- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
Lena Dunham has called it quits with Twitter.
On hourlong podcast Re/code Decode, the Girls co-creator revealed that she has freed herself of social media hate and now has someone else tweet messages on her personal account.
“I don’t look at Twitter anymore. I tweet, but I do it through someone else,” she told host Kara Swisher, adding that she doesn’t even know her account password. “I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all, and so I didn’t want to cut off my relationship to it completely, but it really, truly wasn’t a safe space for me.”
The decision came partly due to the “verbal abuse” and body-shaming comments Dunham received after posting a photo on Instagram of her wearing just a sports bra and her boyfriend’s boxers.
“It wasn’t a graphic picture,” said Dunham. “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.”
She added, “Even if you think, like, ‘Oh I can read, like, 10 mentions that say I should be stoned to death and kind of, like, laugh and move on,’ that’s verbal abuse. Those aren’t words that should be directed at you ever. And so, for me personally, it was safer to stop [using Twitter].” (Dunham is still active on Instagram.)
Dunham noted that she also has quit reading media sites, such as Gawker, telling Swisher, “I used to read Gawker and Jezebel in college and be like, ‘I can’t wait to get to New York where my people will be to welcome me.’ And it’s like, it’s literally, if I read it, it’s like going back to a husband who beat me in the face — it just doesn’t make any sense.”
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day