--- title: "Girls" Writer Jenni Konner on Adam's Ambiguous Sex Scene description: “I knew that that scene was ambiguous and played with ideas of consent, but I never, ever thought it would be interpreted as rape." canonical: https://time.com/3857893/jenni-konner-girls-rape-scene/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-13T21:39:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:11:00.215Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Girls' Writer Jenni Konner on Why She Didn't Think That Scene Was Rape og:description: “I knew that that scene was ambiguous and played with ideas of consent, but I never, ever thought it would be interpreted as rape." og:url: https://time.com/3857893/jenni-konner-girls-rape-scene/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d4a1dc638e25175/698686df3bc99926051a282b/girls14_116.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: girls14_116 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Girls' Writer Jenni Konner on Why She Didn't Think That Scene Was Rape twitter:description: “I knew that that scene was ambiguous and played with ideas of consent, but I never, ever thought it would be interpreted as rape." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d4a1dc638e25175/698686df3bc99926051a282b/girls14_116.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Girls_ Writer Jenni Konner on Why She Didn't Think That Scene Was Rape  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 13, 2015 9:39 PM UTC  Adam Driver and Lena Dunham in Girls Adam Driver and Lena Dunham in GirlsMark Schafer—Mark Schafer 2013/HBO  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 13, 2015 9:39 PM UTC In an [interview](http://time.com/how-tv-sex-got-real/) with TIME about how television is evolving to show different types of sex, _Girls_ showrunner Jenni Konner admitted that she can never predict which racy scenes from the show will go viral and which will not. “I literally always get it wrong,” she said, laughing. For example, she had no idea the Internet would react so strongly to Allison Williams’ anilingus scene earlier this year. Nor did she expect people to call a season two scene in which Adam gets aggressive with his then-girlfriend Natalia rape. In the show, he demands that Natalia crawl on her knees to the bedroom before he pulls her off the floor, has sex with her from behind and finishes by masturbating on her chest. “I knew that that scene was ambiguous and played with ideas of consent, but I never, ever thought it would be interpreted as rape,” Konner says. She points out that Shiri Appleby’s character never says, “No.” Read writers’ takes on other controversial sex scenes from _The Americans_, _Transparent_, _How to Get Away With Murder_ and _House of Cards_ [here](http://time.com/how-tv-sex-got-real/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3857893/jenni-konner-girls-rape-scene/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3857893/jenni-konner-girls-rape-scene/"},"headline":"Girls Writer Jenni Konner on Why She Didn't Think That Scene Was Rape","datePublished":"2015-05-13T21:39:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:11:00.215Z","description":"“I knew that that scene was ambiguous and played with ideas of consent, but I never, ever thought it would be interpreted as rape.\"","url":"https://time.com/3857893/jenni-konner-girls-rape-scene/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d4a1dc638e25175/698686df3bc99926051a282b/girls14_116.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1d4a1dc638e25175/698686df3bc99926051a282b/girls14_116.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"girls14_116","caption":"Adam Driver and Lena Dunham in Girls","creditText":"Mark Schafer—Mark Schafer 2013/HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3857893/jenni-konner-girls-rape-scene/","name":"Girls Writer Jenni Konner on Why She Didn't Think That Scene Was Rape"}}]}] ```