Amy Zimmerman recently wrote an article for the Daily Beast on the “Right-Wing War on Lena Dunham.” She asks "Why are conservatives so threatened by a 29-year-old TV showrunner and author?" Somehow this article landed in the Politics section of the liberal news website. If anything, it should be an opinion piece since Zimmerman chooses to brush off undisputed facts over an alleged rape as well as written passages in Dunham’s book Not that Kind of Girl where she basically describes the molestation of her little sister.
Zimmerman claims that “right wingers obsessively document and chastise her every move.” I beg to differ. Those of us who write about Ms. Dunham aren’t obsessed with her, rather, we do what the mainstream media does not – we write about her hypocrisy and lies.
Zimmerman tries to back up her assertion by bringing up the “racy” photo Dunham posted on her Instagram page on Memorial Day. In the photo, Dunham is wearing a lacy bra and panties, and nothing else. The caption underneath the photo (of what Zimmerman actually called a “sultry snap”) read, “I think I will wear it to dinner with some boots & a smile because we are all very lucky to be free.” If anything, the captioned photo was almost mocking Memorial Day. Not the typical way to pay homage to those who died for their country, but because of them and those who serve, she’s free to do it, even if it’s tasteless.
It’s ironic that Zimmerman says that hating on Dunham has become “an odd national pastime, conservative Dunham demonization is particularly widespread and cruel.” I’m curious if Zimmerman ever wrote anything about the “demonization” of Sarah Palin or her daughter Bristol, Nikki Haley, Mia Love or Michelle Malkin. I highly doubt it.
Trying to defend Dunham on the molestation of her sister, Zimmerman writes:
“In the National Review, Kevin D. Williamson published a now-infamous review that culled two passages from Dunham’s memoir, asserting that they were proof that Dunham molested her younger sister. Dunham took to Twitter to offer a number of choice replies, including, “I told a story about being a weird 7 year old. I bet you have some too, old men, that I’d rather not hear.”
When Dunham’s book first came out, many on the left AND right took issue with various passages she wrote about inappropriately touching her young sister. Did Zimmerman actually take the time to read these? Because if she did, wouldn’t she have had a problem including any of the following in her “article”:
“I shared a bed with my sister, Grace, until I was seventeen years old… “She was afraid to sleep alone and would begin asking me around 5:00 P.M. every day whether she could sleep with me… Her sticky, muscly little body thrashed beside me every night as I read Anne Sexton, watched reruns of SNL, sometimes even as I slipped my hand into my underwear to figure some stuff out.”
Or:
“One day, as I sat in our driveway in Long Island playing with blocks and buckets, my curiosity got the best of me. Grace was sitting up, babbling and smiling, and I leaned down between her legs and carefully spread open her vagina. She didn’t resist, and when I saw what was inside I shrieked.”
Or this:
“As [Grace] grew, I took to bribing her for her time and affection: one dollar in quarters if I could do her makeup like a ‘motorcycle chick.’ Three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds. Whatever she wanted to watch on TV if she would just ‘relax on me.’ Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying. Maybe, I thought, she would be more willing to accept kisses if I wore the face mask my grandmother had for when she did her dialysis. (The answer was no.) What I really wanted, beyond affection, was to feel that she needed me, that she was helpless without her big sister leading her through the world. I took a perverse pleasure in delivering bad news to her— the death of our grandfather, a fire across the street —hoping that her fear would drive her into my arms, would make her trust me.”
According to Zimmerman, even though those were the same exact words printed from Dunham’s own book, the entire thing was “conjured up” in an evil effort to label her as a “child abuser.” (Well, if the shoe fits.)
Zimmerman also felt Dunham did nothing wrong when she unfairly accused an innocent man as being a rapist and that the only reason anyone made a big stink over it was because it was “political”. She writes:
“Of course, if Dunham hadn’t insisted on being raped by a Republican (and telling the world about it), the conservative right might have been a little less ardent about insisting that she had made the whole thing up. Naturally, they would protect a perceived member of their own tribe by attacking her story—she was practically asking for it!”
Oh Amy, you are wrong once again! As National Review’s Kevin Williamson originally reported:
“Barry is not a character in a book; he is a real person, one whose life is no doubt being turned upside down by a New York Times No. 1 best-seller containing half-articulated accusations that he raped a woman in college, accusations that are easily connected to him. Dunham won’t call him a rapist, but she is happy to use other people as sock puppets to call him a rapist. She doesn’t use his full name, but she surely knows how easily it can be found. She wouldn’t face him in a court of law, but she’ll lynch him in print.”
Sorry Amy, there isn’t a “right-wing” war on Lena Dunham – it’s simply about telling the truth versus telling lies. Next time, report on the facts instead of opinion.
