Girls actress, Lena Dunham, has made news in recent days for seeing a picture of herself on the cover of a Spanish magazine called Tentaciones and finding the photo flattering. She also wondered whose body was on the cover alongside her face. Since she has been an outspoken critic of the practice of Photoshopping pictures, she took to social media to make a few points about the unrealistic female body images that are foisted upon women. This practise has gotten especially bad with digital photography, which is so easily edited anyway you want. Grown-up women and even mature actresses often end up with legs, arms or stomachs that look like they were pulled directly off an underfed 14-year-old model.
Lena Dunham's posted comments to the magazine, according to Refinery29, are worth quoting in full for the perspective they bring to the matter: "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 a 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."
The magazine involved at first denied and then apologized for the Photoshopping. According to Q13, Lena Dunham has been on a bit of a hiatus from publicity work for Girls. The illness she spoke of was a recent endometriosis diagnosis.
