Content warning: This episode discusses eating disorders and mental health.
As she counts down until her conversation series tour at the end of this month, Jameela Jamil says she’s looking forward to three things in Australia: the coffee, the locals and some unapologetically candid discussions.
“I can’t believe I’ve never been [to Australia] given how long I’ve loved Australian culture, and comedy especially” Jamil tells Draw Your Box.
The actor, well-known for roles in The Good Place and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, has long been known for her holds barred approach when advocating for women’s rights, body positivity, diversity and other social issues. It’s something she identifies as a commonality with many Aussies, especially Australian women.
“I really like the directness of Australian people. And so I feel as though I don’t have to come there and pussyfoot around anyone. I feel as though this is my tribe,” she tells me over Zoom.
“I feel very excited to be able to have very candid conversation, because I find the Australian women in particular to be incredibly bold, and I find that very exciting. So I think the energy is going to be amazing in the room.”
Jamil is set to speak at three in-conversation events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney at the end of April. From fame and success, to love and authenticity, it seems very little is off-limits when Jamil hits the stage. There’s also no denying that some of those conversations will be shaped by her steadfast work in fighting toxic diet and fitness culture – issues particularly personal to her after she developed anorexia when she was a teen.
Since launching ‘I Weigh’ in 2018 – which has since been reintroduced as ‘Move For Your Mind’ – Jamil has created an inspiring online community and space for interactive discussions and advocacy around wellbeing, body positivity, mental health and representation for marginalised communities. In some ways, perhaps, it’s the space her younger self desperately needed and couldn’t find.
While more and more people are campaigning against body-shaming and dieting, where do we stand as a society when there’s been a rise in the use of Ozempic for weight loss, and social media projecting AI-created unattainable beauty ideals on young impressionable women.
When I ask her this, Jamila says she believes society has actually gone backwards in the seven years since she launched ‘I Weigh’.
“We’ve gone backwards. We made loads of progress, and then I don’t know what the fuck started happening a year-and-a-half ago, but some women started to see it as a rebellion of some sort to dive headfirst into eating disorder culture,” she says.
“I think it’s called #SkinnyTok, and they’re treating it as if it’s this like cool, anarchist secret fight club for women. And I’m like, ‘OK, who do you think you’re rebelling against? Not men!’
“What are you rebelling against? Your own bone density? You’re rebelling against your kidney function. You’re rebelling against having the time and energy to make your life as wonderful as it can be? I’m not saying that people don’t have the right, and women don’t have the right, to look exactly how they want to look,” she continues, “but I just want to know when it comes to being super skinny, if that’s not your natural body type, who the fuck are you rebelling against?”
Problematic beauty ideals continue to be projected onto people through media, advertising and social media, but Jamil says it fundamentally stems from patriarchy and misogyny. She particularly highlights internalised misogyny, saying that positive change can also be possible if more women can actively defy conservative and patriarchal ideals imposed on them.
“In spite of how much information there is out there on liberation of women, on patriarchy, on the fact that there is a direct link between the rise of conservatism and beauty standards, like, what is it gonna fucking take?” she urges. “How much more information are we gonna need before we actually recognise that what we’re doing is just practising obedience to misogyny? That’s what that is. Young and skinny forever like a teenage girl, [that] is obedience to misogyny, and that’s all it is.
“Until we recognise that and grow up a little bit and take some accountability for ourselves, we’re not going to have a fighting chance when it comes to the much-needed global revolution for women.”
When our chat turns to the rising popularity of more cosmetic procedures, injectables and various aesthetics on social media, Jamil says she despises seeing the greater prominence of “collagen, high cortisol face, deer eye and fox eye and no nose” as online trends.
“It’s so ridiculous and you know, we’re trying to get rid of women’s noses now. Everyone’s like filing their nose down and down and down. It’s like, ‘What do we want to look like? Fucking Voldemort?’
“What’s wrong with women having noses? Like it feels very, very racist… the beauty ideal to be a non-existent nose, like it feels like a direct hit on Black and brown people. I feel confused as to how we’re managing to be dragged back in.”
With an Indian father and a Pakistani mother, Jamil also knows – all too well – of many problematic beauty standards imposed on South Asian women. Thanks to colourism and discrimination based on skin tone, the subcontinent has long thrived on a beauty industry spruiking skin-whitening creams and discouraging tanning in the sun. Fairer skin tones are seen as more favourable to darker complexions, with some South Asian communities even linking the colour of one’s skin to employment prospects, relationships and social status.
“I remember it also being encouraged not to go in the sun as a kid, and being told no one wants to marry a dark brown girl,” says Jamil. Acknowledging her own skin is “not that dark”, the actor says the influence of colourism “never really infiltrated me”, and she continued to go out in the sun.
“I never wanted to be lighter ever, and I’ve always been super offended when magazines lighten my skin colour,” she reflects. “If I could be seven shades browner I would? I think it’s so beautiful.”
We’re gradually seeing a shift towards more darker-skinned South Asian women landing roles in TV and film. Take Simone Ashley, for example, who not only played the female lead in Bridgerton Season 2, but recently produced and starred in her own rom-com movie, Picture This.
“I’m so thrilled to see Simone Ashley [in these roles] – and she’s a friend of mine – and I just love her. I want her to succeed for her and for all brown girls everywhere,” says Jamil.
“I mean, there are white women dying to look darker,” I tell Jamil during our interview, to which she responds, “That’s how you know the beauty ideals are bullshit… that you can get on a plane and a beauty standard can be completely different on the same time zone.”
Personally, Jamil believes that in prescribing to and funding toxic beauty and diet cultures, we’re essentially feeding and funding the patriarchy. It’s because of this, and “purely out of fucking spite” as she describes, that the actor says, “I refuse to delve too deep”.
She enjoys makeup and “nice clothes”, but views them more as a “costume”.
“I’m never trying to conceal myself or hide myself, and I’m never gonna put myself at any undue risk,” she says. “Being a woman is so dangerous in and of itself, just getting from A to B, getting from home to school, and school back to home is as early as it starts.
“I already have my period. I am good for suffering and danger [by] just existing. I’m not going to put myself under any further risk for a beauty standard invented by what is probably quite an ugly man.”
As we circle back to her passion for sharing these messages with more people when she speaks in Australia, Jamil says she’s nervous to get up on stage, but not because of imposter syndrome.
“As far as I’m concerned, we are all bullshitters. So I will walk on that stage feeling nervous because I am an unpredictable person,” she laughs. “I don’t know what I’m gonna say or what I’m gonna do.
“I’m generally, like, intimidated by public speaking. But I do it because it’s the easiest way to be able to connect with lots of people at once. But I don’t negotiate with the idea of deserving to be somewhere or not,” she adds.
“I think take any opportunity that comes your way, do your best, and you will normally surprise yourself with what you’re actually capable of.”
Jameela Jamil is speaking at ‘An Evening With Jameela Jamil’ in Sydney (State Theatre) on April 26, Brisbane (QPAC Concert Hall) on April 27, and Melbourne (Hamer Hall) on April 28. More information and ticket details are available here.
If you or anyone you know requires support, contact the Butterfly Foundation at 1800 33 4673 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Top image source: Supplied/Sela Shiloni
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