This week, Hollywood gossip magazine US Weekly put a photo of Lena Dunham on its cover – just to the right of a large headline promising “20 Slimdown Diet Tips” and a guarantee that they had uncovered the secret to how Dunham “gets motivated.”
In response, the Girls writer and actress released a version of her own tips on Instagram this morning. They include, among other things, having an “anxiety disorder”, “constant nausea” and “a quiet rage that replaces need for food with need for revenge.” She also pinned the blame on last year’s election result, which she claims exposed “the true depths of American misogyny.” See the full list below:
Dunham’s weight loss has been fuelling speculation for months now. Back in February, she stated on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show that she “stopped being able to eat food” after Donald Trump became president. “Everyone’s been asking like, ‘What have you been doing?’ And I’m like, ‘Try soul-crushing pain and devastation and hopelessness and you, too, will lose weight,’” she joked.
Bizarrely, her weight loss has also sparked a backlash – with critics apparently calling her a “hypocrite” for slimming down. In another Instagram post, shared in March, Dunham vented her frustrations, and admitted that she didn’t give “the tiniest of shits” about what people were saying about her body. “I smile just as wide no matter my current size because I'm proud of what this body has seen and done and represented,” she wrote. “Chronic illness sufferer. Body-shaming vigilante. Sexual assault survivor. Raging hottie. Just like all of YOU. Right now I'm struggling to control my endometriosis through a healthy diet and exercise. So my weight loss isn't a triumph and it also isn't some sign I've finally given in to the voices of trolls”.
