Can a 7-year-old be considered a child molester?
Lena Dunham, creator of HBO series “Girls,” is known for her liberal political views. If you’ve ever seen the show, you can pick up on the type of woman Dunham is fairly quickly. Her character, Hannah Horvath, isn’t shy about spilling the beans or spilling out her girls when an opportunity presents itself.
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Dunham has shifted gears lately, focusing more on the promotional tour of her book, “Not That Kind of Girl,” a collection of autobiographical essays. After reading it, you may experience awkwardness, adoration or sensory violation. Whichever it is, the book is sure to elicit strong reactions.
Via: Salon
Some of the essays involve Dunham’s younger sister, Grace, exploring the intimate sides of their body. Yes, I realized that sentence sounded creepy. The following is an excerpt:
“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.”
Dunham is receiving a lot of criticism from conservative publications. Truth Revolt, a right-wing political online publication accused Lena of molesting her sister. Truth Revolt commonly bashes liberal public figures like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and, recently, the Pope for accepting gays into the church. The National Review commented on Dunham’s essay with, “And they (Dunham’s parents) were, in their daughter’s telling, enablers of some very disturbing behavior that would be considered child abuse in many jurisdictions…” Red State Weekly announced that they would cover “apparent child molester,” Lena Dunham.
These accusations and assertions fail to acknowledge two distinct points. The first being that Dunham was only 7 during said incident. She was just a child being curious. That right-wing talking heads don’t see any issue in characterizing a child as a child molester is almost funny but mostly idiotic.
And second, all children go through psychosexual development. If you need to brush up on your psychology, “psychosexual development” refers to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s theory that all humans go through five sexual discovery stages throughout their life. According to this theory, those who complete each stage within their established time period are considered sexually healthy.
In her essay, Dunham claims that her episode with Grace took place when she was 7. According to Freud’s theory, that was Dunham’s “latency stage,” which is characterized by the suppression of sexual impulses and the interest in focusing on the same sex. Therefore, Dunham was curious about female body parts and exploring her own body.
Dunham’s responses to these accusations, which she labeled a “rage spiral,” are justified because accusing someone of being a child molester is serious and should not be taken lightly. We’re talking about violating the innocence of a child here, so if these publications are going to that extreme they need to prove that 7-year-olds are capable of much more than writing their ABCs and coloring within the lines.
Dunham tweeted her anger to the masses.
Via: TIME
Via: TIME
Via: TIME
Via: TIME
Via: TIME
These accusations angered Dunham to the point of her canceling her book tour in Europe to sue Truth Revolt for their libelous statements, according to ABC News.
Dunham is obviously taking the backlash to her book very seriously. Sexual molestation is a topic Dunham has spoken out against in the past, most recently when allegations were brought against Woody Allen.
The title of “child molester” is a heavy one. You can’t label a 7-year-old girl as such when she herself is a child, one who does not understand the consequences of actions by virtue of innocence. The right-wing media should have taken that into consideration before slandering Dunham’s name.
Featured photo courtesy of: LA Times
