Lena and Grace Dunham: Life in the Shame-Free Zone

Lena Dunham’s recent book, Not That Kind of Girl, disclosed two episodes in her life that illustrate the new generation of mainstream sexual psychopathy and resistance to shame. First, there is overwhelming evidence that Dunham perpetrated a rape-hoax against a fellow Oberlin student she identified as Barry the Republican. At the time this rape was supposed to have occurred, only one student at Oberlin College was named Barry, a well-known member of the small group of campus Republicans. This man, who now has a family and children, was readily identified and has had the national spotlight shined on him by what appears to be Dunham’s libel. Second, her book provided a multilayered history of her -- by her own feminist definition -- sexually abusing her younger sister, Grace.

When child protective agencies investigate allegations of abuse, they use the standard of preponderance of evidence. In practical terms, this means that they look for confirmatory “facts” in lieu of examining or even considering exculpatory evidence. For years, progressive sexual assault activists have been campaigning to enlarge the definition of rape to include any touching or probing of genitals without consent. They point out that only 15% of rape cases involve force to a degree which might injure or bruise the victim.

Dunham’s description of opening her one-year-old sister’s legs and “probing” the baby’s vagina, of masturbating in bed next to her, of bribing Grace with candy for a prolonged kiss on the mouth, would meet the standard of preponderance of evidence for rape in any jurisdiction.

Dunham’s 10/1/14 interview with Howard Stern is a workshop on the foundational progressive dogmas to separate depravity from shame, and to transform the morally outré to the quotidian. Stern opens with a rare understatement by referring to himself as, “gross.” He nurtures Lena, a rising star in the new generation of what could be called 'professional obscenicists'. She doesn’t disappoint her mentor. For example, in discussing the effects of feeling socially isolated, she says, “I never get the feeling I want to go out and f***k little boys.” The interview takes a turn and we don’t find out if any circumstances elicit that urge in Dunham.

Stern and Dunham both describe themselves as culturally Jewish. Both are a disgrace to Judaism. Dunham waxes on about her wonderful new boyfriend, but avers they will not marry until her gay sister is allowed to marry. God, Torah, love, and progressive sex politics. Of these, the greatest is progressive sex politics.

Listening to Stern and Dunham discuss her apparently bogus rape allegation against 'Barry the Republican’ illuminates the psychogenesis of the aversion to shame in Dunham’s family history.

Stern: You say you were raped by a guy.

Dunham: Yeah.

[snip]

Stern: You never talked about that publicly?

Dunham: No and I was very scared to because it felt like such a huge but private part of my identity and I had a fear of becoming forever labeled as a victim and I didn’t realize… I’ve long known how empowering it was to talk about your experiences but this one was one I was very afraid to touch and I also you know I went to a small college, people knew each other.

Stern: Let me ask you something Lena, when this happened to you did you go to any authorities? Did you tell anybody? Did you turn to your parents?

[snip]

Dunham: And I’m close to my parents, and I didn’t ever give them the full story… My mom made an appointment with me [sic]. I talk about that in the book, I was hurt, I was physically hurt, so my mom made an appointment with me, for me, to go to the doctor.

Stern: What did you tell her happened?

Dunham: I told her I got drunk and had gotten into a rough situation and I said, 'OK, I don’t really know if I used a condom. I feel like I should go to the doctor.” My mom being a great liberal mom who does not want to shame anyone sexually went 'Great!' I’ll make you an appointment with my doctor…”

Imagine your daughter tells you that she got blackout drunk and thinks she had “rough sex.” And you say. “Great!” Mrs. Dunham is honoring the central progressive sacrament of shame-free living. Apparently, Dunham’s mother upheld the view that no matter how harmful, dangerous, irresponsible, or abusive a behavior, it is not as bad as evoking shame for it.

National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson first raised the question of Dunham's possible incestuous abuse against her six-year younger sister Grace. Dunham responded by going into a “rage spiral,” calling Williamson’s article “Really f**king upsetting and disgusting.” She tweeted:

And by the way, if you were a little kid and never looked at another little kid's vagina, well, congrats to you.

Dunham subsequently said she was joking when she referred to herself as “doing anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl.” But her descriptions are, in fact, typical of sexual predators who have an age-inappropriate comprehension of the children they abuse. And her sexual interest in her sister began when Grace was a one-year-old baby, not a 'suburban girl'. Sexually probing a one-year-old baby is not normal child’s play.

“I look at my sister, now a slim, tough one-year-old, and at her tiny belly.”

                                                                                    Not that Kind of Girl (p. 158)

While it is not confirmatory in itself, in a thorough investigation of allegations of sexual abuse the description of a one-year-old baby as “slim” and “tough” would be suggestive of psychopathology.

Not surprisingly, Grace Dunham first disclosed her decision to identify as a lesbian to her older sister, Lena. The central focus of what Dunham proudly calls liberalism is sexual entitlement, especially the advancement of variant and deviant sexuality. This campaign includes the sexualization of children.

Grace Dunham responded to the controversies of whether she had been abused by her older sister and the allegation of a false rape charge in various Tweets:

As a queer person: i'm committed to people narrating their own experiences, determining for themselves what has and has not been harmful

heteronormativity deems certain behaviours harmful, and others "normal"; the state and media are always invested in maintaining that

2day, like every other day, is a good day to think about how we police the sexualities of young women, queer, and trans people.

The last observation confounds the facts. Opposite of ‘policing sexual behaviors’, Random House  fronted Lena Dunham millions of dollars in order to profit from her self-described sexual history. Most troubling is the fact that the abuse allegations have nothing to do with adult sexuality. The death of shame is being escorted by the death of childhood. Are the shame-free Dunham sisters just the new normal, evil, or sick?

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