This is Jameela Jamil. Other than her leading role as Tahani Al-Jamil on NBC's The Good Place, Jamil is also a television presenter, radio presenter, model, and activist.
Recently, Jamil spoke on the Ways to Change the World podcast , sharing how women's magazines and media push unnatural beauty ideals — like whitewashing and airbrushing — on young girls.
I gave a very frank interview with @krishgm for Channel 4 News about society's routine abuse of women and how it has shaped my entire life. I can't thank @Channel4News enough for this support and for your passion for changing the world. #iweigh https://t.co/lsOfq17xrF
"Airbrushing and changing my ethnicity for a role is not only bad for my mental health, it makes me dislike what I’m seeing in the mirror." she told presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy. "It sends a direct message from the editor to me, and from whoever photoshops my image to me, that I am not good enough as I am, that the way I turned up on that set that day wasn’t good enough. "
She also specifically pointed out the Kardashians, calling them toxic for young women. "The same poison that made you clearly develop some sort of body dysmorphia or facial dysmorphia, you are now pouring back into the world," she said about Kim Kardashian. "You’re like recycling hatred."
"The double agent for the patriarchy is basically just a woman who maybe unknowingly is still putting the patriarchal narrative out into the world. Is still benefiting off, profiting off, and selling, a patriarchal narrative to other women. But it’s a wolf in sheep's clothing."
No. Fuck off. No. You terrible and toxic influence on young girls. I admire their mother’s branding capabilities, she is an exploitative but innovative genius, however this family makes me feel actual despair over what women are reduced to. ☹️ https://t.co/zDPN1T8sBM
"You’re selling us an ideal, a body shape, a problem with our wrinkles, a problem with aging, a problem with gravity, a problem with any kind of body fat," she said about Kim Kardashian. "You’re selling us self-consciousness."
On Twitter, Laura Jane Williams chimed in on the "idea of inadvertently selling the patriarchal narrative":
The idea of inadvertently selling the patriarchal narrative, as she puts it, is one I am going to mull on and mull on and mull on. Bloody on point. https://t.co/UPhwz7Avzw
Matt Haig thanked Jameela for the inspiring work being done for "body image and magazines and society":
It’s amazing to see the work @jameelajamil is doing on body image and magazines and society. Must be helping tons of women, and young people, and everyone. She is hitting so many nails on so many heads.
Other twitter users agreed how important it is to destroy the idea that "only a certain shape/size/colour/race is acceptable in some warped society"...
I can’t stress enough how proud I am of @jameelajamil for her continued vocal fight against those who continue to put women, people in such an unhealthy box. That only a certain shape/size/colour/race is acceptable in some warped society. Please watch this video. https://t.co/HqpPy5Fc3l
...And that women should be celebrated rather than sold "impossible idealisms."
@Channel4News Absolutely agree. Why not celebrate what we have rather than shame us and sell us impossible idealisms.
However, other Twitter users, like @bethanyrutter, questioned if Kim was being targeted simply because she is "perceived as hyper-sexualized":
Thinking abt that Jameela Jamil video that’s been everywhere- I don’t luv Kim K but I also hate accusations that a woman is an ~agent of the patriarchy. It’s only used at people who are perceived as hypersexualised or having ‘the wrong kind’ of sex + it’s a rly ugly feminist tool
Another user noted that they felt Jamil's "brand of feminism to be oppressive and limiting"...
I shan’t be joining in with the Jameela Jamil lovefest as I’ve often found her brand of feminism to be oppressive & limiting. She has, historically, very readily slut-shamed other women and seems to pile on the Kardashians at every opportunity for being hyper-sexual.
...perpetuating more of the rhetoric of a "white feminist":
Of course, that’s not to say the Kardashians aren’t without criticism. But this just feels like another chance to take a swipe at them and it’s boring at this point. Her rhetoric has always been incredibly white feminist and I’m not interested in her being lauded as the new icon.
Watch the entire interview below:
