Lena Dunham Responds To Allegations That She Sexually Abused Her Sister

Lena Dunham Responds To Allegations That She Sexually Abused Her Sister

(CNN) -- Lena Dunham canceled several appearances to promote her new book after a self-described "rage spiral" over allegations that she molested her sister as a child.

The allegations stem from passages in Dunham's collection of personal essays, "Not That Kind of Girl," in which she describes sexually experimenting with her younger sister as a child. In one essay, she describes bribing her sister with three pieces of candy to kiss her on the lips for five seconds. She also describes probing her 1-year-old sister's vagina when she was 7 out of curiosity over how it compared to hers.

"One day, as I sat in our driveway in Long island playing blocks and buckets, my curiosity got the better of me. Grace was sitting up, babbling and smiling, and I leaned down between her legs and carefully spread open her vagina," she writes in the book.

Kevin D. Williamson -- known for taking hard-right positions that stir controversy -- seized upon the passages in a column for conservative publication National Review.

Specifically, he accused Dunham's parents of enabling "disturbing behavior that would be considered child abuse in many jurisdictions...sexual abuse, specifically, of her younger sister, Grace, the sort of thing that gets children taken away from nonmillionaire families without Andover pedigrees and Manhattanite social connections."

Truth Revolt's Ben Shapiro picked up the torch, calling the book passage "disturbing."

Dunham, creator and star of the popular HBO show, "Girls," fired back on Twitter, where she has 1.8 million followers, calling the allegations "upsetting and disgusting."

Usually, "this is stuff I can ignore," she said, "...but don't demean sufferers, don't twist my words, back the f--k up bros."

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