Lena Dunham has decided to respond to the criticism of her book: Not that kind of girl. The book makes two allegations about Ms. Dunham being raped. Most of the criticism has been directed at those two sections of the book. They are the most provocative. In her response to critics, Ms. Dunham says: "When I finally decided to share my story, it had ambiguities and gray areas, because that’s what I experienced, because that’s what so many of us have experienced. As indicated in the beginning of the book, I made the choice to keep certain identities private, changing names and some descriptive details. " Unfortunately, Ms. Dunham and her publisher did not make clear when she was using pseudonyms and when she was not. That lack of clarity lead to someone who had never had any contact with Ms. Dunham being identified as her rapist. After all, the real Barry was a well known conservative around Oberlin College when Ms. Dunham was there. She should never have been so sloppy as to not tell us when she was using a pseudonym.
Thankfully, Ms. Dunham has now clarified the situation. She wrote: "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." She should be sorry. Her trauma is no excuse for inflicting trauma against an innocent person completely un-involved in her experience. Her conduct was and is unacceptable. Her apology is a good first step. But, now she must atone and more importantly, she must never ever do this again.
Walt-in-Durham
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