Lena Dunham was paid lots and lots of money to write a memoir. In it, she claimed to have been raped at Oberlin College by a “mustachioed campus Republican” named Barry. Barry wore purple cowboy boots and hosted a radio show that Dunham called by name. She assigned a number of other specific details to Barry. Also, she didn’t say that “Barry” was a pseudonym, as she did when writing about several other people who’ve been lucky enough to wander into her life.
One problem: Somebody actually did some fact-checking. There was only one campus Republican at Oberlin named Barry at the time, and he says he didn’t do it.
Another problem: There’s no evidence of anybody fitting “Barry’s” very specific description attending Oberlin at the time Dunham claims it happened.
Now Barry, who is an actual person with thoughts and feelings and an entire life of his own, has hired a lawyer. Random House is trying to avoid a lawsuit. Dunham can no longer pretend this isn’t happening. So, she’s penned a 1,269-word essay for BuzzFeed titled, “Why I Chose to Speak Out.” It’s every bit as level-headed and truthful as you’d expect.
You can read her self-pitying claptrap, if you think that’s a good use of your limited number of minutes on this planet, or you can save time with this graphic representation of how much she cares about the consequences of her actions. Note the sentence highlighted in blue:
If you can’t read the highlighted bit, it says: “I am sorry about all he has experienced.”
That’s it. Out of that entire narcissistic, blame-shifting screed, she devotes exactly eight words to expressing remorse for falsely accusing someone of rape. Eight halfhearted words, in the passive voice. Too bad about that innocent man whose life happened to get turned upside-down, just because I wanted to make a buck. Oh well.
Dunham’s check from Random House had a whole lot of zeroes. And so will their check to Barry.
P.S.
"This campus Republican named Barry raped me." "No I didn't." "Oh. Well… why is everybody blaming me for getting raped?!?" @LenaDunham
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) December 10, 2014
P.P.S. Dunham just added another zero to Barry’s check. She does not care about what she did to him, and she wants everybody to know it.