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The allegations stem from a chapter in Dunham's new book "Not That Kind of Girl," in which she describes an incident that occurred when she was seven-years-old and she "spread open" her one-year-old sister's vagina to see whether it was "like mine."
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Truth Revolt today said they received a "cease and desist" letter from Dunham's camp, demanding they remove an article posted on sections of her book, and that legal action would follow if they did not both delete the article, as well as print a note, with the language suggested below:
We recently published a story stating that Ms. Dunham engaged in sexual conduct with her sister. The story was false, and we deeply regret having printed it. We apologize to Ms. Dunham, her sister, and their parents, for this false story.
Truth Revolt publicly responded by stating:
We refuse. We refuse to withdraw our story or apologize for running it, because quoting a woman's book does not constitute a "false" story, even if she is a prominent actress and left-wing activist. Lena Dunham may not like our interpretation of her book, but unfortunately for her and her attorneys, she wrote that book - and the First Amendment covers a good deal of material she may not like...
We also look forward to asking her why she believes it is now appropriate for a 28-year-old woman to make light of opening her baby sister's vagina...
...for a woman who proclaims to be an advocate for freedom of speech to attempt to shut down such speech based on her own apparent embarrassment at her own disclosures in her own book demonstrates the totalitarianism of those on the left.
While Dunham's own sister has come to her defense, as have her friends, many on Twitter are also disturbed by the book chapter:
"Do we all have uteruses?" I asked my mother when I was seven.
"Yes," she told me. "We're born with them, and with all our eggs, but they start out very small. And they aren't ready to make babies until we're older."
I looked at my sister, now a slim, tough one-year-old, and at her tiny belly. I imagined her eggs inside her, like the sack of spider eggs in Charlotte's Web, and her uterus, the size of a thimble.
"Does her vagina look like mine?"
"I guess so," my mother said. "Just smaller."
One day, as I sat in our driveway in Long Island playing with blocks and buckets, my curiosity got the best of me. 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 that 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 such a success.
The current controversy has caused Dunham to cancel her two upcoming stops on her current book tour: