In a brutally honest passage of her new book, Not That Kind of Girl Lena Dunham has revealed that she was date raped while she was at college.
The hard-hitting chapter reveals how Lena was the victim of an “aggressive” sexual encounter when she was only half conscious during her college days.
The Girls actress explained that she was hurt so badly that she needed medical attention. Lena went on to admit that she hadn’t been sure how to term what had happened to her and confessed that she had blamed herself, as she felt like it was her own fault for being drunk.
“I was at a party, drunk, waiting for attention,” the actress told NPR. “And somehow, that felt like such a shameful starting off point that I didn’t know how to reconcile what had come after. But I knew that it wasn’t right and I knew in some way that this experience had been forced on me.
“I didn’t really go to any more parties. I just stopped going. I stopped putting myself into – I don’t think I – I basically didn’t have a drink for the rest of college. It was a painful experience physically and emotionally. And one I spent a long time trying to reconcile.”
The brave actress has since emailed a friend of the man in question explaining how what happened has affected her.
“As I said to this old friend in an email, I said 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. And I still feel like myself and I feel less alone.
“The chapter about date rape in the book was a really, really terrifying thing for me to put into the world ..we are also having this massive moment of cultural awareness about campus assault, which is a very gratifying thing to see and I hope it leads to incredible change. “But at the same time, I think I knew that sharing that experience was – I not only felt it was important because of what I was seeing other young women go through, I felt it was important because of what it was going to give me spiritually to not be hiding that anymore.”
The Rape Crisis centre states that: “If you have been raped the most important thing to remember is that it was not your fault. It is irrelevant what you were wearing, how much you had to drink or whether you were in your own home or out for the evening – you did not ask to be raped. The blame is entirely with the perpetrators.”
