It’s been rumored in the long time coming, but Vogue’s Anna Wintour finally coalesced and gave the green light for the fateful Lena Dunham Vogue cover which since it’s release earlier this week has seen a whole range of stirred reactions. Some not too pretty.
While the shoot itself may have been ‘colorful’ and bordering on the photoshop fantasy, courtesy of Annie Leibovitz, what has really set off commentators is Dunham’s purported reputation for being abrasive and crude, not to mention her lackadaisical approach to men and dating as well as her anti glam sensibilities which typically go against Vogue’s. Which is to say Vogue’s choosing of Lena Dunham is a suspicious one.
Reflected a bevy of commentators on the web:
I just don’t understand why they used her at all. what has this got to do with vogue? all these years of actresses on the cover have been bad enough – and they made oprah go on a diet for the cover. have you ever seen an all face vogue cover before? what has lena dunham’s work got to do with aspirational living? who buys vogue to see more of her floundering young adult oeuvre? that’s real life! i have always bought vogue to escape real life, even when everything was swell.
Queen of Comedy?!? Getting a little ahead of ourselves. Sure, she’s had a much bigger impact than Anna Faris and Rebel Wison but I would wager that 90% of the country has no idea who she is–unless they follow ping-pong.
i am happy for her. she is a very unattractive woman, and as such would probably have never dreamed she would be on the cover of pets illustrated – let alone vogue. now she can check a box she never dreamed of checking. but she is still a very unattractive woman. just a famous one.
She looks about what you’d expect would happen with Vogue. They’ve photoshopped her, and made her look gamine rather than ragged. (No tats showing, in other words.) Anna Wintour’s goal is to make Vogue appeal to a more youthful audience, so the motivation is clear.
And while there were many (as you can see from the sample above) who took the actress to task for failing to approximate gilded Hollywood standards (both aesthetically and mannerism wise) there were others who were in awe:
Lena Dunham is WORLDS apart from the “power couple” you reference. First of all, she doesn’t need a man to define her, she’s SMART, she is genuinely talented, and she has an amazing sense of humor (come to think of it, after watching “Jesus’s” last video, maybe the other half has one, too…). I LOVE seeing her on the cover and more power to her and more women like her in the future. We can only hope…
Tells the new it rugged girl to Vogue as she postulates on fame, dating and her hit show ‘Girls,’ :
“There was a sense that I and many women I knew had been led astray by Hollywood and television depictions of sexuality. Seeing somebody who looks like you having sex on television is a less comfortable experience than seeing somebody who looks like nobody you’ve ever met.”
On dating the average girl who walks down the street with no air of pretension, and why it’s important to look beyond the outer packaging:
“Critics [of the show] said, ‘That guy wouldn’t date that girl!’ It’s like, ‘Have you been out on the street lately?’ Everyone dates everyone, for lots of reasons we can’t understand. Sexuality isn’t a perfect puzzle, like, ‘He has a nice nose and she has a nice nose! She’s got great breasts and he’s got great calves! And so they’re going to live happily ever after in a house that was purchased with their modeling money!’ It’s a complicated thing. I want people ultimately, even if they’re disturbed by certain moments, to feel bolstered and normalized by the sex that’s on the show.”
And here Lena’s reticence with the cool kids of Hollywood:
“I went early on to a party at a really famous person’s house. They had a private chef there making pizza, and I remember the dog was wearing a bow tie. Every time I looked around, it would be like, Is that someone I know from camp? No, that’s Ashton Kutcher. It was such a weird scene. I remember thinking, I don’t feel at home here, and no matter how long this is my job, I will never feel at home here. And if I do start to feel at home here…someone should really worry about me.”
Although some still hold reservations towards Lena Dunham, there is something admittedly cool and refreshing about a woman who is into self empowerment and questioning the high brow set that has decided to suddenly champion her, albeit in a clown costume.
First I will not degrade the writer of this one sided article for His remark that she is “UGLY” ,She is actually kinda cute/plain but not ugly , As far as I know she is being stereo-typed cause she has “Tat’s ” and a straight forward no holds barred life style,Glad she got on “VOGUE’s” cover cause she is more real than most of the other models who have graced it’s cover ……. Everybody has an opinion and this is mine !