Lena Dunham denies child abuse claims stemming from new autobiography

**Brah** · November 3rd, 2014, 09:24 PM

When I was 5 or 6 I tried to convince all the kids in my after-school care to put stuffed animals down their pants, cause I found out it feels good when you walk around with a stuffed rabbit in your crotch. I only got like 2 other kids to actually do it. You do weird shit as a kid. Lame that this is what's getting a big uproar, and it's especially pathetic of those on the conservative site who purposefully changed the ages just to get more hits.

Edit: I didn't realize her sister was 1, that creeps me out. But I still think it's way overblown to call it abuse, it's just some story that she's trying to sell as funny. I'm guessing that when she did it, she wasn't getting sexual pleasure or looking at her sister sexually, it was only a curiosity.

**Bellatheball** · November 3rd, 2014, 09:33 PM

One of the excepts says the sister had hidden something in her vagina and thought it was funny when happened to find it. Why is a toddler hiding things in her vagina? It's a huge stretch to say that's normal kid behavior.

And please with the conservative reporting crap. If that sentence is left out of the discussion, we'd all still be discussing this story and a fair number of people would still find it disturbing.

**Beeyotch** · November 3rd, 2014, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by Brah

When I was 5 or 6 I tried to convince all the kids in my afters-chool care to put stuffed animals down their pants, cause I found out it feels good when you walk around with a stuffed rabbit in your crotch. I only got like 2 other kids to actually do it. You do weird shit as a kid. Lame that this is what's getting a big uproar, and it's especially pathetic of those on the conservative site who purposefully changed the ages just to get more hits.

Now *that* is a funny childhood story. Take notes, Lena.

**idunno** · November 3rd, 2014, 09:51 PM

I don't think it's abuse either, but she probably wrote the story to gain more attention for her book. Mission accomplished.

**KrisNine** · November 3rd, 2014, 11:07 PM

I'm sure she's not a child molester, but I think the age difference is what is kind of off to me. She was 7 and the sister was 1? It's not kids that are roughly the same age, curious about each others equipment. At 7, I wouldn't think that a girl would be surprised to find out that another girl has a vagina and then decide to "probe" it. I guess that's where it gets disturbing and weird to me. I would find it less weird the sister was 5 or 6 and equally curious.

**nana51** · November 4th, 2014, 12:32 AM

Originally Posted by NoNoRehab

Truth Revolt is a disgusting blog with an agenda. They originally "mistakenly" wrote that Lena was seventeen at the time, rather than seven.

Gawker printed the relevant excerpt and it didn't seem like a big deal to me. Her mom had just taught her about vaginas and penises and she was playing outside with her little sister, thought, "I wonder if Grace has a vagina too" so she looked. Then she screamed because she saw her sister had put some pebbles in her crotch, so their mom came out of the house and dealt with it. To try and portray it as "sexual abuse" is an offense to those who've genuinely suffered.

Sorry, having been a girl (old lady now) and raising 2 girls I seriously doubt a one year old put pebbles in her vagina. Her mouth maybe, but at one they aren't doing much with their bodies unless it goes in their mouth. Lena put those pebbles in there and that is disturbing.

**InigoMontoya** · November 4th, 2014, 12:33 AM

What is off-putting to me is the language she (or her ghost writer) chose.

"I carefully spread open her vagina."

Getting to shit like that was the least of my concerns as a kid. I couldn't figure out men, much less someone else's vag or my own, at 7 and was never curious about either at that age.

**idunno** · November 4th, 2014, 01:47 AM

Originally Posted by KrisNine

I'm sure she's not a child molester, but I think the age difference is what is kind of off to me. She was 7 and the sister was 1? It's not kids that are roughly the same age, curious about each others equipment. At 7, I wouldn't think that a girl would be surprised to find out that another girl has a vagina and then decide to "probe" it. I guess that's where it gets disturbing and weird to me. I would find it less weird the sister was 5 or 6 and equally curious.

Yeah, I see it as a boundary issue more than abuse.

**Callalily** · November 4th, 2014, 02:24 AM

I wonder what was done to Lena to do all of that stuff to her baby sister. She sounds hyper sexual at such a young age. She couldn't find anyone at school her age to play those games with? Why take advantage of a baby? That is not normal at all. And no one can get me to believe that a freaking one year old shoved pebbles up her own vagina. Sounds like lena was being 'curious' and put them in there and dug them out herself, you know since she was just told about vagina's and all. The one year old just happened to put these pebbles up in there at that moment. Yeah. Okay.

I always thought she was a disgusting privileged brat. I knew one day she'd go to far with the attention whoring.

**ConstanceSpry** · November 4th, 2014, 11:37 AM

Lena D. seems to have absolutely no filter. Most kids experiment, but don't feel the need to talk about it as adults. She should have just kept all that stuff to herself, instead of being a big old attention whore.

**sputnik** · November 4th, 2014, 02:19 PM

^^^^
ever wonder why people don't talk about it, even though there's nothing wrong with it?
because of people's knee-jerk, puritanical reactions that see things through the lens of their adult, sexually repressed and warped minds, and not the way a child would, which doesn't even have a sexual element to it.
kids do weird and inappropriate things at that age when they're learning about bodies and boundaries and what's ok and not ok to do in public or to other people. most people forget about it or don't talk about it (because repression and taboo and it makes people uncomfortable) but that's not to say that there's anything wrong it it. which is why, even if she is an attention whore, there's something refreshing about the fact that she's putting all of that stuff in her book so that at least the discussion can take place. maybe not all kids do stuff like that but a lot of them do, and nothing she describes is exceptional or abnormal.

this is the passage in question:

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.
My mother came running. "Mama, Mama! Grace has something in there!"
My mother didn't bother asking why I had opened Grace's vagina. This was within the spectrum of things I did.

there was nothing sexual about her intentions. it was only a child expressing curiosity about a part of her sister's anatomy. most kids have a moment where they wonder if other kids have a vagina like they do, or a penis if it's a boy. there's nothing pervy or abusive about it, it's just children exploring theirs and other kids' bodies and sure, you have to explain to your kid that they can't go around touching other kids' genitals because that's not how you act in polite society but what kids are doing isn't sexual in any way, and to see it that way means that you're projecting your own, adult viewpoint onto what is nothing more than childhood curiosity.
and of course the fact that conservatives are the ones having a field day about this, is relevant. they're the ones obsessed with sex, who's having it, who's not, why, who can and can't have it, how much you can tell kids about it without running the risk of knowledge and information making them gay or slutty, and they're obsessed with sexualising things which aren't even sexual in the first place.

**Callalily** · November 4th, 2014, 04:13 PM

puritanical my ass, this little girl bribed her baby sister with candy and tv time in exchange for kisses, to get the little girl to lay on top of her, body touches. What little kid does that? that is learned predator behavior. She's so dismissive in recounting all of this. Like she's reminiscing on a smashing good time or something.

once upon a time, there was a little girl of 3 who told her mommy that her 5 year old family member touched her 'down there'. it was all fine and 'experimental' until someone asked the 5 year old why did they touch the 3 year old and the 5 year old told them that an older family member touched them 'there'. When questioning the 14 year old, it came out the the father was molesting 14 year old. True story.

There's normal sexual curiosity, sure. What Lena did to her baby sister was not. And looking at her parents, specifically her father I can see why this was so 'normal' in that household. Nobody can tell me that lena wasn't re-enacting what was done to her.