Lena Dunham Shares What It’s Really Like To Date Post The #MeToo Movement

"The #MeToo movement had made any sensible or sensitive man reconsider his impact on the women he has encountered over the years”

Lena Dunham Shares What It's Really Like To Date Post #MeToo in an essay for Vogue

by Bonnie McLaren |
Updated on

Lena Dunham has shared what it's been like for her to start dating again post the #MeToo movement, following her split from producer Jack Antonoff. The Girls creator spoke candidly in an essay for Vogue, where she revealed that she would post ‘thirst traps’ to Instagram in ‘plus size panties' to attract admirers. Lena split from the Fun guitarist in December 2017after five years together - the break-up came in the wake of her undergoing a hysterectomy, due to endometriosis.

The 32-year-old shared: "It's always amazed me how people transform once sex is introduced... But when I emerged onto the free market, what I found was a vastly changed world. Among its many reverberations, the #MeToo movement had made any sensible or sensitive man reconsider his impact on the women he has encountered over the years.”

Lena clarified: “As a survivor of sexual assault and dozens of trespasses, I was, of course, overjoyed that consent was now a part of the everyday vocabulary.” And she then went on to add: “But that conversation around consent - the echoes of: 'Is this OK?' - served as a reminder of the fact that I was having sex at all. And sex is something I feel infinite shame about and can enjoy only if I'm so caught up in it that my awareness of the act is almost entirely obliterated by the intensity of the approach.”

In the essay, Lena also writes how she visited a man - referred to as Jeremy - who contacted her by sliding into her Instagram DMs. The filmmaker also shared her excitement of finally dating again. “After half a decade with the same person, I had returned to my dating life with the abandon of a grandma of ten shopping duty-free,” The Tiny Furniture filmmaker penned. “I had missed all of this: the anxiety of constructing a new identity worth wanting, the jittery caffeine-high moments before the first kiss, and an introduction to someone's second personality, the one they have when lust is unleashed."

Just so you know, whilst we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website, we never allow this to influence product selections - read why you should trust us