The 'Girls' creator is done having her photos digitally altered as she says, 'I want to be able to pick my own thigh out of a lineup.'
- Mar 9, 2016
AceShowbiz - Lena Dunham wants something real and true. She is tired of getting her pictures doctored to make her look slimmer. "[I am] not done with getting my picture taken (once an insufferable ham, always an insufferable ham) but done with allowing images that retouch and reconfigure my face and body to be released into the world," she says.
"The gap between what I believe and what I allow to be done to my image has to close now," she continues. "If that means no more fashion-magazine covers, so be it. I respect the people who create those magazines and the job they have to do. I thank them for letting me make a few appearances and for making me feel gorgeous along the way. But I bid farewell to an era when my body was fair game."
The "Girls" creator pens an article on her Lenny newsletter after she accused a Spanish magazine of photoshopping her cover. "Something snapped when I saw that Spanish cover," she explains. "Maybe it was the feeling of barely recognizing myself and then being told it was 100 percent me but knowing it probably wasn't and studying the picture closely for clues. Maybe it was realizing that was an image I had at some point seen, approved, and most likely loved. Maybe it was the fact that I no longer understand what my own thighs look like. But I knew that I was done."
Lena adds, "[I] heard photographers say 'We'll fix it in post' and known on some level that they don't just mean the odd shadow or wrinkle in my skirt. They mean the parts of me that are ungainly and overstuffed. They mean the parts that hang over waistbands and bubble out from under Spanx. The parts that are too much and are evidence of wanting too much, of unappealing hungers."
"But, I didn't ask questions, assuming this was the game that made the rest of my creative life possible. I also didn't ask questions because it feels nice to look at a photo of yourself where everything that's ever felt like too much is suddenly under perfect, glossy control."
However, "seeing the photo got me thinking about the real issue, which is that I don't recognize my own f**ing body anymore. And that's a problem," she says. "This body is the only one I have. I love it for what it's given me. I hate it for what it's denied me. And now, without further ado, I want to be able to pick my own thigh out of a lineup."
Lena Dunham has recently been released from hospital after treated for ovarian cyst rupture. "Thank you so much for the love. I'm safely out of the hospital and recuperating. Your well wishes mean the world. I can't wait to be up and active, and to show my thanks," she wrote on Instagram.
