Lena Dunham is finally addressing all that rape story controversy.
The actress, who penned a narrative detailing her alleged sexual assault in her book “Not That Kind of Girl,” wrote a post for BuzzFeed Tuesday that included an apology.
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Specifically, Dunham emphasized the fact that the name “Barry” — used in her book to denote her rapist — is a pseudonym, and she said “sorry” to any men who were accused of being her attacker because of their names and likeness to her descriptions.
The actress was indirectly apologizing to an individual who has been identified by many people as the “Barry” described in Dunham’s book, the lawyer for whom demanded Dunham issue an “apology and exoneration” or at least make clear that the name “Barry” was used in place of her attacker’s real name.
Prior to Dunham’s BuzzFeed post, her publisher Random House released a statement alerting to the use of the pseudonym and offered to pay the real Barry’s legal fees.
“As indicated in the beginning of the book, I made the choice to keep certain identities private, changing names and some descriptive details,” Dunham explained in the article. “To be very clear, ‘Barry’ is a pseudonym, not the name of the man who assaulted me, and any resemblance to a person with this name is an unfortunate and surreal coincidence. I am sorry about all he has experienced.”
Dunham went on to slam the skepticism, questioning and hate she has been met with because of her story, in particular knocking reporters for attempting to discover the identity of her attacker.
“I have had my character and credibility questioned at every turn,” she wrote. “I have been attacked online with violent and misogynistic language. Reporters have attempted to uncover the identity of my attacker despite my sincerest attempts to protect this information. My work has been torn apart in an attempt to prove I am a liar, or worse, a deviant myself.”
Presumably, Dunham was slamming news outlets like Breitbart that have investigated her story to examine its validity.
She concluded the post with more general comments about the country’s treatment of sexual assault survivors and underlined the need for individuals to support rape victims who have the courage to tell their stories.
