Lena Dunham responds to claims that she sexually abused her younger sister
The Girls creator branded an article, published by Ben Shapiro’s True Revolt, ‘upsetting and disgusting’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Lena Dunham has reacted furiously to claims made by a right-wing website that she “sexually abused” her younger sibling.
Blog Truth Revolt, headed up by US Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, posted an article titled ‘Lena Dunham Describes Sexually Abusing Her Little Sister’ on Thursday.
The article cites a passage from Dunham’s collection of non-fictional essays, Not That Kind Of Girl, which were first published in September.
It claims that the Girls creator describes using her sister to sexually experiment with, writing that she attempted to persuade to kiss her using the sort of methods “a sexual predator might do”.
It goes on to cite National Review journalist Kevin D. Williamson’s article “Pathetic Priviledge”, which was published on 3 November. Referencing the same passage, he writes that the tale is “especially suspicious” and that there was “no non-horrific explanation” for its inclusion.
The excerpt from Dunham’s Not That Kind Of Girl reads:
“Do we all have uteruses?” I asked my mother when I was seven.
“Yes,” she told me. “We're born with them, and with all our eggs, but they start out very small. And they aren't ready to make babies until we're older.” I look at my sister, now a slim, tough one-year-old, and at her tiny belly. I imagined her eggs inside her, like the sack of spider eggs in Charlotte's Webb, and her uterus, the size of a thimble.
“Does her vagina look like mine?”
“I guess so,” my mother said. “Just smaller.”
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 I did. She just 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 a success.
Dunham addressed the allegations made by the article in a series of posts on Twitter:
The Truth Revolt article has since been updated – not to apologise to Dunham, but simply to change a typo:
“Correction note: This article has been modified to correct a typo in the book excerpt incorrectly listing Dunham's age as seventeen.”