For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Lena Dunham has compared the abuse she receives on social media to that of prisoners in Guantanamo.
The US comic and writer, made the comments as part of a discussion on The Hollywood Reporter with comics Amy Schumer, Tracee Lee Ross, Gina Rodriquez, Ellie Kemper, and Kate McKinnon.
“The way women are spoken to in social media is truly shocking,” said Dunham, 29, who won two Golden Globes for hit show Girls. “It's how you imagine people screaming at prisoners in Guantanamo.”
Dunham has faced her share of online criticism and abuse. Most infamously last year after a number of right-wing news outlets claimed she had sexually abused her younger sister, based on certain passages from her bestselling collection of essays Not That Kind of Girl .
Show all 22 1 /22Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Katharine Hepburn “I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I've just done what I damn well wanted to, and I've made enough money to support myself, and ain't afraid of being alone”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Betty Friedan “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Maya Angelou “I want to be representative of my race - the human race. I have a chance to show how kind we can be, how intelligent and generous we can be…”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Emmeline Pankhurst “I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have brought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote”
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Patricia Arquette "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America."
AFP PHOTO / Robyn BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Nawal El Saadawi “They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman. I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Fuller "It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy"
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Germaine Greer “All societies on the verge of death are masculine. A society can survive with only one man; no society will survive a shortage of women”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Naomi Wolf “A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Rebecca West "I myself have never able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat"
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Margaret Atwood “Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who'll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings. To me it's the latter, so I sign up”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Susan B. Anthony "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand"
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Sylvia Plath "Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both"
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Hillary Clinton "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life"
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Lena Dunham "The idea of being a feminist—so many women have come to this idea of it being anti-male and not able to connect with the opposite sex—but what feminism is about is equality and human rights. For me that is just an essential part of my identity. I hope [Girls] contributes to a continuance of feminist dialogue"
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Bette Davis “When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch”
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Jane Austen “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives”
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Gloria Steinem “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Anais Nin “I hate men who are afraid of women's strength”
Creative Commons
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Elizabeth Warren “I have a daughter and I have granddaughters and I will never vote to let a group of backward-looking ideologues cut women’s access to birth control. We have lived in that world, and we are not going back, not ever”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Malala Yousafzai “In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, at that time I realized that education … Is the power for women, and that’s why the terrorists are afraid of education”
Getty Images
Feminist quotes from the icons to inspire you Virginia Woolf "As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world"
Getty Images
The vitriol caused Dunham to cancel a number of appearances promoting the book, as well as issue a statement clarifying her “comic use” of language and apologising if any readers found the situations “triggering”.
Schumer, 34, star of Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer , also observed in the discussion: “I think people hate women. I don’t think they want to hear a woman talk for too long.”
She added: “I heard this heated debate once between two male comic friends of mine about whether [actress] Michelle Williams was hot. One was like, "I don't think I'd have sex with her." I'm looking at them, both in their 40s …
“And I'm like, ‘You guys would both die to f*** her,’” Schumer comments.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies