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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To find Jameela Jamil the most annoying body positivity advocate

140 replies

Imworthit · 14/09/2020 06:52

She's tall and slim, model perfect, always made up, perfect hair, beautifully dressed and all she seems to do is rage at other women for their beauty choices. I know we can't help how we look but she just seems the biggest hypocrite. AIBU for thinking this?

OP posts:
LizzieSiddal · 14/09/2020 07:37

She’s so woke it’s painful. She also seems incredibly stupid.

Imworthit · 14/09/2020 07:38

@TeaStory

You know she has been a lot bigger in the past, has suffered an eating disorder, has been mentally unwell to the point of a suicide attempt and has a physical disability that causes her a lot of pain etc? She doesn’t want other women to go through what she has, she doesn’t want other women in her position to feel alone and beyond help. Your post assumes she has a perfect charmed life without weight, body image or health worries and that just isn’t true.
I know she's had anorexia, chronic pain etc. I've had those issues too. That's why I find alot of her rhetoric fairly fake and still filled with signs of body dismorphia.

I've read alot of her stuff on women's issues as well. I know I'm being a hypocrite saying don't pull down other women when that's exactly what I'm doing but I was just curious if many others noticed this?

OP posts:
motherofgod2 · 14/09/2020 07:44

I agree with some of the things she says but I do feel like she's a hypocrite. She does interviews and podcasts with these plus sized women telling them how gorgeous they look when she'd never look like that herself. And also she criticises things that make less genetically blessed people feel good about themselves - shape wear, losing a few pounds. Her Twitter feed is exhausting she's always picking fights with everyone and it comes across as sanctimonious and preachy.

Lordamighty · 14/09/2020 07:46

She is vacuous dimwit who has never seen a bandwagon that she hasn’t jumped on. Her misogyny is blatant & beating women about anything is her main hobby.

Sanitisethat · 14/09/2020 07:49

Jameela Jamil isn’t a body positivity advocate. She’s very clear about this.

Jamil is an advocate for body neutrality - the idea that you don’t have to love your body, to steer away from self-hate without the pressure of having to achieve self-love. It's about working towards a place where people respect their bodies, but don't give too much energy to positive or negative thoughts about them. She didn’t found the movement, but she’s probably the most famous person now associated with it.

Jamil has spoken in a nuanced way about why she isn’t advocating body positivity - she has acknowledged that as a slim and conventionally attractive woman, it’s not her place to take the podium. But she has struggled enormously with her feelings about her own body. She had a very severe eating disorder. She has experienced colourism as a result of her relatively dark skin. These struggles have led her to embrace body neutrality, so that she can attempt to free herself from having to engage with emotions about her body at all.

That’s why she founded the i weigh movement - not to celebrate a diverse range of bodies, but to celebrate people for skills and achievements which have nothing to do with their bodies.

You don’t have to like Jamil, obviously. But I wonder how much you’ve actually listened to her (and not the headlines about her) for you to have so deeply misunderstood her position?

Sanitisethat · 14/09/2020 07:51

She's in a relationship with a man and "came out" as queer hmm

All you need to know.

I’m bisexual but married to a man. My sexual orientation hasn’t changed because of who I’m in a relationship with. It’s not really that hard.

BrumBoo · 14/09/2020 07:55

@Sanitisethat

She's in a relationship with a man and "came out" as queer hmm

All you need to know.

I’m bisexual but married to a man. My sexual orientation hasn’t changed because of who I’m in a relationship with. It’s not really that hard.

Yes but bisexuality has a clear definition, attracted to both sexes. What does Jamil mean when she defines herself as 'queer'? Because it unintentionally sounds like 'Im desperate to be part of the LGBT community with my own special label, and I once had a funny feeling watching Beyonce do the single ladies dance so obvs not straight.....'
Imworthit · 14/09/2020 07:58

she has acknowledged that as a slim and conventionally attractive woman, it’s not her place to take the podium

Except that she does constantly! That's why it pisses me off.

OP posts:
formerbabe · 14/09/2020 07:58

I don't know anything about her or what she says or does.

I will say I really roll my eyes at the large number of young, attractive, slim celebrities who post photos of themselves with a self indulgent caption bleeting on about how they're imperfect, not skinny but they're learning to love themselves...oh shut the fuck up

IheartJKR · 14/09/2020 07:58

Jamil is pretty awful. Most definitely no friend to women. I feel sorry for any women who sees her as a role model as I’m confident that she places zero value on you in return.

Op, trust your instincts. There are more authentic and articulate women to follow.

Imworthit · 14/09/2020 08:01

@Sanitisethat

She's in a relationship with a man and "came out" as queer hmm

All you need to know.

I’m bisexual but married to a man. My sexual orientation hasn’t changed because of who I’m in a relationship with. It’s not really that hard.

Same. You don't stop liking girls! That's like saying I have a husband therefore I will never be attracted to anyone else again. It doesn't work like that.
OP posts:
CitizenFame · 14/09/2020 08:02

The one that scolded people for not being inclusive and said that she would happily embrace rapists and sex offenders into women’s spaces as they said they “feel” like women? YANBU. She’s no advocate for anything except herself.

WildAboutMyPlanet · 14/09/2020 08:03

@Sanitisethat if this were all true, then why did she write an Instagram post last year or the year before attacking ‘skinny models’? I can’t find it now, but I used to be very thin (not by choice and not due to an eating disorder) and people felt it acceptable to talk about me to my face in a vile way. Jameela’s post perpetuated this, despite previously having an eating disorder?

She has also slut-shamed women quite a lot in the past. If she was just out there talking about diet pills etc then great, but she picks and chooses what she is campaigning against then attacks anyone who doesn’t agree. She isn’t fair in how she attacked people, she just goes mad at people and then all her followers jump in. It’s working very well for her, she is benefitting very well out of it.

CitizenFame · 14/09/2020 08:06

@Sanitisethat

She's in a relationship with a man and "came out" as queer hmm

All you need to know.

I’m bisexual but married to a man. My sexual orientation hasn’t changed because of who I’m in a relationship with. It’s not really that hard.

There’s a difference though. Jameela “came out” when she faced a backlash for her role in presenting a “queer” TV show by saying she was deemed eligible m for the role as she herself is queer (despite this not making any sense whatsoever as, according to her, it was a secret so she was clearly not deemed eligible to host for this reason).
TitianaTitsling · 14/09/2020 08:07

Oh is this her latest bandwagon? How much attention can she try and get for this? It must be exhausting constantly chasing it like this. I actually feel sorry for her, well I would were it not for how horrible she can be, happily using her acolytes to be the same to anyone who disagrees or challenges her.

Carycy · 14/09/2020 08:07

I once read an article from her that basically shamed women that had slept with a lot of me and and one night stands. She proudly stated how few men she had slept with like it was a badge of honour as she respected herself, only did it with someone she love bla bla bla. Put me off her right then. She is just a bit smug.

pinkbalconyrailing · 14/09/2020 08:09

I'm just leaving this here

To find Jameela Jamil the most annoying body positivity advocate
PurpleGhost · 14/09/2020 08:09

She seems to be a fantasist that jumps on any woke bandwagon she can find. I wouldn't believe a word that came out of her mouth tbh.

VestaTilley · 14/09/2020 08:10

She’s awful: a misogynist who wants men to be placed in prison with vulnerable women. I can’t abide her, or the holier than thou woke crowd. I despair.

Sanitisethat · 14/09/2020 08:12

if this were all true, then why did she write an Instagram post last year or the year before attacking ‘skinny models’? I can’t find it now, but I used to be very thin (not by choice and not due to an eating disorder) and people felt it acceptable to talk about me to my face in a vile way. Jameela’s post perpetuated this, despite previously having an eating disorder?

I can’t really respond to this because I don’t know what post you’re talking about or what she actually said. If you can find a screenshot I’ll let you know my views!

ssd · 14/09/2020 08:12

I've never read or heard a thing that comes out her mouth. Thank god.

Kit19 · 14/09/2020 08:14

The jameela who happily calls women Karen’s & TERFs, who ‘came out’ as queer after getting a backlash for taking up a presenting role on a queer tv show & who embraced Danielle “suck my dick” Muscato who took up a space in a women’s refuge as role model for diversity training? That jameela? She can get in the fucking bin

caughtalightsneeze · 14/09/2020 08:15

@pinkbalconyrailing

I'm just leaving this here
Isn't it strange that the people who shame pregnant women for being pregnant and their body changing are TRAs. You know, the sort of people who refer to pregnant women as pregnant people. Funny that.
TweeBree · 14/09/2020 08:16

As noted, she's a cyber bully who encourages cancel culture while claiming victimhood for herself. She's no friend to other women.

She was recently outed by a journalist as making up and exaggerating various illnesses for sympathy and attention: www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18093883864083603/

SuzieCarmichael · 14/09/2020 08:19

The relentless showboating and virtue signalling is pretty exhausting. I wish she’d bog off and do something more meaningful with her life than just talking about herself and lecturing the rest of us on how to behave all the time.