Lena Is Dunham With Being Photoshopped, Says Nah To Image Retouching

Lena Dunham has had it up to her digitally-slimmed neck with being photoshopped.
Just last week she posted the following Insta – a pic of a Spanish magazine cover where her image had been heavily retouched:

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!

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on

And she followed it up today with a no holds barred piece in her weekly e-mail newsletter, Lenny Letter. Exercising her infamously candid approach, she describes how early on in her career she was ‘grateful’ when her pictures were doctored: 

“When I started getting photographed by professionals to promote my work, it didn’t occur to me to ask about, or to question, the use of Photoshop. I was 24, and whatever they did to make women appear important, desirable, and worthy of praise was what I wanted. 


“When my skin seemed almost painted on, when my nose was thin and pointed, I felt grateful for the future Google image search a potential paramour would enjoy, replacing a few candids of me with angry red zits at an indie-film-festival party.”


She goes on to detail her experience with photographers and the photoshopping process, before announcing that she’s so so done:


“Done with allowing images that retouch and reconfigure my face and body to be released into the world. The gap between what I believe and what I allow to be done to my image has to close now.”


“If that means no more fashion-magazine covers, so be it.”

As I grow older I become more comfortable with who I am

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on

Not a bad sentiment, that one.
Source: Lenny Letter. 

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV