Lena Dunham: Girls creator vows not to appear in any magazines that will Photoshop her image

Lena Dunham has announced she will no longer appear on the covers of magazines that want to retouch her image.

The Girls creator, who is currently recovering from surgery due to a ruptured ovarian cyst, was forced to backtrack last week after accusing the Spanish magazine El Pais of altering her image. El Pais responded in an open letter insisting it never alters photos on its cover or in its pages, and Dunham apologised for making the “magazine the issue” when it was unclear whether the photo had been changed before it was licensed to El Pais.

Dunham used her latest Lenny letter to explain that she has been photoshopped so often that she is now unable to recognise her own body and claimed something inside her “snapped” after seeing herself in El Pais.

“When I started getting photographed by professionals to promote my work, it didn’t occur to me to ask about, or to question, the use of Photoshop,” she writes. “I was 24, and whatever they did to make women appear important, desirable, and worthy of praise was what I wanted.

“When my skin seemed almost painted on, when my nose was thin and pointed, I felt grateful for the future Google image search a potential paramour would enjoy, replacing a few candids of me with angry red zits at an indie-film-festival party.”

She also highlighted the Vogue shoot that saw the feminist blog Jezebel offer $10,000 for the original images to analyse what may have been erased out, describing herself as “heartbroken” by the resulting article.

“That was partly because my college self had loved Jezebel for this very trait, a desire to topple the body-image industrial complex with a wink and a cackle. It was and it remains an admirable goal.

“But I also asked, ‘Why me?’ All these other actresses and models get to enjoy their subtly perfected fashion spreads without comment. Was I being punished for being different, for having an inherently political body? Was I being called out on the chasm between the goals of my television show and the reality of posing in Vogue in a fancy dress and a support garment? Those were fair lines of inquiry for Jezebel, but it still felt like having the stuffing ripped from my bra at the seventh-grade dance. Would I ever get the chance to just be beautiful, no questions asked?”

Dunham denied being embarrassed by her exchange with El Pais and said she didn’t have the energy to try and determine what, if anything, on the image was altered and when it took place. But there was one thing that did become apparent: “I don’t recognise my own f**king body anymore. And that’s a problem.”

She has now pledged not to appear in shoots without being assured that her images will not be retouched.

“The gap between what I believe and what I allow to be done to my image has to close now,“ she continues. "If that means no more fashion-magazine covers, so be it. I respect the people who create those magazines and the job they have to do. I thank them for letting me make a few appearances and for making me feel gorgeous along the way. But I bid farewell to an era when my body was fair game.

“This body is the only one I have. I love it for what it’s given me. I hate it for what it’s denied me. And now, without further ado, I want to be able to pick my own thigh out of a lineup.”