Lena Dunham is finally learning that her fans won’t tolerate her controversial comments any longer.
In what may be described as just one of a series of outbursts that has landed her in hot water, the actress/producer who has positioned herself as a feminist is now embroiled in another mess of her own making after she chose to defend Girls writer Murray Miller from accusation of sexual assault lobbied against him by actress Aurora Perrineau.
Dunham who is co-creator of Girls together with Jenni Konner released a statement that reads ‘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,’ They then continued ‘It is a true shame to add to that number, as outside of Hollywood women still struggle to be believed. We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue.’
But less than a day later she chose to retract her statement and wrote in part on twitter ‘I naively believed it was important to share my perspective on my friend’s situation as it has transpired behind the scenes over the last few months. I now understand that it was absolutely the wrong time to come forward with such a statement and I am so sorry…’Every woman who comes forward deserves to be heard, fully and completely, and our relationship to the accused should not be part of the calculation anyone makes when examining her case. Every person and every feminist should be required to hear her.’
— ???? Lena Dunham ???? (@lenadunham) November 19, 2017
Unlike before, her apology appears not to stick since a large section of her fans are now abandoning her in social media. It is estimated that the actress so far has lost 15,000 followers on her personal Instagram account since issuing the apology and there are more fans unfollowing her each day.
Her weekly online feminist newsletter Lenny Letter is also losing subscribers. One of the writers for the site Zinzi Clemmons then released a statement on her own twitter account that she will no longer be writing for Lenny Letter due to Lena Dunham’s disrespect of women of color. Perrineau who accused Miller is of Afro-American and Afro-Haitian descent.
My statement on why I will no longer write for @lennyletter, and the behavior I witnessed firsthand from @lenadunham‘s friends.
It is time for women of color–black women in particular–to divest from Lena Dunham. pic.twitter.com/dxOWCLhTpA
Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) November 19, 2017
Perrineau earlier had filed a report at the West Hollywood Los Angeles station, accusing Murray Miller of sexual assault back in 2012. Los Angeles police are now conducting an investigation, which is what prompted Lena Dunham to come to her Miller’s defense. This may be understandable, since she is being loyal to her close friend, but it seems to go against everything she preaches, since she has always advocated that women who come forward should be believed.
What do you think? Did she truly cross the line this time?