CULTURE

Jameela Jamil’s Fight Against Misogyny and Loneliness

Jameela Jamil, the firebrand who became famous both for her breakout role on NBC’s The Good Place and for her brand of fearless, anti-diet digital activism, did not mince words when clapping back at “irrelevant sh*t stain” (her words, not ours) Piers Morgan.

Jamil was one of the fifteen women featured on British Vogue‘s issue entitled “Forces for Change,” guest-edited by Meghan Markle. She appeared alongside environmental activist Greta Thunberg, trans actress Laverne Cox, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and many more powerful female change-makers.

In response, Morgan published a shockingly embittered and almost unbelievably ignorant op-ed in The Daily Mail, which mostly consisted of poorly worded criticism directed at Markle and all the women of the world. “The women she’s selected represent the greatest hits of virtue-signalling – with a nod to everything from ‘body positivity’, female empowerment, mental health, disability and race to transgender rights, climate change, diversity, and privilege,” he wrote. “The last one made me laugh out loud. I’m sure the one thing we all need most in the world right now is a fabulously rich and entitled Princess lecturing us on privilege from her servant-laden royal quarters.”

Morgan then turned his wrath from Markle to Jamil, criticizing the duchess’s decision to post Jamil’s face on the cover of the issue of British Vogue and citing some of Jamil’s past mistakes. “The list of women Jamil has abused and shamed for falling short of her lofty moral standard is long,” Morgan wrote, citing how Jamil has previously “hoped Cardi B and Iggy Azalea ‘sh*t their pants in public,’ “accused Miley Cyrus of being ‘a vagina without a platform'” and “compared Beyoncé to a ‘stripper.'”

Jamil was quick to respond. In her typically intelligent fashion, she didn’t try to deny the problems with her past comments. Instead, she owned up to them. “My PINNED tweet is all of the mistakes I made, owning up to being problematic when I was young. I have nothing to hide,” she tweeted Monday. “You are old, and still a problematic slut-shaming, fat-shaming, misogynist, irrelevant sh*t stain, smeared across our country.”

Jamil’s willingness to admit her own mistakes, as well as her fearlessness when confronting bigoted and dangerous ideas, has made her a beloved Internet personality and helped her gain the spot on Markle’s cover. In Jamil and Markle’s world, feminism is a constantly growing, expanding category, based on forward motion, learning, and change.

As for Morgan, despite his apparent desire to see more socioeconomically diverse female Vogue editors, it seems that, at heart, he’s genuinely motivated by a hatred for feminism and all that it stands for, along with nostalgia for a time when being a white man meant he had an all-access pass to any space.

“We’re informed the Duchess spent the past seven months creating ‘an issue of inclusivity and inspiration, focusing on what connects rather than what divides us,” he wrote. “How thoughtful of her! Yet of course her list excludes the planet’s entire male population.”

Enough said.

The exchange happened the day before Jamil launched her partnership with BumbleBFF’s new campaign #AskingForaFriend, which is dedicated to ending the stigma around loneliness and making it easier for people to find friendship.

Ironically, Bumble itself has been accused of promoting a misogynistic company culture, but one would hope that Jamil has done her research—or another Twitter rant is coming quite soon.

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