Lena Dunham Proudly Flashes Her Cellulite on the Cover of Glamour
Magazines are more than happy to keep up the illusion that stars — actresses in particular — are flawless when it comes to their appearance. But Lena Dunham prefers to keep it real.
On the cover of the February issue of Glamour, the Girls creator and star stands beside co-stars Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet, and Jemima Kirke in a pair of supershort shorts, her cellulite in full view. Gasp!
The photo is different from others on women’s magazines — that’s for sure — but it’s not unlike what most women (and many men, for that matter) see in the mirror every single day. It’s worth noting that Kerry Washington, Kate Winslet, and other leading ladies have publicly complained in the past about being excessively Photoshopped to remove any sign of imperfection.
On Tuesday, Dunham took to Instagram to explain her choice to bare her unairbrushed body on the cover of a magazine.
“Okay, here goes: throughout my teens I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I was f***ing funny looking. Potbelly, rabbit teeth, knock knees- I could never seem to get it right and it haunted my every move,” she captioned a photo that showed her brushing her teeth. “I posed as the sassy confident one, secretly horrified and hurt by careless comments and hostility. Let’s get something straight: I didn’t hate what I looked like- I hated the culture that was telling me to hate it. When my career started, some people celebrated my look but always through the lens of ‘isn’t she brave? Isn’t it such a bold move to show THAT body on TV?’ Then there were the legions of trolls who made high school teasing look like a damned joke with the violent threats they heaped on, the sickening insults that made me ache for teen girls like me who might be reading my comments.”
Related: Video: 6 Male Celebrities Who Surprisingly Struggle With Body Image Issues
“Well, ” she continued, “today this body is on the cover of a magazine that millions of women will read, without photoshop, my thigh on full imperfect display. Whether you agree with my politics, like my show or connect to what I do, it doesn’t matter- my body isn’t fair game. No one’s is, no matter their size, color, gender identity, and there’s a place for us all in popular culture to be recognized as beautiful. Haters are gonna have to get more intellectual and creative with their disses in 2017 because none of us are going to be scared into muumuus by faceless basement dwellers, or cruel blogs, or even our partners and friends. Thank you to the women in Hollywood (and on Instagram!) leading the way, inspiring and normalizing the female form in EVERY form, and thank you to @glamourmag for letting my cellulite do the damn thing on news stands everywhere today. Love you all.”
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The petite Dunham has long been the target of body shamers, and she’s been outspoken in fighting back against them. In 2015, she said that she had changed her social media habits because the hate had become so intense. For example, she stopped looking at Twitter, and she once removed a photo of herself wearing boyfriend Jack Antonoff’s boxers from Instagram.
“It wasn’t a graphic picture — I was wearing men’s boxers,” she said. “And it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women’s bodies, and my Instagram page was somehow the hub for misogynists for the afternoon.”
There are always going to be haters, but it sounds like Dunham isn’t listening anymore.
