SHE was far from a nobody - but today Jameela Jamil is a public figure whose stock is rising on the global stage.
Parts of the British press have attacked her for her critical comments on the way they report the affairs of Mehgan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
In a blunt a tweet as they come on August 20, she fired: “Ugh. Dear England and English press just say you hate her because she’s black, and him marrying a black woman and be done with it God dammit. Your bullying is so embarrassing and obvious. You’ve all lost your marbles. It’s 2019. Grow up.”
The British press highlighted the fact that while the couple had chosen only to limit themselves to having two children (and publicly declaring so) - and thereby do their bit for the protection of our planet, they were taking private jets, increasing the carbon footprint and exacerbating climate change. Sir Elton John who arranged the jet to Nice, France came out in defence of the royals, and also described British press reports as “distorted and malicious”.
The debate raged on Twitter for a few days more but Jamil didn’t back down or ignore the avalanche of opposition from some quarters - ITV Good Morning presenter Piers Morgan (whom she dubbed ‘Piers Boregan’) and The Sun claimed she was making out all of Britain was racist - or her comments were simply an “insult to us all”, by attacking the press. She riposted hilariously: “This royal biographer can s**k on my big brown balls.” In a later tweet in response to someone who was sympathetic to her cause but pulled her up for her language and stridency, she replied that she emanated from a “historically racist country that still harbors (US spelling) an overwhelming hatred and discrimination towards black/brown people”. She ended by saying: “If you’re not all racist, you needn’t feel defensive.”
She’s become one of the most accomplished social media stars of our time and first made an impact over the issue of body shaming.
Her basic contention is that for far too long women have had to live by this oppressive regime of weight control, to the sacrifice of everything else. Achievement, talent, ability, were incidental - what mattered was whether you were fat or slim and pretty and presentable, she argued.
A svelte and tall woman (5’10) herself, she put her mission bluntly lifting her own quote from an article in HuffPost and prefacing it with the comment - that she wished she had realised this in her 30s.
It stated: “Why should we be doomed to waste our fine minds counting calories, pounds, stones and inches when we could be counting meaningful experiences, money and orgasms.”
Bluntly her position is: ‘Just let a bi**h live.”
The founder of the idea - I Weigh, she rails against people and things who make you feel bad about your body and profit from your unhappiness and desire to be thin and beautiful. It’s simply not worth it and people should see and treat you for who you are and how you behave (as a person not obsessed) by youthfulness and beauty.
She calls it Body Neutrality and says her ability to snap free from that type of body neuroses that plagued and still clings to some, has led to her becoming more intelligent, richer and enjoying the physical dimension of love-making more too.
Some say taking the battle to the heart of Kardashian Global Empire has got her noticed.
A diet detox tea promoted by Khloé Kardashian on the star’s Instagram account sparked her ire. She said: ‘You’re a smart woman. Be smarter than this.”
It’s perhaps no surprise that there is a degree of mutual admiration and support between The Duchess of Sussex and Jamil herself.
She was on the 15 Forces of Change who featured in the British Vogue guest edited by the Duchess of Sussex.
Jamil wrote a polemical style essay about the issue of body shaming for it - neatly summarising the difference. ‘The general global physical requirements for women in 2019’ go on and on, for just over 200 words. The one for men goes like this: “Have a beard, or don’t have a beard. Up to you.” That’s it. She wrote the article before she knew the Duchess of Sussex was guest editing that edition.
She said women are expected to achieve as much as men and have this burden of body expectation placed on them too. She continued in the essay, saying it felt too much like a joke or a cruel prank.
Her remedy to all this angst and energy-sapping neuroses was simply to “make memories that extend beyond what you have eaten today”. She was intelligent enough to appreciate that she was making the clarion call in Vogue. But she felt the title itself was taking steps not to fall into that trap of meeting and trying to achieve other people’s aspirations. It is after all edited by a gay British black man in Edward Enninful. She also said it was particularly thrilling to see so many black and Asian faces in Vogue.
Jamil was a Channel 4 presenter and broadcaster between 2008 and 2012 and in that year presented The Radio 1 Chart Show.
She is now a star in the US comedy drama, The Good Place about a woman who by mistake has entered heaven, and shouldn’t really be there.
Jamil plays deceased wealthy philanthropist Tahani Al-Jamil. Most people in the US know her through this show and her socially charged tweeting. She also has a famous boyfriend in the form of award-winning pop musician James Blake.
Her father is said to be of Indian descent, her mother from Pakistan. She does not practise any faith and was raised without one, she revealed on Twitter.
For many she has become an iconic figure, a savvy feminist who knows how to use the tools of social media to promote a message many have connected with - and in doing so, for brown women in the West, she has become a totemic emblem of a new type of woman who says what she wants, and doesn’t give a damn.
