It’s okay to dislike Lena Dunham for what she says, but it’s not okay to attack her looks because of it

Every time I see Lena Dunham’s name appear on my Twitter feed I almost automatically prepare myself to disagree with whatever controversial, privileged, short-sighted musings that she has shared. However, in May, a string of her tweets rang powerfully true to me.

Appearance is a personal and therefore sensitive subject, so, sadly, insulting someone’s image is widely used as an easy and effective way to belittle people and make them feel insignificant. Attacking someone’s appearance reduces them to nothing more than a spectacle, something only to be looked at and judged on a very superficial level. As Lena suggests, it “prevents real discourse”.

It distracts from real and more important issues.

The criticism that Lena herself receives exemplifies this. She has become known for her unapologetic, brash, and outspoken nature, with her controversial tweets always garnering attention on social media. However, as a quick search of “Lena Dunham” on Twitter shows that it’s her appearance, not her problematic opinions, that are most viciously attacked.

I find these petty attacks on her appearance to not only be shallow, but also tired and pathetic. They mean nothing and they achieve nothing. It’s unjustifiable nastiness.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why Lena is the subject of critique. Personally, I find her political outlook to be questionable to say the least, and I wholeheartedly encourage it to be questioned. However, her appearance is a completely separate, and not to mention irrelevant, matter. Her thoughts, opinions and overall worldview deserve much greater scrutiny. Valid issues that could be raised about her flippant attitudes towards abortion (she once was recorded saying she “wishes” she had experienced one), or the fact that she has been accused of molesting her baby sister, often get overshadowed by attacks on her image.

This was certainly a trend seen in the backlash to one of her recent controversial tweets, where Lena chose to distastefully bash fathers on Father’s Day:

Understandably, other users quickly took issue with her rather obnoxious tweet.

While this tweet validly raises issues with Lena’s comment, it only do so after it has criticised her appearance. This user’s shallow and trivial issue with her weight takes a primacy over the more important issue at hand: her ignorant generalisation in characterising all fathers as lazy deadbeats.

It is probable that Lena’s appearance is the primary target of her critics because labelling her as “fat” and “ugly” is an easy way to dismiss her, to make her seem “other” and therefore inconsequential. It’s mindless. It requires no effort. In comparison, sagely critiquing her opinions, and highlighting why her attitudes might be misguided, requires much greater thought and contemplation.

Despite the fact that thoughtfully and eloquently voicing an opposition to Lena’s controversial statements is far more likely to encourage her to consider alternative viewpoints, vicious attacks on her appearance are undeniably the most prevalent type of criticism she receives.

The name “Lena Dunham” has become almost synonymous with extreme ugliness.

Her name, closely associated with her image, has become an insult, an insult that people now use to attack and put down others.

It’s obvious and often said, but this needless cruelty and hatred has to stop. Surely we should strive to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to share their opinions, where conversation and debate is not clouded by vapid attacks on something as irrelevant as appearance. After all, while you may believe that someone’s morals and political opinions are ‘ugly’, that has absolutely no correlation to their supposed physical ‘ugliness’, despite what Disney may have led us to believe.