Actress Lena Dunham’s shocking allegation that she was raped by a Republican named Barry on her college campus has been highly
disputed by Breitbart News.
Dunham, creator and star of the HBO series “Girls,” made the accusation in her best-selling memoir "Not That Kind of Girl" while recalling her time at Oberlin College, a liberal arts school in Ohio.
But Breitbart’s John Nolte said that after more than a dozen interviews, a trip to the campus, and countless hours researching college archives, her description of the campus remains the only detail he was able to verify of her rape claim.
“Under scrutiny, Dunham's rape story didn’t just fall apart, it evaporated into pixie dust and blew away,” Nolte wrote.
In one chapter titled “Girls and Jerks” in the book, Dunham tells of an "ill-fated evening of lovemaking with our campus's resident conservative," without naming him or suggesting she was raped, Breitbart reported.
In the next chapter titled “Barry,” Dunham backtracks on her previous claims of consensual sex. Instead, Dunham says that after a night of drinking and taking drugs, including cocaine, she took Barry back to her campus apartment where she detailed their “dark sexual encounter,” which ended when she threw him out.
Dunham appears to use unprintable words and phrases in the chapter that indicate the sex may have been consensual, although she also claims that she needed medical treatment due to the rough nature of the encounter, Breitbart reported.
When she recounted the story to friends and co-workers, they told her she had been raped, according to Nolte, quoting the book. Dunham also told in her just-released memoir that Barry had a history of violence against other women.
During her recent book tour, when radio superstar Howard Stern asked her, "you were raped by a guy?" she replied with a simple, “yes.”
Breitbart was able to track down a “prominent Republican” named Barry who attended Oberlin at the time Dunham claims she was raped when she was 19. Nolte calls him “Barry One” throughout the detailed, 4,000-word investigative piece because his last name has not been revealed.
“Whatever her motives, Dunham is pointing her powerful finger at this man,” Nolte wrote. “But the facts do not point back at him. Not even close. This man is by all accounts (including his own) innocent.
“Nonetheless, even though she is aware of the suspicion she placed this man under, to our knowledge, Dunham has yet to clear his name.”
In a recent
National Review article on the allegation, Barry is portrayed as a family man who is terrified that his full name will be published.
“The man we call Barry One…the man legions have found online using details published in 'Not That Kind of Girl' is very real,” wrote Nolte.
“And what's unforgivable is that through an incomprehensible malice or a combination of breathtaking carelessness and a number of unthinkable coincidences, in the courtroom of public opinion, Lena Dunham is pointing her powerful finger at this man and screaming 'rapist.'
“It’s not unheard of for a 28-year-old woman like Lena Dunham to be this selfish and reckless. The real question is, how did this get through her publisher Random House? Meanwhile, Barry One has to hide his Facebook page and retain an attorney.”
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