Yahoo Lifestyle Lena Dunham Opens About Rape Backlash
Lena Dunham. Photo: Getty Images.
Much has been said about Lena Dunham's book, 'Not That Kind Of Girl', but unfortunately, not all of it has been positive.
Dunham bravely confessed she'd been raped in the book in an effort to "expose her shame", but some internet trolls have since turned the tables on the Girls star, accusing her of "playing the victim".
"Since coming out as a survivor, I have gone from an intellectual sense of the ways in which victims are doubted and debased to a bone-deep understanding of this reality," wrote Dunham in an open essay on Buzzfeed.
"I have been attacked online with violent and misogynistic language... My work has been torn apart in an attempt to prove I am a liar, or worse, a deviant myself. My friends and family have been contacted. Articles have heralded 'Lena Dunham's shocking confession.' I have been made to feel, on multiple occasions, as though I am to blame for what happened."
In the book, Dunham describes being sexually assaulted in college - an event she says took a long time to reconcile as rape.
"Like so many women who have been sexually assaulted, I did not report the incident to my college or to the police. Even when I visited my gynecologist complaining of pain, afraid I had contracted a sexually transmitted disease, I could only mumble through a description of that night. After all, I had been drunk and high, which only compounded my confusion and shame. And I was afraid. I was afraid that no one would believe me. I was afraid other potential partners would consider me damaged goods. I was afraid I was overreacting. I was afraid it was my fault. I was afraid he would be angry. Eight years later, I know just how classic these fears are. They are the reason that the majority of college women who are assaulted will never report it."
Dunham described how survivors of rape are often "re-victimised" by a system that demands they prove their purity and innocence.
"They are asked to provide an unassailable narrative when the event itself is hazy, fragmented, and unspeakable. They are isolated and betrayed by people close to them who doubt their reality or are frustrated by their inability to move on. Their most intimate experiences are made public property."
But Dunham remains adamant that she has no regrets about penning the confession, saying survivors have a right to tell their story and take back some of the control.
"There is no right way to survive rape and there is no right way to be a victim. I don't believe I am to blame. I don't believe any of us who have been raped and/or assaulted are to blame. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what is written about me individually. I accept the realities of being in the public eye. But I simply cannot allow my story to be used to cast doubt on other women who have been sexually assaulted."
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