A Brief History
Whether pronounced “Lee-na” or “Lay-na,” Lena has never been a popular name in English-speaking countries, being more common in Germanic or Slavic regions. Some of the more famous “Lenas” have one thing in common, however, at one point in time, they created a stir by going naked!
In line with our series on women whose nudity had a historical, social or cultural impact, in this article, we present 5 Lenas who, by being unclothed, made the news.
Due to the uncommonness of the name and the high rate of fame achieved with nudity by those called Lena, perhaps the name will one day be associated with female sexiness and confidence and rise higher on the lists of popular girls’ names.
Digging Deeper
1) Lena Horne
This black singer and actress whose life was famously portrayed by Halle Berry never actually went nude, however, in one of her early Hollywood movies Cabin in the Sky (1943), a scene in which Horne sings in a bubble bath was cut because, as Horne herself later said, the idea of a black woman singing (supposedly naked) in a bathtub went beyond the bounds of moral decency. How times have changed!
2) Lena Söderberg
Under the name of Lenna Sjööblom, this playmate appeared in the November 1972 issue of Playboy magazine. One of the photos from the shoot has been used since 1973 has been used as the standard test image in the field of image processing. Because of the continual use of the particular photo as digital imaging became more popular, Lena is often referred to as the “first lady of the internet.”
3) Lena Meyer-Landrut
As is so often the case when a woman achieves fame for her talents, her past comes back to haunt her or, in some cases, help her. In 2010, Lena Meyer-Landrut of Germany won the Eurovision Song Contest, the most widely viewed singing competition in Europe. Before her victory, video of her had emerged in which she swam naked in a pool with a male actor while filming scenes for a tv documentary. Although her win is probably not due to her nudity, being filmed naked certainly gave her added publicity. Click here to watch her winning performance.
4) Lena Dunham
Despite being a somewhat heavier set girl, Lena Dunham has shown no qualms about exposing herself on various tv shows, especially on the HBO series Girls. In fact her comfort with her nudity and sexuality has become somewhat of a running gag. Though often made fun of and parodied, it has been refreshing for many normal-looking women to see someone on screen who looks just like them and even fully embraces herself rather than feel ashamed. Thank you Lena for keeping it real in an age when the ideal of female beauty is slipping more and more into plastic perfectionism.
5) Lena Headey
In October of 2014, the news waves were overrun by the story that Lena Headey’s character in Game of Thrones, Cersei Lannister, would be fully nude in a scene in which she walks down a crowded street completely naked. It is unbeknownst to the author why such an event would garner so much interest other than for the fact that $200,000 was spent on security to keep the scene as private as possible. And it’s not even a sexy scene. Headey/Cersei will apparently do her “walk of shame” all beaten up and disheveled. Whatever. The episode is set to air sometime after season 5 begins in April of 2015.
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Historical Evidence
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