Have You Ever Had Sex with Your Younger Sister? Lena Dunham - Who is Lena Dunham and why should you care? The charming, feminist went delightfully subversive concerning sex and in a lighthearted way told the entire world about her closely kept secret? Who knows what might be true? Who told the story? Who wrote the book?

This week, Lena Dunham threatened to sue TruthRevolt.org, a 501(c)3 website I run, for covering her new book, Not That Kind of Girl. More specifically, 

she threatened to sue us for “millions of dollars,” as well as punitive damages, 

unless we both retracted a story about her book 

and ran something like the following apology:

We recently published a story stating that Ms. Dunham engaged in sexual conduct with her sister.  The story was false, and we deeply regret having printed it.  We apologize to Ms. Dunham, her sister, and their parents, for this false story.

What, specifically, was false? According to Dunham’s lawyers, by quoting her book and then stating that she “experiment[ed] sexually with her younger sister, Grace,” “experimented with her six-year younger sister’s vagina,” and “use[d] her little sister at times essentially as a sexual outlet,” we had defamed her. Of course, all of those characterizations of Dunham’s activities were based directly on her book.

In her book, Dunham describes sexually abusing her sister.

She tells the story of “lean[ing] down between her legs and carefully spreading open her vagina…My mother didn’t bother asking why I had opened Grace’s vagina. This was within the spectrum of things I did.” 

Dunham says that she was seven years old and her sister one at the time, but the other elements of the story – her sister had “stuffed six or seven pebbles in there” as a “prank” – suggest that the two girls may have been older. (It is extraordinarily unlikely that a one-year-old would be playing pranks by shoving objects up her vagina, and it is even odder that a one-year-old would shove pebbles up her vagina for her sister to find unless there was prior history of such activity).

This passage has drawn the most scrutiny, because it is most arguable as to its sexual abuse – there are some who claim that children of seven years of age investigating the genitals of younger children is “relatively common,” like Debby Hebernick of Indiana University School of Public Health. “That doesn’t mean it’s OK,” Hebernick added, although USA Today ran a whole article attempting to slough off the incident.

Of course, the media largely neglected to quote the other problematic portions of Dunham’s book with regard to her sister. In a second section, Dunham writes:

As she grew, I took to bribing her for her time and affection: one dollar in quarters if I could do her makeup like a “motorcycle chick.” Three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds. Whatever she wanted to watch on TV if she would just “relax on me.” Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying.

How old was Dunham when she was bribing her younger sister to kiss her on the lips or “relax” on her in the manner of a “sexual predator”? If she paid her sister to dress like a “motorcycle chick” at the same time that she paid her for kisses, that would apparently make Dunham 11 and her sister 5, given that Dunham has tweeted a picture of her 5-year-old sister dressed as a “Hell’s Angel sex property,” complete with lipstick and fake breasts.

And Dunham writes, too, of masturbating in bed as a teenager next to her prepubescent sister:

I shared a bed with my sister, Grace, until I was seventeen years old. She was afraid to sleep alone and would begin asking me around 5:00 P.M. every day whether she could sleep with me. I put on a big show of saying no, taking pleasure in watching her beg and sulk, but eventually I always relented. Her sticky, muscly little body thrashed beside me every night as I read Anne Sexton, watched reruns of SNL, sometimes even as I slipped my hand into my underwear to figure some stuff out.

But we were the bad guys for calling this sexually abusive behavior.

Originally, Dunham went on a self-described Twitter “rage spiral,” writing that accusations that she “molested my little sister isn’t just LOL – it’s really fucking upsetting and disgusting.” She then added “by the way, if you were a little kid and never looked at another little kid’s vagina, well, congrats to you.” She did not congratulate those who did not dress their siblings up as sex properties, or pay them for prolonged mouth kisses, or masturbate in bed beside them.

After Dunham issued her legal threat regarding our original article, she went silent on Twitter. A few days later, she issued a statement via her friends at Time.com, in which she said that she did not “condone any kind of abuse under any circumstances.” She then added:

Childhood sexual abuse is a life-shattering event for so many, and I have been vocal about the rights of survivors. If the situations described in my book have been painful or triggering for people to read, I am sorry, as that was never my intention. I am also aware that the comic use of the term “sexual predator” was insensitive, and I’m sorry for that as well.

In her Time statement, Dunham did not alter any of her original narrative, nor did she explain why her behavior did not constitute sexual abuse. She simply said that her sister, Grace, had approved the writing. And Grace defended her sister by stating, “As a queer person: i'm committed to people narrating their own experiences, determining for themselves what has and has not been harmful,” and blaming “heteronormativity” for the hubbub.

That’s nonsense on stilts – we didn’t back off of Ray Rice’s assault against his then-fiancée just because she defended him. There are standards of sexual abuse, and Dunham’s behavior fits within them (huge portion of sexual abuse happens within families, and 31 percent of female sexual abuse victimizers were younger than 12, according to the US Department of Justice). That’s why even those on Dunham’s side of the political aisle are wildly uncomfortable with her revelations, including Samantha Allen of The Daily Beast, or Monica Weymouth of PhillyMag.com, or Sara Luckey at Feminspire, or Perez Hilton. John V. Caffaro, Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology, writes at The Washington Post:

Drawing a conclusion about Dunham’s interactions with her sister is impossible without much more contextual information about her family.  But, in general, the topic of sibling sexual abuse is more common than many realize and deserves much more discussion than it has received. Sibling sexual abuse is the most closely kept secret in the field of family violence.

If Dunham were a boy doing this to his brother or sister, everyone would rightly see her behavior for what it was – and certainly her lighthearted writing about it at age 28 would be seen as perverse. If Dunham were named Bristol Palin, the helicopters would never stop swirling over Wasilla, and the calls for prosecution would come from the same people now defending Dunham. If Dunham weren’t a leftist feminist icon, who would be covering for her now?

Dunham never even thought, apparently, that writing publicly about her behavior might be problematic. That’s what happens when you live within a leftist bubble in which your every sexual thought is labeled cute, charming, feminist, and delightfully subversive. But that doesn’t mean that suing those who disagree is permitted by the First Amendment, or that sickening behavior is justifiable.

Lena Dunham put a halt to her international book tour this past weekend after disturbing passages from her new memoir, Not That Kind of Girl, went viral and led to child molestation allegations.

Dunham wrote on Twitter that her words, which were quoted directly from her book, were twisted around to fit a specific agenda.

The right wing news story that I molested my little sister isn't just LOL- it's really fucking upsetting and disgusting.

— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) November 1, 2014

According to some of her feminist counterparts, what's upsetting and disturbing may be Dunham's own writing. On (p. 158-9) the author reflects on a time she examined her younger sister Grace's vagina:

"Do we all have uteruses?” I asked my mother when I was seven.

“Yes,” she told me. “We’re born with them, and with all our eggs, but they start out very small. And they aren’t ready to make babies until we’re older.” I look at my sister, now a slim, tough one-year-old, and at her tiny belly. I imagined her eggs inside her, like the sack of spider eggs in Charlotte’s Web, and her uterus, the size of a thimble.

“Does her vagina look like mine?”

“I guess so,” my mother said. “Just smaller.”

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. She just got on her knees and looked for herself. It quickly became apparent that Grace had stuffed six or seven pebbles in there. My mother removed them patiently while Grace cackled, thrilled that her prank had been a success.

Women who claim to be liberals and feminists, similar to Dunham, are disturbed by her revelations and have since turned to social media to discuss her behavior.

I am a Democrat. I am a Feminist. I think that Lena Dunham molested her sister.

— Caroline Skelton (@skeltoncaroline) November 3, 2014

I'm sorry,I'm a woman,a feminist,a Liberal,&VERY accepting of others' choices,BUT Lena Dunham is MORE than wrong about sister! #UniteBlue

— Jackie (@thedahlimmama) November 3, 2014

As a feminist/sexual abuse survivor, I'm very disturbed by wider feminism's defense of Lena Dunham for everything she's done to her sister.

— Misandry Paige (@MsAshleighPaige) November 3, 2014

As a feminist, I'd never heard of Lena Dunham. She does not speak for the movement I support.

— Ashley Lambeast (@ALambeast) November 3, 2014

Also in her new book, Dunham accused a "mustachioed campus Republican" named Barry of raping her when she was 19-years-old. Recent reports by Breitbart News suggest the Girls star, a campus sexual assault activist, hasn't helped law enforcement with the investigation of the alleged crimes.

Dunham has spent the last several months advocating through Twitter for reproductive rights, trying to keep sexist politicians out of office, while also promoting her new book. She's been so proactive on social media, she even released a stream of PSA's urging women to vote ahead of the midterms.

In light of the child molestation allegations and a major loss for the Democratic party on Tuesday, Dunham has gone silent on Twitter. While a majority of Hollywood spent election day promoting their various causes, Dunham hasn't said a word. She did apologize to her fans in Germany for canceling her book tour.

In the midst of the controversy, the Guardian released an interview Sunday in which Dunham summed up her goals as a modern-day feminist.

"If feminism has to become a brand in order to fully engulf our culture and make change, I’m not complaining," she said.

Dunham describes three instances of, um, inappropriate contact with her little sister. In one, she recalls the time when she was seven and she pried her one-year-old sister’s vagina open. Her mother didn’t mind, she said, because this was ‘within the spectrum’ of the things she typically did.

In another, Dunham tells us of reoccurring incidents where she, as she grew older, would ‘bribe’ her sister into kissing her on the mouth for five seconds. She would go to great lengths to cajole the young girl into these kissing sessions, ‘trying anything a sex offender might do to woo a small suburban girl.’

Finally, we’re regaled with tales of Dunham’s 17-year-old self masturbating in bed with her sister’s ‘sticky, muscly body thrashing beside [her].’

Disgusting.

And it doesn’t end there.

Today, Breitbart uncovered an old photo Dunham posted to her Instagram account of her five-year-old sister done up in lipstick and fake breasts, wearing a ‘motorcycle chic’ t-shirt. The HBO star nostalgically mused that the picture shows us the ‘time [she] dressed [her] 5-year-old sister up as a Hell’s Angels sex property.’

I won’t link to the photo here because it feels like something dangerously close to child pornography, but it’s out there if you really want to see it for yourself (you don’t, trust me).

Of course, Dunham was shocked and offended by all of these conservative outlets libelously quoting her word-for-word and entirely in context. She stomped her feet and yelled about “old men” attacking her (which is strange because most of the critics I’ve seen have been young females who, apparently, never poked around in their sibling’s genitalia or paid their sisters to make out with them) and threatened to sue for ‘defamation.’ If she wins, it would be the first time anyone has ever essentially won a defamation lawsuit against themselves. This seems improbable, but who knows? Maybe the Justice Department will step in and see this thing through.

Now, obviously these stories are gross and outrageous. Are they tantamount to sexual assault? I’d say the kissing and the masturbating episodes come the closest. Certainly, a seven-year-old can’t be guilty of child molestation. By definition, such a crime can only be committed by an adult. That said, a child can be guilty of sexual assault, and if this kind of thing went on regularly then I think a case can be made for that term to be applied.

Much is made of Dunham inspecting her sister’s genitals, but the other scenarios are far more damning. For one thing, Dunham was older when they happened. For another, they go beyond anything that can be called ‘curiosity’ and become, in Dunham’s own words, something similar to what a ‘sex offender’ might do.

But the exact label for the behavior doesn’t matter. We all (well, the sane ones) recognize that it’s completely inappropriate and deeply troubling. And, whatever the child version of Lena Dunham did, the fact remains that the adult version saw fit to share these details like they’re amusing little anecdotes.