In the new Lenny newsletter, co-founder Lena Dunham made a statement: She won’t let magazines retouch photos of her anymore.
The decision comes on the heels of a back-and-forth with Spanish language magazine Tentaciones, which ran a 3-year-old old photo of Dunham on its cover. The “Girls” creator felt like the photo didn’t look at all like her. So she took to Instagram, where she made some accusations she would later retract.
“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!”
Tentaciones shot back that they only cropped the photo that was sent to them by photographer Ruven Afanador and that Dunham’s own publicist had approved the image.
Even though Dunham wasn’t sure who along the way had retouched her photo, if that had even happened at all, it still bothered her that she didn’t recognize her own body. According to her Lenny statement, she became less concerned with tracking down the culprit than with the rampant practice in general. So she says she’s done with retouching.
This should come as no surprise from the woman who has so frequently and unabashedly shown up naked on her HBO series. Not only that, Dunham and costume designer Jenn Rogien have made it so that even when Dunham’s character Hannah is wearing clothes, they aren’t at all flattering.
One of Dunham’s greatest contributions to pop culture is how freely she lets herself be documented in unflattering ways. Rather than be ashamed of her cellulite and blemishes, she shows them for what they really are: normal human qualities. She has always walked the walk on body positivity on her series.
That’s probably why her photoshopped magazines have gotten so much scrutiny in the past. As she mentions in her Lenny post, in 2014 Jezebel offered $10,000 to the person who would supply the writer with unretouched images of Dunham’s Vogue cover photo shoot. (The ploy worked.) The post stung, according to Dunham, although Jezebel wasn’t being at all critical of her, so much as the fashion magazine that retouches images as a rule.
“Two years later and I’ve done countless shoots since, 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,” Dunham wrote. “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.”
She didn’t push back, though, because she assumed she had to play the game if she wanted to continue to be a high-profile writer, director, actor and producer.
But maybe she doesn’t have to play the game.
“The gap between what I believe and what I allow to be done to my image has to close now,” she wrote. “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.”
Dunham isn’t the first actress to make this call. Kate Winslet’s L’Oreal contract last year stipulated that she wasn’t to be altered. A few months ago, 19-year-old Zendaya slammed Modeliste Magazine for thinning her body.
Dunham thanked these women for proving that she didn’t have to settle for the status quo. Now the onus is on the magazines. Will they still want Dunham on their cover if they know they can’t touch the pictures? We’ll see.
“If any magazines want to guarantee they’ll let my stomach roll show and my reddened cheek make an appearance, I am your girl Friday,” Dunham wrote. “Anything that will let me be honest with you. But moreover, I want to be honest with me.”
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