Lena Dunham Tumblr ‘Those Kinds Of Girls’ Shares Similar Childhood Sexual Experiences

When Lena Dunham’s book Not That Kind of Girl came out at the end of October, it encountered a small problem when the public took issue with Lena hiring local talent without paying them to perform on her book tour. The controversy was small — tiny even compared to other issues that could have tarnished a book launch.

But little did Dunham know that more than a month after her memoir Not That Kind Girl had already made the rounds in most of the media, a column would emerge saying that a key passage in Not That Kind of Girl involves Lena, at the age of 7, making sexual advances on her younger sister.

Since then, Dunham has denounced the interpretation, saying that it was nothing more than an account of childhood sexual curiosity. Some women agree — enough that they have formed a Tumblr where they share similar experiences to Lena’s.

“I masturbated in the same room as a friend when I was 10 yrs old because I was feeling aroused and wanted to satisfy myself and didn’t understand that there was a stigma. I didn’t realise, but she was watching me curiously as I did it and later told me she was relieved because she did it too.”

Several of the stories also feature women who engaged in the activity with members of their own family, much like Dunham’s own story.

“The only secret I’ve kept for my whole life due to feeling ashamed and very guilty is that when I was about 5 or 6, I remember being curious about bodies. Me and my little brother (3) used to play doctors together, which would mainly involve him putting a tray under my t-shirt (?). Then we started to pretend to play mummy and daddy, and he would lie on top of me without his pants on.”

The space for sharing stories of childhood sexual exploration was created by Collier and Willis Aronowitz. Both of the women felt personally affronted by the accusations against Lena.

“When the [Lena Dunham] controversy took a more serious turn; when I saw folks calling her a molester, calling for her to step down from her role at Planned Parenthood, I had a moment where I was like ‘uhm, if Lena Dunham is a child molester, so is everyone. Suddenly the shame I felt about the experiences I had as a child melted away and I felt emboldened by the critics. My hope is that if we tell our stories, we can chip away at the puritanical model clearly planted in us all. It’s freeing to tell these stories.”

What do you think about the other stories that have been shared to justify Lena Dunham’s?

[Image via Download Wallpapers]