Lena Dunham’s publisher says her alleged rapist “Barry” wasn’t actually named Barry

As I noted last week, Lena Dunham’s memoir describes her having sex with someone named Barry, whom she labels as Oberlin’s “resident conservative.” Her description seems to leave it somewhat ambiguous as to whether Barry raped her, but it does describe some sexual behavior by Barry that at the very least reflects badly on him; readers have certainly viewed it as rape, and Dunham has elsewhere characterized it as rape. There are two passages in which she describes the incident: one in which it comes across as consensual but unsatisfying, and another one that she begins by saying,

I’m an unreliable narrator…. [I]n another essay in this book I describe a sexual encounter with a mustachioed campus Republican as the upsetting but educational choice of a girl who was new to sex when, in fact, it didn’t feel like a choice at all.

She then goes on to describe the incident in a good deal of detail, and as a Breitbart story by John Nolte notes, there is an easily identifiable Oberlin conservative from that era named Barry; indeed, that Barry has already been identified as the person from Dunham’s book by many people. But the Breitbart story also notes that many other details don’t add up, and that the allegations about Barry may thus be inaccurate.

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