Lena Dunham’s recent weight loss has garnered far too much media attention. To wit: the Girls (RIP) creator and actress features on the cover of the latest US Weekly. A paparazzi photo of Dunham appears alongside the callout “Lena: How She Gets Motivated” and a larger banner teasing “20 Slimdown [sic] Diet Tips Stars Are Using.”
Dunham, an outspoken feminist and proponent of body positivity, was not pleased to see her image used to promote society’s superficial emphasis on “slimming down” so as to better fit conventional beauty standards. The actress, writer and activist thus took to Instagram to offer 20 hard-hitting, real AF “diet tips” of her own.
The first? “Anxiety disorder,” writes Dunham, wryly. “Resultant constant nausea,” “an election that reveals the true depths of American misogyny” and “constant sweaty dreams of dystopian future” are also effective appetite deterrents, she adds. The Lenny Letter co-founder goes on to disclose several (pre-existing) health conditions that may have impacted her weight, along with depressive behavior (i.e. sleeping 19 hours a day) she attributes to the current state of American politics and her constant harassment by trolls, internet and otherwise. She also mentions substantive calorie-burning activities like “marching your ass off.” She concludes with the following: “I have no tips, I give no tips, I don’t want to be on this cover cuz [sic] it’s diametrically opposed to everything I’ve fought my whole career for and it’s not a compliment to me because it’s not an achievement. Thanx [sic].”
In the past, Dunham has made it very clear that she turned to celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson to better her quality of life and combat her endometriosis — which saw her rushed from the Met Gala to the emergency room — not to shed pounds.
“I think for me the big thing was that Tracy just very clearly wasn’t trying to change my body,” stated Dunham in a March interview with People. “I came to her and was like, ‘I have endometriosis, I have chronic physical pain…I just want to have a stronger core, I want to feel like I have more power throughout my day, how do I get there?’ I like that she was coming at it from that perspective rather than like, I’d like to shrink six inches.”
Dunham’s words serve as an important reminder that weight is not an indicator of health (physical or mental) and that, in these trying times, scrutinizing celebrities’ bodies and daily routines is just about the least productive use of our time.
[ via Vogue ]
