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Celebrity

07th Oct 2021

Lena Dunham speaks out about body shaming after receiving hateful comments on her wedding photos

Katy Brennan

When will we learn to stop equating thinness with health/happiness?

Lena Dunham has hit back at body shamers who criticised her appearance in her wedding photos.

The 35-year-old recently tied the knot with her long-term boyfriend Luis Felber. After sharing a snap from their wedding day, many fans expressed their well-wishes to the couple. However, numerous trolls also chimed in, leaving hateful comments about Lena’s appearance.

The actress posted a selfie on Instagram on Wednesday accompanied by a lengthy caption addressing the recent harassment she had received.

“It’s a little too easy to feel the glow of support and forget about the cesspool lurking behind it – so I took a peek, and saw some gnarly s**t, most not worth responding to or even sharing with you,” she said.

“But one narrative I take issue with, largely because it’s a story I don’t want other women, other people, to get lodged in their heads is that I should somehow be ashamed because my body has changed since I was last on television.”

Lena went on to address some of the hurtful comments and criticise the comparisons between her body then and now.

“Firstly ‘Did Lena eat the cast of Girls’ just isn’t a very good joke,” she said. “Secondly, it’s ironic to have my body compared to a body that was also the subject of public scorn- an echo chamber of body shaming.

“When will we learn to stop equating thinness with health/happiness? Of course weight loss can be the result of positive change in habits, but guess what? So can weight gain. The pics I’m being compared to are from when I was in active addiction with undiagnosed illness.

“These changes have allowed me to be the kind of sister/friend/daughter that I want to be and yes- meet my husband (who, by the way, doesn’t recognise me in those old photos because he sees how dimmed my light was.)

“I say this for any other person whose appearance has been changed with time, illness or circumstance-it’s okay to live in your present body without treating it as transitional. I am, and I’m really enjoying it.”
We couldn’t agree more!