Lena Dunham Under Fire for Claims She Sexually Abused Her Younger Sister

Lena Dunham might be wishing her editor had given her a note on this one.

The "Girls" creator is under fire from conservative groups, and even some fans, over a particular passage in her new book, Not That Kind of Girl. In the passage, Dunham talks about how she, at age 7, treated her younger sister.

Dunham wrote about bribing her sister with "three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds" and about inspecting her vagina out of curiosity.

"Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying," she writes.

It seems clear, in context, that Dunham means this all humorously, but her candor has struck a nerve with conservatives in particular, who consider her actions as a young girl to be nothing less than sexual abuse.

"Dunham writes of casually masturbating while in bed next to her younger sister," wrote Kevin D. Williamson, a conservative writer for the National Review, "of bribing her with 'three pieces of candy if I could kiss her on the lips for five seconds … anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl I was trying.' At one point, when her sister is a toddler, Lena Dunham pries open her vagina — 'my curiosity got the best of me,' she offers, as though that were an explanation."

Dunham, who doesn't always respond to criticism, took to Twitter to fight back against the onslaught.

"I told a story about being a weird 7 year old," she tweeted. "I bet you have some too, old men, that I'd rather not hear. And yes, this is a rage spiral. The right wing news story that I molested my little sister isn't just LOL- it's really fucking upsetting and disgusting."

For her part, Dunham's sister Grace has tweeted her own acknowlegement of the uproar. "As a queer person: i'm committed to people narrating their own experiences, determining for themselves what has and has not been harmful," she tweeted. "Heteronormativity deems certain behaviours harmful, and others 'normal'; the state and media are always invested in maintaining that."