No, Lena Dunham Is Not A ‘Hypocrite’ Because She Lost Weight
Lena Dunham looks a little different these days.
The Girls star recently debuted a slimmer figure, but the body-shaming she's been dealing with for years hasn't stopped. In fact, critics have labeled her a “hypocrite” for her weight loss, citing her longtime defiance against Hollywood’s gross beauty standards.
“As a woman in Hollywood, you just can’t win,” Dunham said about the backlash on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“It’s just so crazy because I spent six years of my career being called ‘bag of milk’ on the internet,” Dunham continued. “I never felt self-conscious about it. Anyone who was going to take the time to say something negative about my weight on the internet wasn’t someone I was particularly keen to impress anyway.”
In recent months, Dunham, who suffers from endometriosis, took up exercise to better control her chronic illness. Working out gave her a slimmer figure, but she insists that doesn’t affect her body politics at all.
“Then I had this experience of my body changing and suddenly I got all these people being like, ‘You’re a hypocrite! I thought you were body positive! I thought you were a person who embraces bodies of all sizes!’” she told DeGeneres. “I do, I just understand bodies change.”
Last week, Dunham posted a lengthy Instagram caption about how she doesn’t “give even the tiniest of shits what anyone else feels about my body,” writing, “My weight loss isn't a triumph and it also isn't some sign I've finally given in to the voices of trolls. Because my body belongs to ME — at every phase, in every iteration, and whatever I'm doing with it, I'm not handing in my feminist card to anyone.”