Lena Dunham's Fans Bail on Her in Light of Sexual Assault Controversy

Lena Dunham's trouble over her comments about sexual assault don't seem to be ending. The Girls [...]

By Michael Hein

Lena Dunham's trouble over her comments about sexual assault don't seem to be ending. The Girls showrunner got herself into hot water when she decided to vouch for her friend, Murray Miller when he was accused of sexual assault. Despite issuing an apology, Dunham continues to lose followers by the hundreds and thousands.

Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner -- executive producers on HBO's Girls -- made a joint statement last week, suggesting that actress Aurora Perrineau was lying in her rape accusation against Murray Miller. The actress says that Miller sexually assaulted her while they were working on the movie Passengers, back when Perrineau was just 17.

The next day, Dunham issued an apology on Twitter, stating that she realized her remarks were untimely, and that Perrineau deserved to have her story heard without Dunham's influence playing a part. It seems that backpedaling didn't have the effect Dunham was hoping for.

Stats from Dunham's personal Instagram and Twitter account show a rapid loss in followers and engagement. Within 24 hours of posing her apology, Dunham had lost about four thousand followers. The next day, she lost about three thousand. A week later, she's still losing an average of nearly five hundred followers per day.

Dunham's personal social media presence isn't the only thing that's suffering. Her site Lenny Letter is losing subscribers for its news letter, and its Twitter account is suffering as well.

The day after Dunham's apology, one of Lenny Letter's writers posted a long statement about why she had decided to leave the site. Zinzi Clemmons wrote that Dunham's defense of Miller was part of a hypocritical pattern for the showrunner. She encouraged other writers -- especially women of color -- to "divest from Lena Dunham," and accused her of "hipster-racism."


Dunham has been mostly quiet since her apology last week. Perrineau's case is still under investigation with the LAPD.

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