Justice

Lena Dunham Responds to Everyone Accusing Her of Sexism and Racism

September 3rd 2016

Lena Dunham received a lot of criticism after she said New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. intentionally ignored her at the Met Gala in New York City.

lena-dunhamAP/Danny Moloshok - twitter.com

"I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards," Dunham was quoted saying in an interview with comedian Amy Schumer, which was published in Dunham's weekly newsletter Lenny Letter. "He was like, 'That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.' It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused."

Many were outraged by the statements for a variety of reasons outlined by ATTN:'s Dave Fonseca. A large portion of the criticism claimed that Dunham's original statements had played into the stereotype of the over-sexualized black man — and wrongly assumed Beckham's thoughts or feelings about the situation.

On Friday evening, Dunham responded to these criticisms on Twitter.

On Saturday morning, she released a longer statement on Twitter expanding on the apology.

"I owe Odell Beckham Jr. an apology," the statement reads. "Despite my moments of bravado, I struggle at industry events (and in life) with the sense that I don't rep a certain standard of beauty and so when I show up to the Met Ball surrounded by models and swan-like actresses it's hard not to feel like a sack of flaming garbage."

Dunham wrote that she made "narcissistic assumptions about what he was thinking," and that she didn't intend to "contribute to a long and often violent history of the over-sexualization of black male bodies - as well as false accusations by white women towards black men."

Feminist thinker and writer Roxane Gay summed up the controversy on Twitter.

Odell Beckham Jr. has not responded to the controversy.

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