No one expects anyone, not even a neo-Stalinist like Lena Dunham, to publicly drop a close friend in the grease, even if that close friend is accused of something as horrific as rape. There are a myriad of ways for a public figure to handle a tricky grenade like this, even if you are a Lena Dunham, someone who has spent years proclaiming the un-American proclamation that all victims must automatically be believed.
But Dunham did not do that. Rather, when news broke that Murray Miller, producer of her low-rated and now-canceled HBO series Girls, stands accused of raping then-17-year-old actress Aurora Perrineau in 2012, Dunham did what only a sociopathic narcissist drunk on their own press clippings would do — convened a Show Trial by way of written statement to publicly declare the alleged rape victim a stone cold liar.
“While our first instinct is to listen to every woman’s story, our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported every year,” read Dunham’s verdict Friday, which was also signed by Girls co-showrunner Jenni Konner.
This is outrageous behavior on Dunham’s part. Unless there is something like, you know, a photo, decent people always retain some healthy skepticism over any allegation. But to just burst out of nowhere to smear an accuser as a liar is no better than automatically declaring the accused guilty.
Yet, if you think about it, Dunham’s motive for her rape-trutherism is not all that mystifying once you figure out that “woke” is merely shorthand for “arrogant self-righteousness.” Apparently, Dunham believed that her “standing” among the Beautiful People gave her the ultimate power to decide who is and who is not guilty. Zinzi Clemmons, therefore, should give us all hope that the feminist-hard left is not completely brainwashed.
In her public statements, in which she promptly resigned from Dunham’s feminist publication Lenny Letter and accused the Girls creator of “hipster racism,” Clemmons, who says she has known Dunham since college, came out swinging:
“So far, @Lupita_Nyongo and @AuroraPerrineau have faced the worst backlash after going public,” Clemmons tweeted, adding, “Hmmmm, what do they have in common?”
Nyongo is a Harvey Weinstein accuser. Both women are black.
https://twitter.com/zinziclemmons/status/931856769089003521
After public pressure forced Dunham to apologize and withdraw her verdict, Clemmons tweeted, “You should be apologizing to @AuroraPerrineau,” and added, “This isn’t an apology, this is a half-assed attempt to cover your ass.”
Clemmons also dropped this bomb:
“As a result of Lena Dunham’s statements, I have decided that I will no longer write for the Lenny Letter,” Clemmons wrote on Twitter, adding. “For all you writers who are outraged about what she did, I encourage you to so the same. Especially women of color.”
In the most devastating part of the statement, Clemmons explains her singling out of “women of color.”
I know exactly who Lena Dunham is … She and I ran in the same circles in college … we had many mutual acquaintances and still do. Most of these acquaintances were like Lena — wealthy, with parents who are influential in the art world. They had a lot of power and seemed to get off on simultaneously wielding it and denying it.
Back in college, I avoided these people like the plague because of their well-known racism. 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 a lot of these statements. In Lena’s circle, there was a girl who was known to use the N word in conversation in order to be provocative, and if she was ever called on it, she would say “it’s just a joke.”
One has to wonder just how many times Dunham has to prove herself a monster before the Beautiful People shun this villain.
You would think that Dunham being caught red-handed publicly accusing an innocent family man of rape would have been enough. Or her attempt to normalize the sexual abuse of her own sister. Or her lying about an animal shelter abusing her dog. Or her apparent lying about a private conversation between airline workers. Or her indefensible comments about Odell Beckham Jr. Or her dream that she “molested an African American rodent.” Or, or, or…
https://twitter.com/jillwklausen/status/932325450025537536
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Dunham is little different from a Harvey Weinstein in the sense that she uses her immense Hollywood power to gratify herself through the abuse and dehumanization of others. Her victims include women and include the powerless — like animal shelters, the innocent man who did not rape her, and an aspiring actress who made the mistake of accusing someone in Dunham’s velvet-lined inner-circle of rape.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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