Lena Dunham posted this Instagram earlier this week. It’s a copy of the new issue of Tentaciones, the Spanish-language magazine supplement that comes free with Spanish newspaper El País. Think of it like… Spain’s Parade Mag. Lena got on her high horse and bitched about the image, writing:
“Oh hello El Pais! I am genuinely honored to be on your cover and so happy you licensed a pic by @ruvenafanador, who always makes me feel gorgeous. BUT this is NOT what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like- the magazine has done more than the average photoshop. So if you’re into what I do, why not be honest with your readers? Much love, Lena.”
Nevermind the fact that Lena couldn’t bring herself to criticize Vogue for blatantly retouching her photos, but I guess when it’s an obscure (to American readers) Spanish magazine, Lena will gladly throw them under the bus just to stoke her fanbase into some kind of rah-rah-body-positivity BS. Except that El Pais wasn’t about to be Lena’s roadkill – they issued a comprehensive statement about what had been done to the image, which was taken in 2013. They basically said they cropped the original image and made a few minor retouches, all of which was approved by Lena’s team. They wrote in part:
Of course, we are aware that any medium has to take responsibility for what it publishes, but this photo was previously approved by the agency, the photographer and your publicist. For our cover, we used a picture from a session you did in 2013 with photographer Ruven Afanador, published at the time by Entertainment Weekly. Tentaciones acquired that picture through the Corbis agency and used the original that was sent to us without applying any retouching. Those who know and follow our magazine know that we do not use Photoshop or other digital tools to change the physique of the people featured on our cover or inside stories. This time we just cropped the original image to fit the format of our cover.
So Lena let that fester for a day before she finally apologized to the magazine. But in classic Lena style, she couldn’t just say “Whoops, I made a mistake” or “I was really thirsty for attention, my bad.” Here’s what she wrote:
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!
No, seriously… why not just say “my bad”? There are enough examples of egregious Photoshopping and retouching without creating a controversy over nothing. There are real fights to be had about body image and societal BS without Lena hijacking the conversation with her asinine crap. Ugh.
Photos courtesy of Instagram, El Pais.
I thought she was going away to The Island, along with Iggy, glitter eyebrows, and fringe on everything.
She is such a d-bag, she really bothers me and I don’t know why its not as if I am interested in her show at all.
I would take Iggy over her, at leat Iggy doesn’t act like she is the brightest brain and voice of a generation.
bah ha ha ha ha
And this is why I cannot stand the woman.
Agree. She really is loathsome. What time is her 15 minutes over?
What a hacktivist.
Perfect.
Perfect word-smithing! I salute you!
She’s officially become The Worst. Way to Brita yourself, Lena.
Lol. Love it!
You are missing your usual signature.
It could be the new Pinky, not the OG Pinky.
She totally Brita-ed it.
@Lindsy and Lady. Oops. Was the OG Pinky. What a pain this is!
She is bloody insufferable. Kill it with fire already. Make her go away. PLEASE.
Good lord, hasn’t she ever heard of brevity being the soul of wit? Or as my English teacher used to tell us in high school: KISS – keep it simple, stupid.
I kinda like her, I have to say. She’s full of herself but I do think she’s trying and hey, she’s a writer and an actor and a woman with a voice. Gotta respect that. However, that “apology” is bullsh*t. All I hear when reading this long-a** rant is “I REFUSE TO BE WRONG!” And that’s just childish.
“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.” Yeah, maybe. Or maybe you made a mistake and need to admit it.
Exactly! Maybe it’s not any of these things, Lena, but then you would miss an opportunity to get all self-righteous on social media, God forbid.
I cannot stand this woman.
I wouldn’t call her original post “bitching them out”, but her follow up response to them is so annoying.
Just say “thank you for the clarification, sorry I mistakenly blamed you, I will address it with those who actually approved it.”
I think the magazine handled it well, and nicely pointed out that her own publicist approved it.
She could have asked. She chose to go on a public forum and make a completely uninformed comment. She has a management team whose responsibilities include making sure her image is presented appropriately if she feels the image is photoshopped why not have them address her concerns. Circumvents any need to apologize. Not to mention it wasn’t much of an apology.
I still do not understand her appeal. There is always talk about her talent and accomplishments as a woman and at a young age. When I read things she writes or interviews she has done my take away time and again is that her achievements are consistently overshadowed by her neediness, entitlement and core immaturity.
Because simply saying “My bad” took more effort? Celebs are such special snowflakes.
I hate people who say a war & peace novel amount of words because they’re too immature to just say they made a mistake and they’re sorry.
Swear my eyes started rolling into less than a quarter of that ‘apology’.
Sorry Lena, I have issues with bullshit, both from society at large and you.
“why not just say “my bad”? ”
Because she’s a narcissist. Narcs can’t offer a humble “I’m sorry”, they have to blather on in an attempt to apologize without actually apologizing. The apology will also include blaming someone else in an attempt to share the guilt (ie: “whole bunch of people”, “society at large”) and excuses (ie. “turning 30”, “candidate getting bashed”, “being sick”) and rarely contains an actual apology (ie. I’m sorry.)
I can’t imagine how this woman has fans.
She attracts others like her in the same way Kanye does.
Lena, a Spanish newspaper does not care that your American candidate of choice has put up with endless critiques of her middle-aged body. They told you that you were wrong. You should have apologized politely and been done with it. Now, you have portrayed yourself as a rambling idiot who pretty much ignored their point that they do not do what you accused them of doing. Don’t expect any coverage in that forum again.
Wait who is criticizing Clinton’s body…? I mean I don’t frequent the dankest corners of the Internet (Reddit, etc.) so maybe I’m just missing the body shaming, but I’ve actually been impressed by the lack of OVERTLY gendered criticism of Clinton thus far (of course there will always be implicit gender bias). To me it seems like, for the most part, she’s being treated like the presumptive presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, not That Lady Who Should Always Wear Pantsuits.
I feel like out of fairness, I can’t get too mad about the criticisms of her appearance since I have mocked Trump’s orange face and hamster hair for so long now….
My question is why she did this on Instagram in public? If you have an issue with how a magazine represents you (for any reason) why not reach out to them privately to try to address the issue? She’s seriously thirsty for attention if she’s calling them out publicly – and if you’re going to do that, at least know you’re in the right when you do it!
Because then she wouldn’t get the attention and pats on the back, and apparently EVERYTHING must be put on social media these days.
So her, Amy Schumer, Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson are their squad ? Going by an instagram post she made ??
I literally could not care less about this.
Really? No wonder I can’t stand Dunham, Schumer and Lawrence which I all find annoying. I’m probably going to find Larson annoying next. Lol.
I hope Brie Larson isn’t involved in this squad. I still like her. The others need to take a break and come back less obnoxious.
She enjoys long walks on the beach and shoving rocks into places they shouldn’t go
I’m blinded by thoughts of the latter every time I see her name. You know she was responsible for those rocks and so much more. She’s should have been shamed out of the limelight for her actions. Vile woman!
I don’t get it…she looks the same but with more eye makeup??
I thought since Girls was finally ending, she wouldn’t be everywhere all the time. Can that happen already?
There’s another year to go before Girls is gone
This is ridiculous. She should thank them because this is probably the best photograph I’ve ever seen of Lena, but it is clearly an older photo. It doesn’t look too photoshopped. She just looks younger here and is wearing a much more flattering outfit than she usually does. I cannot wait for Girls to end and for this woman to go away.
She’s one of many celebrities today trying to pretend they are nobly representing a great cause when really it’s all about them. She thought she could pick on an obscure Latin magazine to boost her ego with faux praise from the social mediaverse.
You eloquently said what I’ve been thinking and have been to annoyed to put into words
Just eff off already. As Kaiser correctly pointed out, you didn’t call out Vogue like this you hypocrite. And you give some bs reason why you weren’t really wrong. Uhhhhg. I hate being in her peer group. Just apologize nit wit!
does she have such a bad self-image that she can’t believe she could look nice in a photo? or is it that her brand is “frumpy and dumpy” and this image of her looking (relatively) chic and lump-free detracts from her brand?
This cover is actually one of the more flattering pictures I have seen of her. It is pretty cute here, and she should wear more dresses that look like that one. I still hate her, though, and she seems like she would suck the life out of a room.
i swear she’s doing the whole “I’M PHOTOSHOPPED!” knowing that she isn’t just so people will say “no lena, you really do look that thin!”
Why does she feel the need for a dissertation and some faux social commentary about every last thing? I honestly think she fancies herself as this generations Gloria Steinem or Camille Paglia. I can’t stand fake angst wrapped up in self delusion. Just shut up already.
Real Question:
If Lena didn’t have the parents and connections she had, would she even be famous right now?
She is exhausting
Not that I’m a huge Lena fan, but how is this any different from when Zendaya does it? It’s incredibly likely Lena had no idea the photo was approved in this way (I mean, these people’s teams have got to be huge). I didn’t think she was anything but diplomatic and polite.
Cause zendaya is 19 & lena is 30, a teen going on about being self conscious about being photoshopped in a magazine on her instagram is understandable. She could’ve even checked with her people & found out they agreed to the photoshop & i would still advocate for her calling out the magazine cause she’s 19. I feel the same way about Lorde calling out photoshopping of pimples. They’re teens. Lena could’ve checked with her people & chastised them internally. And Lena was wrong there was no photoshop whereas the above two girls were correct. Lena shouldve done what Ronda Roussey did. Check internally & then explain the isssue publicly with the full story of approval by her team unbeknownst to her.
I’m confused, was she actually digitally slimmed? Isn’t that the issue here? Seems to have gotten lost in the mix. As my father used to say, the best way to win an argument is to keep repeating your point.
I can’t stomach her since she wrote about doing things to her little sister and had absolutely no remorse about it.
Ugh, she should check with her team before she spouts off. That’s what’s wrong with Twitter. People have knee jerk reactions. Also, why is this woman famous? For touching her sister?
I was embarrassed for her while reading that “apology”.
Omfg it really is Hannah at the writer’s workshop all over again (yes, I hate watch Girls and then feel bad about myself after!), completely unable to take any criticism whatsoever and then lashing out immaturely/further self aggrandizing to make her “point”. Has she no self-awareness whatsoever? I bet the editor and staff at that magazine were rotfl at her idiotic non-mea culpa.
I hate when I look great in a photo too.
Lol, right? Hollywood problems :/
Every time she opens her mouth she virtually guarantees she won’t get another job after Girls ends.
I don’t care Kaiser that I’m commenting so late… I had to co-sign. This is a world in which i work and i take offense to her and this non apology. First, Lena your team had approvals. First before you bite someones head off, check with your team. How about that vs blabbering off about tons of people… no Your People approved what was essentially a photo crop. They literally just cropped your legs and now its everyone else’s fault because you don’t 1 check with your publicist before going on social media for a blatant attack, 2 knowing your own body. ITs their fault that you don’t know what your legs look like 3 years earlier. She unfortunately represents what i loathe about milennials. Self absorbed, no-fact checking, know-it-alls who know nothing but too ego filled to listen. And apologize. A simple sorry would do kindly.