Lena Dunham thinks your body-shaming jokes need some work - Los Angeles Times
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Hey, haters: Lena Dunham doesn’t think that ‘echo chamber of body shaming’ is funny

A man stands with his arm around a woman on a red carpet
Lena Dunham and Luis Felber, shown in London in August, got married late last month.
(John Phillips / Getty Images)
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Lena Dunham doesn’t think you body-shamers are very funny. That’s right: She considers you to be lousy joke writers who could benefit from her expertise.

Dunham, who married English-Peruvian musician Luis Felber (a.k.a. Attawalpa) in late September, said in an Instagram post Wednesday that she made the mistake of taking “a peek” at online comments reacting to news of her nuptials and “saw some gnarly s—.” Most of it wasn’t worthy of her time or attention, 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,” the woman behind HBO’s “Girls” wrote, “is that I should somehow be ashamed because my body has changed since I was last on television.”

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Then Dunham got a little sassy, offering to help out those who appeared to be struggling with their comedy writing, before turning on those who had spewed that all that hate.

In a lengthy Instagram post, “Girls” mastermind Lena Dunham talked about what she said was her experience battling COVID-19.

Aug. 2, 2020

“Firstly ‘did Lena eat the cast of Girls’ just isn’t a very good joke,” she noted. “I could punch that up for the Tweeter. 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.

“But lastly, when will we learn to stop equating thinness with health/happiness?,” she continued. “Of course weight loss can be the result of positive change in habits, but guess what? So can weight gain.”

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Dunham pointed out that “thin” pics that were being mentioned in comparison to her current size were from when she was “in active addiction with undiagnosed illness.”

The actor-writer dealt with her addiction to painkillers four years ago. She got addicted to them after a hysterectomy necessitated by endometriosis while she was also dealing with fibromyalgia and the connective-tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She’s been sober since then.

In Spaulding Square, Lena Dunham of ‘Girls’ fame is asking $2.795 million for her century-old bungalow of six years.

Feb. 23, 2021

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

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It’s OK, she said, “to live in your present body without treating it as transitional.”

Not to waste a good Instagram post, Dunham also talked about how “lovely” the recent past had been, filled as it was with her wedding and honeymoon.

“My husband and I traveled to the country and looked at bee hives & fields of wildflowers,” she wrote. “I got to feel the intense love of my friends/family surrounding us. I got a little break from work, which reminded me how much I love what I do and how excited I am to share what I’ve been making with you in 2022.”

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