Good God: Lena Dunham's "Rape" Story Gets More Preposterous

Gawker received a leak of Lena Dunham's book proposal a long time ago, and published it. They later took it down after legal threats.

They say the proposal makes it clear who the alleged "rapist" Barry in Lena Dunham's book is.

First things first: In the original book proposal, Lena Dunham describes the "rape," and get this, it's not rape.

I basically didn’t meet a Republican until I was nineteen, when I shared an ill-fated evening of love-making with our campus' resident conservative, who wore snakeskin boots and hosted a radio show...

Mid-intercourse on the moldy dorm rug I looked up into my roommate Sarah’s potted plant and noticed something dangling. I tried to make out its nebulous shape and then I realized--it was the condom. [He] had purposely flung the prophylactic into our tiny palm tree, thinking I was too dumb or too drunk or too eager to please to call him on it. [...] The next day, on the radiator in the art building, I told the story to my best friend Audrey who winced. Firstly because he was a Republican and secondly because, she whispered "you were raped."

Incredible. Now, what he did (assuming he did it at all) was dishonest and a violation, but rape?

Her own description suggests she was eager to have sex -- that is, consenting.

Jesus God Almighty.

In the book she calls this rape, and insinuates more than she describes here. In the book, she suggests she didn't give consent at all. But in the book proposal, it's clear she consented; she's just objecting to the fact that he decided to go Julian Assange on her.

Now if this could get any worse, which it can't, but let's just keep moving along anyway, it turns out that the "Republican" in question never belonged formally to any party, until 2012, when he registered... as a Democrat.

There is at least one discrepancy between the proposal and what we know about [Dunham's alleged assailant], however. According to public records, ["Barry"] did not affiliate with either major political party until 2012, when he formally registered as a Democrat. Unlike the character in Dunham's memoir, he does not appear to have ever been an on-the-book Republican--though it’s certainly possible he identified as one without ever filing the proper paperwork.

You can go over to Gawker to get the details about him. I'm not publishing his name because it now appears to be outright defamatory to claim this guy "Raped" Lena Dunham, and he ought to take that up with her.

posted by Ace at 05:40 PM

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