Lena Dunham Compares Reading Gawker, Jezebel to Enduring Domestic Abuse (Audio)

Lena Dunham has compared reading Gawker to being a domestic violence victim in a new interview with Kara Swisher on her Re/Code podcast that covered the star’s views on feminism and online harassment.

“I used to read Gawker and Jezebel in college and be like, ‘I can’t wait to get to New York where my people will be to welcome me,'” Dunham said. “And it’s like, it’s literally if I read it it’s like going back to a husband who beat me in the face — it just doesn’t make any sense.”

The “Girls” creator and star also said that she will often want to open an article to read it, but if she sees that it’s a Gawker link she will say, “Oh no, I can’t open that.”

Jenni Konner, who co-founded Lenny Newsletter with Dunham, added that Gawker was “just too toxic,” and that the duo doesn’t open any links from the website anymore.

Also Read: Lena Dunham Objects to Justin Bieber's New Single 'What Do You Mean?'

Dunham has often spoken out about Gawker — in July, she tweeted about the “cruel and unnecessary stories” on the online news outlet.

How many cruel and unnecessary stories must Gawker publish before people realize this isn’t a fun site to browse over their cereal?

— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) July 17, 2015

Her criticism came after Gawker published a story in alleging that a Conde Nast executive had tried to hire a gay porn star.

Since then, Dunham has had a love/hate relationship with Twitter, about which she opened up about in the interview as well.

Also Read: Gawker Executive Editor and Editor-in-Chief Both Resign After Gay Porn Story Fiasco

“I don’t look at Twitter anymore. I tweet, but I do it through someone else,” said Dunham. “I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all, so I didn’t want to cut off my relationship to it completely, but it truly wasn’t a safe space for me.”

According to her, she’s been a victim of verbal abuse on the social media platform.

Also Read: Gawker Writer Slams Site After Leaving: 'We Are Making the World a Miserable Place'

“Even if you think you can separate yourself from the kind of verbal violence that’s being directed at you, that it creates some really kind of cancerous stuff inside you, even if you think, ‘Oh, I can read like 10 mentions that say I should be stoned to death.’ That’s verbal abuse,” said Dunham. “Those aren’t words you’d accept in an interpersonal relationship. […] For me, personally, it was safer to stop.”

Listen to the podcast.

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