Girls star back-pedals on criticism of Spanish magazine’s cover, saying ‘it’s a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it’s your own body anymore’

Lena Dunham has back-pedalled on her complaint that a Spanish magazine used “mad Photoshop” on a photo of her on its cover following a response from the publisher that not only did it not airbrush the image, but Dunham’s representative signed off on it.

Dunham said the misunderstanding highlighted her “long and complicated history with retouching”.

“It’s a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it’s your own body anymore,” she said.

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Dunham reposted a photo of the cover of Tentaciones, a monthly supplement of the Madrid-based newspaper El País, to her 2.4 million followers on Instagram on Monday. In the caption, she complained the magazine had airbrushed an image of her taken by Ruven Afanador for Entertainment Weekly in 2012.

“This is NOT what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like – the magazine has done more than the average photoshop. So if you’re into what I do, why not be honest with your readers?”

The photo received 43,000 likes in fewer than 24 hours.

But in an open letter to Dunham published on El País’ website on Tuesday, the magazine clarified it had only cropped Afanador’s original photo as it was licensed through the Corbis agency – not retouched it.

“Of course, we are aware that any media outlet needs to be responsible for what it publishes, but this photo was previously approved by the agency, the photographer and your publicist ... we used the original that they sent us without applying any kind of retouching. Those who are familiar with and follow our magazine will know that we do not use Photoshop nor other digital tools to change the physical appearance of our cover stars, nor in the features to be found inside. On this occasion, the only thing we did was to crop the image to adapt it to the format of our front page.”

It compared its cover to the image of Dunham as she had appeared in Entertainment Weekly: “As you can see, the image is exactly the same.” (This gif, made by a third party, overlays the two.)

“We are delighted to see that you still have your rebellious spirit,” concluded the letter, before offering Dunham a free subscription – “so that you can see for yourself that we like to reflect things the way that they really are”.

Dunham responded on Instagram shortly afterwards, thanking the magazine for its response and for “being so good natured about my request for accuracy”.

She accepted that Tentaciones had not Photoshopped the image itself, and that her own team had signed off on it. “And why wouldn’t they? I look great.

“But it’s a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it’s your own body anymore (and I’m pretty sure that will never be my thigh width but I honestly can’t tell what’s been slimmed and what hasn’t.) I’m not blaming anyone (y’know, except society at large.)

“I have a long and complicated history with retouching. I wanna live in this wild world and play the game and get my work seen, and I also want to be honest about who I am and what I stand for.

“Maybe it’s turning 30. Maybe it’s seeing my candidate of choice [Hillary Clinton] get bashed as much for having a normal woman’s body as she is for her policies. Maybe it’s getting sick and realizing ALL that matters is that this body works, not that it be milky white and slim.

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“But I want something different now. Thanks for helping me figure that out and sorry to make you the problem, you cool Spanish magazine you. Time to get to the bottom of this in a bigger way. Time to walk the talk.”

She accepted the offer of a free subscription to Tentaciones, then followed up with another Instagram post endorsing access to safe and legal abortion in time for Super Tuesday: “But seriously my photoshopped legs don’t matter, cuz it’s Super Tuesday and this is happening.”

A spokesman for Prisa, which publishes El País and Tentaciones, told Guardian Australia it had had no other contact from Dunham other than her “lovely response” on Instagram.

“Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, doesn’t it?” the spokesman said.