Update: Lena Dunham has accepted an apology from the Spanish magazine Tentaciones, which used a picture of her on its cover that she felt did not correctly portray her body.
Dunham explained in an Instagram post that she doesn't blame the magazine, but rather society as a whole for even allowing such an edited picture of her be circulated around and used on magazine covers. "I understand that a whole bunch of people approved this photo before it got to you — and why wouldn't they? I look great. But it's a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it's your own body anymore (and I'm pretty sure that will never be my thigh width but I honestly can't tell what's been slimmed and what hasn't). I'm not blaming anyone (y'know, except society at large)" she wrote.
The Girls star goes on to call the publication a "cool Spanish magazine" and accept the offer of a subscription. Dunham wants to continue the discussion around women's body issues, but without using the magazine as a scapegoat for a much larger problem.
Here is her caption in full:
"Hey Tentaciones — thank you for sending the uncropped image (note to the confused: not unretouched, uncropped!) and for being so good natured about my request for accuracy. I understand that a whole bunch of people approved this photo before it got to you — and why wouldn't they? I look great. But it's a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it's your own body anymore (and I'm pretty sure that will never be my thigh width but I honestly can't tell what's been slimmed and what hasn't.) I'm not blaming anyone (y'know, except society at large.) I have a long and complicated history with retouching. I wanna live in this wild world and play the game and get my work seen, and I also want to be honest about who I am and what I stand for. Maybe it's turning 30. Maybe it's seeing my candidate of choice get bashed as much for having a normal woman's body as she is for her policies. Maybe it's getting sick and realizing ALL that matters is that this body work, not that it be milky white and slim. But I want something different now. Thanks for helping me figure that out and sorry to make you the problem, you cool Spanish magazine you. Time to get to the bottom of this in a bigger way. Time to walk the talk. With endless love, Lena PS I'd love the Tentaciones subscription I was offered!"
This article was originally published on March 1
Lena Dunham has never been one to shy away from standing up for women. Girls is obviously a feminist masterpiece, but that’s not even mentioning Lenny Letter, her book, or any of the other myriad projects that she’s done.
Her support of Kesha is a recent example of her standout public persona. But of course there are other examples. In a moment reminiscent of her 2014 Vogue cover controversy, Dunham took to Instagram Monday to call out Tentaciones, a Spanish magazine that put her on its most recent cover.
“Oh hello Spanish magazine Tentaciones!” Dunham wrote on her Instagram. “I am genuinely honored to be on your cover and so happy you used a pic by @ruvenafanador - he always makes me feel gorgeous. But this is not what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like- mad photoshop has been done to this iteration. So if you're into what I do, why not be honest with your readers? Much love, Lena.”
Dunham’s comfort in her own skin is a hugely and obviously positive message for young women everywhere. She models behavior and thinking that is really exemplary. And we should all take a page out of her book for the way she professionally criticised an unacceptable image of herself. More than many women, she’s in the public eye conspicuously not promoting a haute couture model of female beauty.
The magazine trumpets that she's changing the face of feminism. So she, appropriately, told them not to change hers.
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