Four reasons why we <3 Jameela Jamil
Our latest girl crush - Jameela Jamil - calling out body shaming, the patriarchy and making us laugh at the same time. ✊
We're not shy of sharing a girl crush here on the HARA blog, be it Emma Watson or Jacinda Arden - today it's all about Jameela Jamil. British-born teacher-come-music presenter, DJ, writer and now actress in US sitcom The Good Place, Jameela is not scared of speaking out on issues she cares about.
Here's four reasons why we <3 Jameela Jamil
1. She's body positive and vocal
Reacting to a viral photo of the Kardashians with their weights labelled on each of them - Jamella's reaction caught the attention of instagram and the #IWeigh campaign was born - where women are celebrating their worth. Celebrating our 'non-physical attributes, that rarely gets featured in the hyper-visual world of social media.
She responded on her website with: “Women of every size and shape and age and background sent me their declarations of self-love and clapped back at the shame they have been drenched in their whole lives,” she added, applauding women for rejecting the body ideals that many of us are taught to prioritise through the ongoing “epidemic of self-hatred”.
On the official @i_weigh account there are more than 1700 posts with over 130 000 followers.
2. She refuses to be airbrushed
Jameela posted on her Instagram, "I find photoshop to be one of the worst things to happen to women" after asking Virgin magazine Vera not to airbrush her cover image.
She continues to explain her reasoning on her blog, airbrushing is "false imagery being used to subliminally manipulate us into a feeling of (needless) disappointment in ourselves. "
3. She's taking on the complex issue of sexual consent
How do we navigate the world of consent? Jamil argues, "it's something we're all expected to be well versed on but actually it's a topic we know very little about. Rarely does it pop up in adolescent sex education or even in later life."
On her blog post earlier in the year, she explains why consent needs to be talked about, "how vital it is to read the room and make sure the other person is not just willing, but damn well enthusiastic."
In Jamil's candid, no-holds-style she adds, "if that person is the one to be penetrated. You want to enter them. You best ensure you are a welcome guest, not someone who just begged, pressured, guilt-tripped or harassed their way inside.
"Our society has mislead men. We have allowed pornography to continuously promote that narrative that a woman is a hole for a man to enjoy when and how he feels like it."
Listen to episode 1 on BBC Radio 4 here.
4. She's breathing fresh life into the feminist movement
In Krishnan Guru Murthy's podcast, How To Change The World, Jamil is very open, she "will not be a double agent for the patriarchy" citing celebrities who are endorsing 'toxic products' like appetite suppressing lollipops. "You are recycling [self] hatred and I find that really dangerous."
She calls for constructive criticism amongst women, "as long as we do it in a somewhat careful way.". From the 60 min interview many of the clips that spread furthest were those centred around the Kardashians - and in a follow up video - Jamil reminds us that the media play a huge role in keeping the patriarchal narrative alive and pitching women against each other.
“It’s not in the patriarchy’s interest for us to be multifaceted. They want us to worry about how we look, because it slows us down and we’re then less likely to overtake them," she adds in an earlier interview for The Guardian.
Watch the full 60 min interview: