Internet in uproar over photo of Lena Dunham attempting to kiss Brad Pitt

A woman holds a mans shoulder as she leans towards his face, mouth agape.
The infamous kiss. Photo credit: Getty

The internet can't agree whether a photo of Lena Dunham presents a double standard or not.

Dunham appears to be trying to give Brad Pitt an open-mouthed kiss in the image, taken at the premiere of the new Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

It quickly spread on social media, with Twitter users suggesting Pitt didn't consent to the kiss and Dunham went too far.

Tabloids like The Blast, Us Weekly and the New York Post made light of the kiss, calling it "awkward" and saying Dunham was "shooting her shot".

"Two things I find most foul are the headlines basically giving #lenadunham a pass and Women in the media not calling that out! If Brad did this to a Woman, his ass would have been blasted," wrote actor Chris Greene.

"If Brad Pitt did to Margot Robbie what Lena Dunham did to him on the red carpet, Dunham would write a 3,000-word essay about consent," wrote editor Michelle Bruton.

But others have suggested powerful men have done far worse without too much damage to their careers, and suggestions of a double standard are incorrect.

"Women like Lena Dunham are 100 percent creeps and need to be condemned, but i'm kinda over posts that word it like 'if she were a man, she'd be crucified by now!' when on multiple demonstrable instances, powerful men exhibit similar or worse behaviour & are still famous and widely liked," video essayist Sarah Z wrote.

"Really sick of the 'if a man did what Lena Dunham did then...' narrative because white men are almost never held accountable for sexual assault allegations - let's talk about why white women aren't being held accountable either," wrote Twitter user @rat_link3.

Some people questioned the photo itself and suggested it was taken at the wrong moment, before Dunham kissed Pitt on the cheek.

"Lena Dunham sucks ass and is a f**king creep for many reasons but the brad pitt thing doesn't really seem like one of them??" one person wrote, showing pictures of the pair kissing on the cheek at the premiere.

"People are only posting the first picture but if you look at them all you see they were both giving one another a kiss on the cheek in greeting."

Dunham and Pitt are yet to comment on the controversy.

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