The Other Collapsing Campus Rape Story
Lena Dunham’s story of rape at Oberlin is raising questions.
The crumbling of Rolling Stone’s story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia is sending shock waves through the media this weekend but there’s another rape story which is also now being questioned.
Lena Dunham of the HBO program ‘Girls’ claimed in her recent memoir ‘Not That Kind of Girl’ that she was raped by a Republican student while attending Oberlin. Breitbart News has conducted an extensive investigation of her claim and the facts are coming up short.
John Nolte reports:
INVESTIGATION: Lena Dunham ‘Raped by a Republican’ Story in Bestseller Collapses Under Scrutiny
After a month-long investigation that included more than a dozen interviews, a trip to the Oberlin campus, and hours spent poring through the Oberlin College archives, her description of the campus remains the only detail Breitbart News was able to verify in Dunham’s story of being raped by a campus Republican named Barry.
On top of the name Barry, which Dunham does not identify as a pseudonym (more on the importance of this below), Dunham drops close to a dozen specific clues about the identity of the man she alleges raped her as a 19-year-old student. Some of the details are personality traits like his being a “poor loser” at poker. Other details are quite specific. For instance, Dunham informs us her rapist sported a flamboyant mustache, worked at the campus library, and even names the radio talk show he hosted.
To be sure we get the point, on three occasions Dunham tells her readers that her attacker is a Republican or a conservative, and a prominent one at that — no less than the “campus’s resident conservative.”
For weeks, and to no avail, using phone and email and online searches, Breitbart News was able to verify just one of these details.
Nolte’s report is long but worth reading in full.
Breitbart’s investigative work was so thorough that Eugene Volokh of the Washington Post is already entertaining a scenario in which the accused man identified as ‘Barry’ could sue Dunham.
Could ‘Barry’ sue Lena Dunham over her memoirs?
A reader writes:
I think … VC/Wapo readers (including those sympathetic to Ms. Dunham) would be interested in your thoughts on whether Barry “One” (as the … Breitbart article refers to him) has a potential cause of action against Lena Dunham and/or Random House for negligence, [intentional infliction of emotional distress], false light, libel, whatever (assuming he can prove that he did not rape or otherwise have sex with Ms. Dunham as described in her memoir). At least to me, the question of whether an author can be held liable (consistent with the First Amendment) for intentionally or unintentionally (but negligently, if proved) ruining an innocent person’s reputation or life, is very interesting …. And in the Breitbart article, it mentions that Barry has hired a lawyer, so legal action may be being contemplated (in the Kevin Williamson piece in National Review … Barry expresses that this is taking an immense, negative toll on him and his family).
A very interesting question, to which it turns out that there’s a good legal answer (assuming we can figure out the facts).
1. Lena Dunham’s memoir describes her having sex with someone named Barry, whom she labels as Oberlin’s “resident conservative.” Her description seems to me to leave it somewhat ambiguous as to whether Barry raped her, but it does describe some sexual behavior by Barry that at the very least reflects badly on him.
This was a bad week for rape culture activists but a win for due process.
Featured image via Breitbart video.
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Comments
Dunham deserves to be smacked down..HARD.
Hard enough to remove her from the public stage.
Erdely deserves to be smacked down HARD–hard enough to remove her from the public stage.
Nolte did a great job on that story but it was buried by the implosion of the UVA case.
NOLTE needs to keep pursuing this story.
Of particular note was the inquiry into the campus radio shows that aired at the time. The woman in charge of the archived records of shows and hosts first offered to help the research – until she found it was intended to identify the man Dunham accused (no other radio stations in the area had aired such a talk show).
As soon as she figured out the information might be used to check the veracity of Dunham’s tale, she refused to cooperate and block further inquiries. De lyin’ ‘ho’s takes care dere own.
rape culture activists = rape truthers
More like “Truth rapers”, don’t you think?
This is another product of the left’s “victim culture” coupled with the reliance of feelings and emotions to sustain their movement as a whole and themselves as people.
Leftists love, adore and reward “victims” with praise, love (which most of them never knew), fame and hierarchy/rank within both their hive and the pantheon of that particular victimhood.
That is why there are so many fake cases of rape, racist graffiti, discrimination, etc. Why do they make up these things at the risk of being caught? The risk/reward dynamic is tilted well in their favor.
Leftists thrive on emotion, both given and received, because they have nothing else. This is tacit admission that their lives, beliefs and politics are so lacking and unsupportable on a factual and human level.
In short, Leftists are empty shells that must be filled with a strong, emotional, visceral tonic to survive. If they can’t get those emotional needs met through drugs, sex, alcohol or thrill seeking, they seek some form of replacement adoration.
Hence, the number of narcissists on the Left. And serial liars. That’s why the Left never punishes liars from their own ranks.
Think about it.
It’s business as usual in general and fanaticism in particular when the target is a Republican, or someone the alleged victims CLAIMS is Republican.
She’s a loser, trying to make a bigger name for her no-talent self. She’s tatted up white trash with bad teeth and a weight problem. How else is she going to advance herself? Memoirs at her age? She’s as narcissistic as Obama is.
She is one messed up broad. Here’s a little something from Lena Dunham’s Intagram account that some may find disturbing,
http://instagram.com/p/fT7ugRi1Ob
She is shameless.
How utterly vile, but it certainly exemplifies the sickness in her personality.
She seems to have a need to defile – defile her sister, defile herself with the tattoos and demeanor; now defile a young man. I’d say her perversity is escalating.
One way or another, everything this woman does or says has an ultimate result of focusing great attention on her genitals. She needs help.
Dunham is a typical progressive. I guess mental instability is the new normal.
I wonder how many of these young women who claim to be victims of sexual assualt are on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications?
There seems to be a vicious cycle at work among the media/academic complex. Both the media and so called feminusts actively promote female exhibitionism and promiscuity as a form of empowerment, Then when young women who engage in these behaviors complain of feeling empty and self destructive instead of truly empowered, they are prescribed psychotropic medications. Sich medications can impair judgement.
There is truly some willful blindness at work here. A few months ago, a Duke co-ed who had been featured in some choke pron videos was celebrated as an example of the new female empowerment. Some people who actually watched the degrading vidoes noticed something that belied the narrarive. “Belle Knox” bore the scars of a cutter on her thighs, including scars that spelled out “FAT”. It seemed to many that now instead of mutilating herself, Knox deals with emotional pain by gagging on the semen of anonymous sex partners. For this she gets appearances on “The View”.
Why on earth is the media celebrating women as sick as and Dunham and Knox?
When you get a minute research the psychiatric disorder Borderline Personality Disorder. Self-mutilation and BPD are almost synonymous, and a history of childhood sexual abuse is very common. The symptoms for BPD mirror Dunham’s and Knox’s behaviors well.
Everything Dunham does and says indicates quite clearly that something untoward was going on at home when she was young.
Her parents need some investigating.
I also read that she felt ‘disrespected’ on campus by various people, which I’m sure was meant to imply conservatives and religious folks. Imagine that… she can subject herself to literal beatings by dozens of anonymous penises in front of a camera and that’s all good. But if someone expresses disdain for that behavior, or perhaps even she just THINKS they disdain her behavior, THEN she is offended. Prog logic for sure.
It’s as if progs don’t understand the fundamental meanings of words, such as ‘respect.’ I guess these days respect is like a little league participation ribbon… everybody gets one just for showing up, no matter how poorly you play the game (of life).
Per what she wrote in her book, SHE is the rapist of her younger sister.
She is another example of what Leftists ARE, they accuse others of being or doing.
She is an annoying no-talent pedophile shock activist.
Can’t wait until I never hear or see her again as I actively ignore her – but do find her comeuppance gratifying.
My understanding is that now that Barry One – the only Republican Barry at Oberlin at the time, and the only one with that name who graduated in the given span – has been essentially identified, he has retained counsel and is raising a legal fund to sue. Any donations over actual costs will be given to non-profits helping sexual assault victims.
Since has reportedly contacted Dunham’s representatives several times requesting she publicly state he is not the ‘rapist’ in her book, and been refused and then ignored, he may well have a good case.
I hope he takes all her book money, her HBO money, and her tattoo money.
Leave her the cupcake money. No point in being cruel.
I simply cannot understand why anyone pays any attention to anything this creature says. She is waaaay beyond tacky and edging into scum. Having gotten that off my chest, I cannot help but wonder about her repeatedly saying that she was raped by a Republican. Who says that?
“Did you see who raped you Miss”, asks the officer.
“It was a Republican”, replies the victim.
Are you kidding me? This is just another instance of the so-called feminists attacking conservatives.
Another complaint I have is how the hell do they get off calling themselves “feminists”. I’m a female, have been for a very long time and they sure as hell don’t represent me.
Identifying her “attacker” as a “Republican” was the first dead giveaway I saw that this was another hoax. That was said so obviously for media attention, it’d be laughable if it wasn’t so sick.
But it also demonstrates what easy targets ‘pubs are considered by the media and entertainment industry when even a dumb blob like this pig realizes that that’s an easy way to get attention and start a bandwagon. If she’d said nothing about politics or said he was a ‘rat? Crickets or naysayers, much less interest, much more doubt.
More likely she receives a tenured position at a major American university. When did bad behavior ever operate to injure the career of a Leftist?
She’ll replace Rosie O’Donnell on The View.
Loud-mouthed Rosie’s on The View? Surely she wouldn’t take second seat. What happened to the loud-mouthed black chick that was running the show?
Hey if Ventura can sue Chris Kyle’s estate for Kyle’s account of a bar fight this should be a slam dunk.
I find it hard to believe that someone as liberal as Lena Dunham would have dated a Republican in the first place. It would go against everything she believes in. That alone should be the first clue that she is lying about being raped.