Why Jameela Jamil’s new Good Place poster is such a big deal
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- Lauren Geall
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Jameela Jamil is not here for airbrushed photos which set unrealistic body standards - and she’s taking action.
What did we do to deserve the angel that is Jameela Jamil?
When she’s not calling out Piers Morgan on Twitter with one of her signature takedowns or starring in her role as Tahani al-Jamil in Mike Schur’s The Good Place, she’s taking to the internet to fight the good fight against fat-shaming, sexism and unrealistic beauty standards.
She’s also been pretty vocal in her opposition to airbrushing. Earlier this year, Jamil took to Instagram to share an airbrushed photo of herself, unpicking all the areas which had been edited or changed.
And at the end of 2018, the actress slammed the practice as “a disgusting tool” and a “crime against women” in a comment piece for the BBC.
“I would like to put airbrushing in the bin. I want it gone. I want it out of here,” she wrote.
“Filters and digital editing have almost certainly contributed to the fact so many of the women I know have turned to needles, knives and extreme diets to try to match their online avatar,” she continued. “When photo editors try to lighten my skin and change my ethnicity, it’s bad for the girls who are looking at the picture. But it’s also bad for my mental health.”
Now, Jamil is calling on influencers, actors and models to put their foot down against the practice, revealing that she now insists all photos of her, including billboards, aren’t airbrushed.
Taking to Twitter, Jamil shared an unedited picture of herself in a new poster for The Good Place alongside a few tweets which detailed how airbrushed photos had influenced the way she saw herself as a young girl.
“Finally able to INSIST my image, even on billboards isn’t ever airbrushed,” Jamil writes. “I get backfat in Every. Single. Bra. And I used to hide/bin so many photos because of ‘muffin tops,’ double chins and ‘imperfections’ because I never saw them on people on TV.”
“I’m aware this isn’t some huge victory, and not ‘brave’,” she continues, “but as someone who had such obsessive body dysmorphia and was so fixated on the embarrassment of what we perceive as ‘flaws’ this is just a little win for little anorexic teenage me.”
The actress then went on to address others in the industry, appealing to them to reject airbrushing on their photos.
“I know it’s hard because we are perpetually scrutinized and criticized in this industry, but I’m begging other influencers, actors and models to join me in not allowing airbrushing,” she added.
“We have to stop setting standards for others that we ourselves don’t even meet.”
Images: Getty