Anais Gutierrez
Lena Dunham found herself in yet another controversy after accusing a woman of lying about being raped. The actress was met with backlash following a statement defending a ‘Girls’ writer accused of rape.
Making things worse, a writer for the actress’ feminist newsletter resigned following the accusation and is calling people of color to stop working for Lena.
Lena’s perspective on the case made Twitter angry
Last week, actress Aurora Perrineau filed sexual assault charges against former ‘Girls’ writer Murray Miller, alleging that he had raped her in 2012, when she was 17 years old. On Friday, Lena Dunham and longtime collaborator partner Jennifer Konner issued a statement defending Miller and claiming Perrineau’s claim were a lie.
“While our first instinct is to listen to every woman’s story,” they said. “Our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3 percent of assault cases that are misreported every year.”
She also took to Twitter to express her support to Murray. “I believe in a lot of things but the first tenet of my politics is to hold up the people who have held me up, who have filled my world with love,” Dunham added on Twitter. The actress’s move resulted confusing and contradictory, considering how much of a self-proclaimed feminist she is. Naturally, the Twittersphere called out to her words and actions.
Dunham has since apologized for defending Miller.
“I naively believed it was important to share my perspective on my friend’s situation as it has transpired behind the scenes over the last few months,” she said in a statement Saturday on Twitter. “I now understand that it was absolutely the wrong time to come forward with such a statement.”
Boycotting Lena on racist actions
While Lena apologized, yet one more time for her thoughts, things ignited once more on Sunday when Zinzi Clemmons, a writer for Lena Dunham and Jenny Konner’s Lenny Letter, announced her resignation.
Clemmons said her decision followed Dunham’s statement in defense of Murray. “For all you writers who are outraged about what she did, I encourage you to do the same,” Clemmons wrote in a statement posted on social media Sunday. “Especially women of color. She cannot have our words if she cannot respect us.”
She then went on explaining her decision and called Dunham a ‘hipster racist.’ “Back in college, I avoided these people like the plague because of their well-known racism,” Clemmons said.
“I’d call their strain ‘hipster racism,’ which typically uses sarcasm as a cover, and in the end, it looks a lot like gaslighting — ‘It’s just a joke. Why are you overreacting?’ is a common response to these kind of statements.”
My statement on why I will no longer write for @lennyletter, and the behavior I witnessed firsthand from @lenadunham's friends.
It is time for women of color–black women in particular–to divest from Lena Dunham. pic.twitter.com/dxOWCLhTpA
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) November 19, 2017
Source: The Washington Post
