Lena Dunham Defends Her Guy Friend Against Teen Female Rape Accuser

None shall truly know the daily perils of being a Rich White Woman social media activist. A minefield of prejudice, rants, and rhetorical gang rape. And that’s just from your side.

Lena Dunham blew up the fourth wave feminist Internet when she came out with a public statement defending a male writer and producer from her HBO show, Girls, Murray Miller, against accusations of rape by a then 17-year old actress. Dunham insisted that set amid her unimpeachable Believe Her, man guilty until never proven innocent ideals, surely her buddy Murray was “one of the 3% of men” innocent of the sex crimes for which he was accused. If only witch hunts were made of such convenience.

“But during every time of change there are also incidences of the culture, in its enthusiasm and zeal, taking down the wrong targets. We believe, having worked closely with him for more than half a decade, that this is the case with Murray Miller. 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.”

Dunham’s statement of defense was met by an onslaught of anger from her own mob. Like the Islamic cleric raising the suggestion that Curb Your Enthusiasm is a legitimately funny show. Pitchforks and torches time. One prominent black feminist blogger on Dunham’s Lenny Letter declared she would no longer ever write for Lenny, and is disassociating herself from Dunham and her Rich White Women milieu altogether. Somebody pass the steak sauce.

It’s worth noting that the rape accusing actress in question, Aurora Perrineau, now twenty-two, took her report of an evening event turned into a cocktail party at Miller’s house, turned into passing out and waking up being banged by Miller in his bed to the police. That institution that seems to be inevitably bypassed in every single one of these Hollywood cases. She also took a polygraph test, for what that’s worth, and submitted the results to TheWrap. Kind of cheesy, though more than anybody else has provided to date in their own tales of past assault by entertainment industry men.

Within 24 hours, Dunham found herself apologizing for her hypocrisy and lack of dedication to the current Inquisition. 

“We have been given the gift of powerful voices and by speaking out we were putting our thumb on the scale and it was wrong. We regret this decision with every fiber to our being.”

Too little to late. Your friend was being roasted at the Salem stake and you cried out for calm and evidence. It’s only a shame the rape culture re-education camps are closed for the holidays. 

This unmasking of Lena Dunham has been a shock to some number of followers who inexplicably didn’t see her as a self-entitled, self-important, self-involved rich chick blowhard previously. Some people need to lose an arm before fully taking in the meaning of the caution, Don’t Feed the Bears. 

In a perfect world, revealed hypocrites and moral slouches would slink off into sunset never to be heard from again. We are so far from perfect. No way Dunham makes it forty-eight hours before more assured pronouncements.

_{Photo credit: Getty Images / Splash News}