Let me get one point out of the way before I begin this article.
In my opinion, I find the twenty-eight year old writer and actress Lena Dunham to be wholly unpleasant. She oozes a persona wrought with selfishness. I liken her to an egotistical nitwit. Her immaturity is only surpassed by her narcissism. This is purely my own opinion and in no way a statement of actual fact. My opinion is based upon watching her in interviews, reading a handful of her essays and seeing a few episodes of her program "Girls". I'll never get back the time I wasted watching her show about utter nonsense, to which I regret. Being that I've never met her in person, I could be completely wrong in my assessment. Lena could actually be a heavenly joy.
Photo Credit - Parade
But I doubt it...
As you can plainly see, I have zero reasons to defend Dunham in spite of her recent turmoil. As the old saying goes, I have no dog in this fight.
The entirety of the internet is in an uproar over information contained in her recently published book "Not That Kind of Girl". Within the book, Dunham recounts a humorous story where, at age seven, she became curious about her own female anatomy and asked her mother for more information. Soon after, while playing with her younger toddler sister, Lena looked at her sister's genitalia. Hilariously, Lena found that her sister had been putting rocks in her vagina while playing on the ground. The whole story is told with a humorous, over the top perspective that includes obvious comedic embellishment.
Leap forward to this week...
A right-wing conservative website, which I won't link to because they don't deserve even the paltry traffic I may provide them, has labeled Dunham a sexual predator. They published a scathing article, which claims Dunham molested her younger sister by looking at her anatomy. The hysteria prone peons of cyberspace ran wild with this story, in so much as totally damning Dunham to hell for her crimes against the flesh. Dunham has been forced to cancel book tour appearances and even wrote a tirade of anger and frustration in response. Yet, these vehement armchair activists seem to have completely forgotten the context of the situation.
Let's step back and think about this for a moment.
- Lena was a seven year old child curious about genitalia and her own body, just as all children are at that age.
- She did not force intercourse or any form of sexual activity on her sister.
- The entire situation (if you can call it that) was prefaced with a conversation between Lena and her mother.
- The now grown sister has made no allegations that Lena molested her.
When is the last time you heard of a child molester asking their mom or dad about genitalia before molesting someone? Go ahead, I'll let you search the internet for an answer. You won't find one... BECAUSE IT DOESN'T HAPPEN!
For you parents out there, surely you know how difficult it can be when your child finally becomes curious about their sexuality. How old was your child (or children) when they first asked about their private parts? Five? Six? SEVEN? All children wonder about their anatomy at a young age. Some are more shy than others, but all ponder the differences between the anatomies of males and females. While one child may be reserved and not explore the matter any further than their own mind, another child may seek out answers in the real world. Such behavior reflects the diversity present in humanity; we are all born with different personalities and levels of social exploration.
A young child being inquisitive about the human body and looking at it with curiosity is no more guilty of being a sexual predator than a mother nourishing her child by breast feeding. The original author of the scathing article against Lena failed to see the distinction between the curiosity of a child and sexual molestation. Did they have a personal motivation to slander Lena? Are they secretly fascinated by her? Do they just not like her television program? Who knows! The point is this...
Lena might be a pompous, self-absorbed narcissist... but she's not a child molester. This debacle is nothing more than misplaced internet hysteria. We've seen such nonsense time and time again. Had Lena repeatedly forced inappropriate touching and such upon her sister, then maybe these internet jabberjaws would have a point. At the very worst, I'd say she was a young child whom needed therapy (should that be the case, which it isn't). As it stands, though, Lena was just being a normal seven year old.
Internet... get over yourself.
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