman will be assaulted no matter what. If a guy is interested in raping a woman, it's likely he will find a way to do it. However, women DO need to take responsibility for their actions and they do need to do whatever they can to prevent themselves from being attacked. Be alert; don't get wasted in public or at a party; don't accept drinks from strangers; don't leave your drink unattended; don't use drugs. Also, be a friend. If you're out with a friend, watch them. Don't ever just drop someone off and drive off - wait for them to enter their home.
No, I'm not saying blame the victim but if you know damn well how certain actions are perceived then don't give anyone the fuel for those harsh assertions to be made in the aftermath. We ALL make mistakes and we ALL do foolish things but, if we can limit these mistakes by learning from them, we can limit the chances of those mistakes turning into life-changing moments.
Interestingly, Lena also made some small headlines by hiring on artists to perform at her tour. Multiple cities and multiple performances for no pay! Mind you, Lena is not hurting in the money department and can easily afford to pay these opening acts yet it wasn't until pressure was applied that she finally submitted and agreed to compensate those artists with money for their performances.
Lena's case is not the only case where a liberal woman makes accusations about a unnamed conservative - meet Meg Lanker.
Earlier in 2014, this young liberal college student thought it would be entertaining to go onto a Facebook page called UW Crushes. This page is for students who attend University of Wyoming and want to post about their crushes. One scathing and alarming post read:
“I want to hate f--- Meg Lanker-Simons so hard. That chick that runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn’t care who knows it. I think its hot and it makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican b----” [sic]Well, Meg found out about this post and created her own response:
"Remember, there was a creeper that took the time to think this up and type it..." Yes and that creeper was Meg herself.
Even more disturbing is the fact that Meg has been in trouble before. In 2006, she decided to point a gun at her ex-boss, a man who had previously fired her.
Lanker-Simons “admitted to having (a) gun in (her) purse and pulling it out and waving it around (the) victim,” according to the affidavit.
She pled guilty and received six- years of probation. At the time, Lanker-Simons went by the name Meghan Michelena, according to the Laramie Boomerang.
It's easy to look at these woman and dismiss them as being stupid, fat, man-hating feminists. I'll admit, I have a habit of lobbing insults from time to time. However, this salty language does nothing in a productive sense. So setting the easy insults aside, one must ask - what the hell is going on here?
You would think that Dunham and Lanker would have some cognizance of the fact that false allegations ultimately end up hurting women who are true victims. Is it any wonder that so many people immediately become skeptical the moment someone is accused of rape, when many of the cultural references we have end up being false?
In November of 2014 Rolling Stone published a now-infamous article entitled, A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA. The story is emotionally-packed concerning a young girl named Jackie who attends the University of Virginia. She describes a horrific scene that played out one evening at a frat house party where she was drugged and finally raped by several of the fraternity members.
The story is compelling and easy to believe. Anyone who has attended a frat party can relate to the confusing ambiance that seems to be a universal trait of such parties. Young freshman girls offered hard-liquored drinks disguised as fruity refreshments and being led off to the rooms on a higher floor can been seen as commonplace. The point is, when reading the story, it seemed possible even probable.
Yet, after the story was published the details were called into question. The story that Jackie told Rolling Stone was not the same one offered up to her friends that night. Her friends did not notice any blood on her and they deny ever encouraging her to keep her mouth shut, rather they wanted to take her to the hospital. There are also discrepancies about who she named as her attackers. In any case, you can read more about it elsewhere but, the main issue here is that her story has turned out to be generally false and cannot be confirmed. Again, I have to ask - what the hell is going on here?
Why would any woman feel some benefit for themselves or for others by making false accusations?
Take the recent case of Bill Cosby. None of the accusations have been taken seriously until now and it's only because multiple women have been victims. Without those other women corroborating the stories, I'm afraid that nobody would ever believe these women.
Rape is indeed something very serious and it can only be taken seriously when real victims come forward, not those that seek to be victims in order to catch headlines to further some delusional political agenda. Are these women so spiteful and filled with hate of conservatives and/or men that they felt it would be funny or a positive thing to falsely accuse a conservative of making threats or rape? How did they believe things would play out? Did they really believe they were so slick that they would outsmart everyone and get away with destroying lives over their obsessive hate? Where is the liberal outrage? Why are there not other liberals standing up and demeaning these women for ultimately hurting real victims?
I'm unsure about the Jackie-story. There is no indication that politics had anything to do with the accusation but certainly the fact that the story appears to be a hoax about rape is what makes the story another distraction that ultimately hurts victims and helps perpetrators go untouched.
I can't think of anything more hateful than launching a full-on false accusation campaign against a group of people for the sole purpose of advancing an agenda. I would hope that this is not the type of behavior that most liberals approve of but so far, it seems like many on the left side seem to not have much of a problem with Dunham or Lanker. In fact, some people are actively supporting these two and even congratulating them for their bravery?!
It is a bit odd, isn't it? I would say that both of these women indeed need help and it's clear from Dunham's stories along with her unusual parents that either she was abused or she did engage in abuse. I'm not quite sure. If Lena were a young boy who did exactly the same thing with her sister, would the same people supporting her, claiming she did nothing wrong, be saying the same thing? Or worse if Lena were a Republican saying these same things, would these same people insist she did nothing wrong? "Oh she was just exploring." Would that truly be the answer they would give? I think not.
It seems as if neither of these women have been criticized before. They have led a life that allows them to believe they did nothing wrong. Portraying oneself as a victim of a man is somehow endearing and should be congratulated. Lanker has even been rewarded for her blog, while Lena's book continues to gain attention and praise. They are drama queens who are desperate for attention.
In the end we have to keep things into perspective. We must acknowledge that these woman do not speak for all woman. We must also encourage women to take charge of their own lives, do everything they can do to personally ensure their own safety and to speak up when it's appropriate.
To those women who would falsely accuse someone of such a horrific crime for the sake of politics, for the sake of attention, YOU are the problem and YOU are the ones making life out there for REAL victims painful. You are causing real victims to stay silent while perpetrators are free to attack again. Please stop. Get help because you are doing nobody any favors. The ends do not justify the means.
LINKS and RESOURCES:
Lena Dunham's father is an artist of some kind. If you'd like to view his "work" which resembles something a child would draw, you can click here. Be aware that many of these paintings are quite perverted and are NSFW.
http://ethicsalarms.com/2013/05/03/unethical-quote-of-the-week-meg-lanker-simons-is-innocent-facebook-page/
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2014/12/09/attorney-barry-one-would-like-a-statement-directly-from-lena-dunham
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/17/the_rights_lena_dunham_delusion_anger_misogyny_and_the_dangers_of_business_as_usual/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lenadunham/lena-dunham-why-i-chose-to-speak-out
http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2014/12/16/surreal-coincidence-7-unnecessary-details-in-lena-dunhams-rape-story-point-to-barry-one/
http://falserapeculture.tumblr.com/post/50735535874/update-on-the-meg-lanker-simons-saga-original
http://gawker.com/lena-dunham-does-not-pay-1640249043
http://twitchy.com/2014/11/01/i-feel-sick-its-not-just-right-wing-disturbed-by-lena-dunhams-story-about-being-a-weird-7-year-old/
http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/11/lena-dunham-sexual-predator-not-so-much
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