Elliot Rodger shooting: Lena Dunham threatened by 'disturbed boy' as she joins #YesAllWomen campaign after killer's rampage
Lena Dunham remembers an example when she felt threatened in a bid to raise awareness for a new feminist Twitter campaign
Lena Dunham has shared her personal story of sexism, as she joins Twitter's #YesAllWomen campaign, which was launched following the Elliot Rodger killing spree.
She recalled how she was threatened at school by a “disturbed boy”, who told her that if she didn’t choose to love him he would force her to.
A series of “graphic threats” followed and her school “handled it quickly”, but their fast reaction told her “that I matter”, she said in a series of tweets.
“I wish that for every woman,” she wrote.
The Girls actress, director and writer said that she wished that she hadn't watched the video of 22-year-old Rodger delivering his chilling, misogynistic manifesto about his “day of retribution” on Friday 23 May, before he fatally shot six victims in California. He took his own life soon after.
Dunham lamented “the abject terror this instilled in women”, and adopted the hashtag #YesAllWomen – which has been used by women since Rodger’s rampage to share their experiences of every day sexism.
She posted the story after attending her sister’s graduation, during which her sibling wore a number nine on her hat to ask that Brown University honour the Title IX amendment of the American constitution and “do better protecting victims of sexual assault”. Dunham proudly shared an image of her sister with her hat on the Instagram.
Over 1.2 million women have tweeted about their stories since Friday in a bid to raise awareness of global sexism and its consequences.
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