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Lena Dunham Criticized for Tweet Dismissing Fatherhood on Fathers' Day

Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham / AP
June 19, 2017

Actress Lena Dunham deleted a tweet Sunday that trashed the necessity of fathers on Fathers' Day.

"You don't need a father," Dunham tweeted. "So many families work so many ways—but if you have one he better werk [sic]."

Dunham's tweet flew largely under the radar, until Donald Trump, Jr. highlighted and criticized it.

Contrary to Dunham, Democrats and Republicans alike generally view the rise in fatherlessness as a serious concern.

"Too many fathers are M.I.A, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes," former President Barack Obama once argued. "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it."

Dunham later tweeted a more conventional Fathers' Day message honoring her own dad.

Dunham's father, Stanley Dunham, "werks" as a photographer. Dunham has strongly contested the accusation that her father and mother's positions in the New York City entertainment world contributed to her meteoric rise.

Published under: Lena Dunham