NEWSLena Dunham Displays 'Pot Belly' In Honest IG Post About Body Image & Self-Loathing: Photo
Actress Lena Dunham revealed her time in quarantine has resurfaced old feelings of body insecurities and self-loathing. The writer, creator and star of Girls stripped down to show off her "pot belly" and share her struggles amid the pandemic in a lengthy Instagram post.
"You know I've been thinking a lot about my pot belly in quarantine," the 34-year-old began. She said she's been noticing an influx of articles promoting weight loss, and explained these "headlines that used to roll off my flesh rolls sting in a new way — not because I think that's the body I'm meant to have," Dunham continued, "but because it feels like it's adding yet another item to the epic to-do list we are all creating for ourselves in Covid."
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Dunham said the constant focus on losing weight via social media "somehow feels like a personal assault." She continued to explain, "Growing up chubby, fat, thicc, whatever you wanna call it- I always felt my body was a sign that read 'I'm lazy and I have done less.' Like if I just found the will to invest 30% more I could be okay.
"Over the years, as my body guided me through my career and illness and disability, I started to appreciate what it was capable of," Dunham explained. The actress previously admitted she has a conflicting relationship with her body. She went on to explain the pandemic has "brought back some of those old feelings of self-loathing and I think it all comes back to that damned to-do list, the one that started when we went into lockdown."
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Dunham added she feels like she is supposed to be "revamping her fridge" to include healthier foods so she can emerge from "quarantine with a revenge body."
"And why, after all these years spent fostering self love, do I still feel like weight loss is an item for my to-do?" she questioned. The actress concluded her post by asking her 2.3M followers: "I'm so curious — what has this period brought up for you as you've sat with the body you were given, no matter where self isolation has taken it?"
Friends and fans took to the comment section to respond to Dunham's candid post. Pal Selma Blair wrote, "Thanks for this beauty. ?," as one user commented, "Imagine if we gave ourselves permission to appreciate our body's ability to keep us alive instead of rip it apart because it doesn't fall into the narrow and impossible beauty standard that our society perpetuates..." Another user added: "THIS is how mental health care is taken seriously — when we talk openly about body image challenges."
