Why Jameela Jamil Talking About Privilege Is Important
Freedom of speech must not ban the uncomfortable truths
Privilege. Some people are born with it, others earn it later on in life, and there’s the people that have to rely on hard work & luck to make it from one day to the next. That’s dumbing it down, of course.
What’s the actual definition of privilege?
- a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed by a particular person or a restricted group of people beyond the advantages of most
- the unearned and mostly unacknowledged societal advantage that a restricted group of people has over another group
- the principle or condition of enjoying special rights or immunities
The main thing you need to understand here is that privilege is always applied against ‘the advantages of most’.
Learning more about the different types of privilege we experience or possess can not only help us make sense of the world, but also start creating the changes we wish to see.
Some truths are uncomfortable, but necessary.
Privilege, once understood, can make you feel uncomfortable too.
Actor, activist and public figure, Jameela Jamil, has been actively raising awareness of what ‘privilege’ means and how it affects us all. The character she played in The Good Place, Tahani Al-Jamil, ironically captured the metamorphosis we all need from a selfish to a fully altruistic society.
Why should we listen to Jameela Jamil?
Earlier this year, Jameela said in an interview with BBC why she chose to focus on building an acting career. It wasn’t for the fame, at least not directly. She wanted to reach a place where people would listen to her.
“Everything I’ve always done has been with a Trojan horse intention. It’s why I’m in Hollywood now. I’m here to get my work done when it comes to activism.”
We have been conditioned — or perhaps it’s part of our evolutionary set of flaws — to pay attention to the beautiful people in the room, around us, on TV. That’s why they make such good campaigners on behalf of the most powerful people in the world. But too often they have an agenda that only benefits them, as ‘the privileged’, and harms the exploited audience.
Jameela has an agenda bigger than just being a fashion icon or a pretty face on screen. She wants to make the world a more understanding place, especially for those who are different than what’s perceived as ‘normal’, whatever the hell ‘normal’ means nowadays.
I’m not saying that Jameela Jamil is perfect, but neither are you, or any of us for that matter. That’s precisely the point she is trying to make and we need to embrace too — that the chase for perfection must stop before we destroy ourselves and each other.
What’s the one thing that can make all the difference? Acceptance.
But the world – and by the world, I mean the rich billionaires in the background, the ‘creators’ of life as we know it – doesn’t want you to just accept your reality and find happiness in the trivial stuff.
No, the world wants you to suffer.
Those on top of the life hierarchy want to make you believe that you don’t have a choice and your only possible way out of misery is to listen to them.
This is where the loyal servants of the most powerful people in the world come into play: the famous, the elite, the media. Their job — to spread the marketing messages that would lead us into making the consumerist choices that we do unknowingly under the influence of all the propaganda that we see every day, everywhere, and what’s worse – even from those that we love and trust the most. Our family, friends, neighbours and colleagues.
Realising how the world works, in terms of all the manipulation and exploitation out there, could help everyone to be more mindful of their own choices.
Here’s what Jameela Jamil has done so far that deserves your attention.
1. Jameela promotes positive body image
When so many public figures endorse products that supposedly help you become a better version of yourself (through dieting, getting an elite coach, undergoing surgeries, buying this or that brand of clothes, etc), Jameela’s main message is that everyone needs to love themselves as they are.
In her campaigns, body positivity or body neutrality aim to replace body-shaming. Your skin colour doesn’t define you. Your kilograms don’t define you. Your thighs, shoulders and ankles don’t define you. They may announce you to the world, but you are the person that writes the definition.
While influencers like Kim Kardashian might be suggesting ‘You’re nothing until you look like me’, Jameela Jamil is shouting at you ‘You’re gorgeous as you are and you need to start celebrating your body ASAP’.
“All you can find is progress and not perfection.”
Speaking of Kim Kardashian, Jameela openly went against one of the products that she was endorsing on Instagram. A tea that helped you lose weight in days. A laxative, as Jameela described it.
“Just don’t sell laxatives to children. […] Don’t sell dangerous, unregulated products to children. And do not ever attribute your physique that is down to a personal chef, personal trainer, a surgeon, a heavy use of Photoshop that you never declare, and pretend that you look like that because of some dodgy powder over the Internet.”
This tea and many other similar scam products give young girls diarrhea, depression and other chronic conditions, but worst of all — they encourage anorexic behaviour and hatred towards one’s own body.
Jameela, along with a team of health experts, fought with big social media companies who allowed promotion of unauthorised products to underaged and vulnerable teenagers, and won. Instagram, for example, introduced restrictions to the promotions of diet products and the display of cosmetic surgeries for anyone aged under 18.
2. She doesn’t have a filter and that’s a good thing
Jameela is an advocate for the freedom of choice and freedom of speech. Yet her words are often met with extreme backlash both from the public and the media.
But if you listen closely, you’ll understand precisely why the explicit language is required — double standards are everywhere around us and the only way to move beyond the past is to alter the present moment.
“White men don’t seem to have to have a filter in our day and age, especially not the most successful ones. Pierce Morgan, Donald Trump. They are mouthing off about whatever they want, saying the first thing that comes to their mind. I reserve that same right and so I say whatever I want and I wanted to say something that would wake people up and make sure that they knew that it was okay for me to tell truth to power.”
While we’ve been conditioned to listen to the beautiful people in the room — and, yes, Jameela is gorgeous in that sense! — we also expect them to behave a certain way and say certain things, or we need to remove them from the place they occupy because they threaten to change the status quo as it is.
Women continue to be perceived as ‘damsels in distress’ and scrutinised as such, while men can get away with almost anything.
When are we going to wrap our minds around the fact that freedom of choice and freedom of speech apply to all of us, regardless of our gender?
Yes, Jameela speaks on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community, too.
3. Jameela is going against the real bully – the media
Few days ago Jameela posted a selfie with no make up on and one user complimented her on her flawless skin. Jameela’s response included that she exfoliates twice a week, but also the following statement on privilege:
“Privileged people have more access to good quality nutrition and also our lives are significantly less stressful than the lives of those with less privilege. I also get to sleep more because of this. All of these things keep my hormones in balance and I’m able to address food intolerances easily.”
Her response quickly gained backlash online, both from individuals and the media.
Let’s run through a quick checklist:
- Did Jameela say anything wrong in her statement? No.
- Do privileged people have more access to better nutrition, which in turns helps your body to be in a more balanced state and that, of course, affects positively your skin too? Yes.
- Does the media feed on stories that humiliate women and in particular women of colour? Abso-fuckin-lutely.
As a journalism graduate, it comes to me as little surprise that media doesn’t always have the best interest of everyone. Large groups of people? Sure. A large group of ultra privileged individuals? 100%.
What did Jameela did wrong? She didn’t follow up on her part of the consumerist chain where the famous person would normally endorse an expensive product that will either get you depressed when you bought it and it didn’t work, or because you couldn’t even afford it.
Let’s not forget that some of the main media companies are owned by the same powerful billionaires who won’t even reveal themselves personally, let alone their plans to manipulate us into thinking that we are broken and we should spend our lifetime trying to get fixed.
To this day Prince Harry and Megan Markle have been the subject of daily harassment from the media, even thought they consciously took the decision as husband and wife, as a team, to leave the royal family. The royal family let them go, but the media simply can’t.
The media is so busy laying attacks against Megan Markle — the dark skinned woman who stole Prince Charming — that they are missing the actual predator in the castle, Prince Andrew, who not only faced a number of sexual allegations, but is also actually linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
The point is that media must play its part in the consumerist eco-system and it can never fully be objective until it stops, which means it can never be fair.
Jameela Jamil is now in a position where she can control the narrative of her own portrayal and that’s a powerful place to be, because media won’t change in a day, but our perception of it just might.
4. Her podcast ‘I Weigh’ looks for solutions and not just the latest gossip
The I Weigh project started as a social media post that quickly gained popularity and it was extended to a full profile. Soon enough there was a whole community and a podcast.
On I Weigh, Jameela Jamil challenges society’s definition of worth through weight by asking different thought-leaders, performers, activists, influencers, and friends about how they are working through their past shames to find where their value truly lies.
In one of the latest episodes, Lizzo opened up for an honest, powerful and eye-opening interview that I absolutely recommend you to watch.
Finding someone who’s willing to listen is enough to remind you of your own worth in this world, that you’re worthy of love, no matter your body shape or previous traumatic experiences.
Listening is the first step to acceptance.
5. Jameela knows the importance of mental health
There are few important conversations today like the one about mental health. Unfortunately, it’s still considered a stigma to express how we feel or to dwell for too long on why we feel the way we do.
Yet everything around is designed to make us feel bad and fearful.
The paradox of being alive is getting more complicated every single day, thanks to our own sabotaging efforts.
“We now speak out about things often that we don’t care about just because we want to make sure that other people know that we’re on the right side of that conversation.”
We’re complicated creatures, but we must embrace the authenticity of our reality, no matter how imperfect it may seem to us.
Too many people have suffered — or worse, died — because they didn’t share the pain of their mental state.
As long as there are public figures like Jameela Jamil who keep the conversation about mental health ongoing and bring a positive inspiration wherever they go, there is hope for more mindful and empathetic days ahead.
The #WomenTalking Takeaway
Everything is connected. Privilege is never just privilege — it means better chances for survival, for success, for succession. While privilege is not everything, it affects all of us in ways that we can change so that we all live more impactful and meaningful lives.
Jameela Jamil is fighting on behalf of all of us by speaking out about basic human rights, body positivity and mental health. Her mission is to reshape the way we view one another in a world that all too often promotes hate in the name of consumerism and keeping the economy alive.
Love is a basic human right for all of us, so why do we give up on our self-love so easily?
Acceptance is the powerful force that changes our quest for perfection into a peace mission. It’s also the force that allows us to see when we’re wrong and gently guides us towards making amends in order to become better people.
Jameela Jamil is the human rights voice we absolutely need right now.
If you enjoyed this article, keep an eye on my column Women Talking for more stories on how women are changing the world. 💃
