Like Lady Gaga collaborating with R. Kelly on the unfortunately titled “Do What U Want With My Body” and then backpedaling by switching to feature Christina Aguilera instead to deflect the scent from her lack of so-called feminism, Lena Dunham is the ultimate in phony baloney feminists. Yet another reason why it was so painful to watch her play Valerie Solanas on American Horror Story: Cult. She bears no resemblance to the militant in her vitriol for men philosopher and her banal on a Goop level women’s advice/lifestyle website, LennyLetter, which does nothing more than give license to people like Jennifer Lawrence to wax about their overblown dramas.
And with Dunham’s rich history of saying and doing the wrong thing with regard to practicing what she preaches in the realm of equality and women’s rights, including not paying the shills she enlisted for her Not That Kind of Girl book tour, “speaking up” about health care as though she’s on the poor side of the spectrum in paying for it and her little racist narcissist’s moment with Odell Beckham Jr., this latest affront is the biggest doozy yet.
In the midst of an unprecedented floodgate of women finally finding the courage through numbers to come out against men with a long history of getting away with sexual abuse, Dunham and her lackey/Girls showrunner, Jenni Konner, have decided that the best approach to take in addressing Aurora Perrineau’s (best known for roles in Jem and the Holograms and Passengers) public admission of being raped by Miller when she was seventeen is to say this:
“During the windfall of deeply necessary accusations over the last few months in Hollywood, we have been thrilled to see so many women’s voices heard and dark experiences in this industry justified. It’s a hugely important time of change and, like every feminist in Hollywood and beyond, we celebrate. 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. 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.”
To quote David Lynch’s response to use of product placement in films: “Bullshit.” Anyone who has ever been naive enough to believe in the Dunham brand of feminism must surely be awakened at this point. To turn her back on the very people she’s built her empire on not only shows her lack of allegiance to those who really matter (’cause it ain’t Murray), but also her extreme blind spot when it comes to the fact that even those closest to you can betray in this egregious manner. Miller, meanwhile, has of course denied the “allegations,” with his representation commenting, “Mr. Miller categorically and vehemently denies Ms. Perrineau’s outrageous claims.” Perrineau, on the other hand, was pretty graphic in her account of the night in question, rehashing how she had met Miller at the Standard while out with friends, admitting she “consumed some alcoholic beverages.” After Miller asked for a ride home, Perrineau accompanied him inside with the others because she “felt like I had to go along with everyone else.” Though some might feel this is a copout excuse, who among us can’t remember being highly susceptible to the pressures of being youthful and wanting only to fit in (/in Perrineau’s case, wanting to make nice with people involved in the Hollywood scene to benefit her career)?
Perrineau continued in her statement, “At some point, I woke up in Murray’s bed naked. He was on top of me having sexual intercourse with me. At no time did I consent to any sexual contact with Murray.” But Dunham, in her omnipresent wisdom, somehow has “insider knowledge” about what went on. That Perrineau is also a bi-racial actress only adds to Dunham’s track record for possessing non-white people blinders. It seems only bad things can happen to overprivileged white women in her mind. As The Independent put it, “Abusive men know that non-white women are less likely to be believed when they make accusations of sexual assault, so often actively target them.” And this more than appears to be true to form with Dunham’s unnecessary and misguided dismantling of Perrineau’s confession, already liable not to be deemed as credible if others don’t come forward saying the same of Murray (again, the floodgate method is key for a takedown, which is why nothing has happened to Dustin Hoffman or Woody Allen). In one of the strongest about-faces on a stance about rape, it was only just this August that Dunham “wittily” tweeted, “Things women lie about: what they ate for lunch. Things women don’t lie about: rape.” Evidently, they’re lying about it if the claims are made against one of her male friends. How convenient it must be to live in a world so arbitrary in its stretching of the rules when it comes to you in particular.
