A few weeks ago, Lena Dunham posted the below picture to Instagram, captioned:
"TBH this was a rough week. It felt like my body, my hormones, my general sense of well-being were betraying me. I wanted to crumple into a pile or hide like a sweatshirt in the lost and found. And I felt as though there wasn't a way to ask for the space and time I needed without hurting someone else. What a shitty feeling, but isn't that the reality for so many of us? I am certainly no self-help guru but here is what I know tonight: when you take the time and space you need, kindly and responsibly, you're suddenly available to the people you love in a whole new way. There is no other answer (except Calvins... Nothing gets between us.)"
And, to be honest, we relate to every sentiment she expressed, and the picture she posted to accompany it.
As it turns out, the internet trolls don't quite comprehend such posts and the Girls actress has received and unprecedented level of body shaming backlash. So now, to her, twitter is comparable to cancer.
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Speaking in a recent podcast, the 29-year-old said: "I don’t look at Twitter anymore. I tweet, but I do it through someone else… It truly wasn’t a safe space for me. I think even if you think you can separate yourself from the kind of verbal violence that’s being directed at you, that it creates some really kind of cancerous stuff inside you. Even if you think, 'Oh I can read like 10 mentions that say I should be stoned to death.' That’s verbal abuse."
She's even had to remove images from Instagram, which she claims is a more friendly community. She had to delete a picture of her sporting her boyfriend's undies recently: "It wasn’t a graphic picture - I was wearing men’s boxers. And it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women’s bodies, and my Instagram page was somehow the hub for misogynists for the afternoon.”
Thankfully not all of her followers are like that, with one positive soul posting under this pic: "You're the best person on this earth. You're absolutely hilarious and your willingness to share your body reminds everyone that this is what normal girls look like and not everything stays firm when you're having sex and that's okay. I'm literally a happier human because of you."
Have you ever been subjected to online abuse? If so, how did you deal with it?
