Lena Dunham Recounts College Date Rape

“Girls” star and creator Lena Dunham takes on a slew of topics (some humors, some painful) in her new memoir, including a sexual assault that took place during college.

The 28-year-old recounts the date rape in her new memoir, “Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s ‘Learned,'” which was released this week.

“I feel like there are fifty ways it’s my fault. I fantasized. I took the big pill and the small pill, stuffed myself with substances to make being out in the world with people my own age a little bit easier. To lessen the space between me and everyone else. I was hungry to be seen. But I also know that at no moment did I consent to being handled that way. I never gave him permission to be rough, to [have intercourse] without a barrier between us. I never gave him permission. In my deepest self I know this and the knowledge of it has kept me from sinking,” Lena writes in the memoir.

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In an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” on Tuesday, the star spoke further about the sexual assault.

“It was a painful experience physically and emotionally and one I spent a long time trying to reconcile,” Lena said. “I actually [have] been thinking about it a lot this week because I sent an email to somebody who I had known at that time who knew the guy who had perpetrated the act…I wanted to make it clear to this old friend what I felt had happened before he potentially…read about it.

“I hated the idea of somebody finding out that information [without a heads-up] because at the time that it happened, it wasn’t something I was able to be honest about,” she continued. “I was able to share pieces, but I used the lens of humor, which has always been my default-mode to try to talk around it.”

By writing about the assault, the “Girls” star felt freed from the painful experience.

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“I said to this old friend in an email: ‘I spent so much time scared; I spent so much time ashamed. I don’t feel that way anymore and it’s not because of my job, it’s not because of my boyfriend, it’s not because of feminism, though all those things helped. It’s because I told the story,” she explained. “And I’m still here, and my identity hasn’t shifted in some way that I can’t repair. And I still feel like myself and I feel less alone.'”

Lena also addressed critics who say she’s prone to “oversharing.”

“The term ‘oversharing’ is so complicated because I do think that it’s really gendered. I think when men share their experiences, it’s bravery and when women share their experiences, it’s…’TMI,'” she said during the interview. “Too much information has always been my least favorite phrase because what exactly constitutes too much information? It seems like it has a lot to do with who is giving you the information, and I feel as though there’s some sense that society trivializes female experiences. And so when you share them, they aren’t considered as vital as their male counterparts’ [experiences], and that’s something that I’ve always roundly rejected.”

— Jesse Spero