Lena Dunham brands Kanye West video 'sickening' over 'prone, unconscious, waxy bodies of famous women'

West’s provocative offering shows 12 prominent figures lying naked on a bed, apparently asleep

(FilmMagic)

Kanye West has summarised one of his most controversial music videos as a “comment on fame”.

But for Lena Dunham, his latest offering is “one of the more disturbing ‘artistic’ efforts in recent memory”.

West’s provocative video for his song “Famous” shows 12 prominent wax-doll like figures lying naked on a bed, apparently asleep. Many of the figures, which include Taylor Swift, Donald Trump and Anna Wintour, are digitally manipulated and do not actually appear in the video.

The video, which references Vincent Desiderio’s painting ‘Sleep’ and premiered at the LA Forum on Friday, has sparked debate over whether West’s concept is thought-provoking or misogynistic.

A part of the arrangement considered particularly problematic shows Rihanna and Chris Brown lying next to each other. Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna hours before the Grammy Awards in 2009. At the other end of the bed, Bill Cosby’s image is shown.

Kim Kardashian-West sleeps next to West on one side and a likeness of Ray-J, her former partner who features in their infamous leaked sex tape, on the other. Close to them lies an image of Amber Rose, West’s ex-partner and former Twitter sparring partner.

In an essay on Facebook posted on Monday evening, Dunham branded the video “sickening” and potentially damaging for teenage girls. The Girls creator accused the video of reducing her friend Swift and other women “to a pair of waxy breasts”.

“Now I have to see the prone, unconscious, waxy bodies of famous women, twisted like they've been drugged and chucked aside at a rager?," wrote Dunham. "It gives me such a sickening sense of dis-ease.

“I'm sure that Bill Cosby doll being in the bed alongside Donald Trump is some kind of statement, that I'm probably being trolled on a super high level. I know that there's a hipper or cooler reaction to have than the one I'm currently having. But guess what? I don't have a hip cool reaction, because seeing a woman I love like Taylor Swift (f**k that one hurt to look at, I couldn't look), a woman I admire like Rihanna or Anna, reduced to a pair of waxy breasts made by some special effects guy in the Valley, it makes me feel sad and unsafe and worried for the teenage girls who watch this and may not understand that grainy roving camera as the stuff of snuff films.

“Here's the thing, Kanye: you're cool. Make a statement on fame and privacy and the Illuminati or whatever is on your mind! But I can't watch it, don't want to watch it, if it feels informed and inspired by the aspects of our culture that make women feel unsafe even in their own beds, in their own bodies.”

A likeness of George W. Bush is also shown lying asleep on the bed. The former US President's spokesperson was keen to add for the avoidance of doubt that he did not actually appear in the video, “and is in much better shape”. Swift, Rihanna, Rose and Wintour have not responded to the video.

In a tweet earlier on Monday that has since been deleted, West reportedly responded tauntingly with “can somebody sue me already”.

Representatives for West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.