Jameela Jamil has responded to a recent picture of Kim Kardashian in a corset showing off an impossibly tiny waist. In her latest Instagram message, Jamil takes issue with Kardashian’s projection of unrealistic beauty standards and voices her concern over Kardashian sharing damaging images with her millions of followers, many of whom are young."I've received over 1000 DMs asking me to address this,"
wrote Jamil. "The reason I didn't jump on it immediately isn't because I don't think the post was damaging and disappointing. I do. It's because the fact that you're all messaging me about it, shows my work is done.” Well, Jamil’s work, plus the many, many,
many other scholars, activists, influencers and literally thousands of people who have spent decades exhausting millions of hours on resources and efforts to denounce harmful prevailing beauty standards. But yes, Jamil has helped.The picture in question was
posted by Kardashian on June 23 and shows the reality star and law student wearing a corset that is a replica of the corset she wore under her Thierry Mugler dress at the 2018 Met Gala. According to her Instagram post, the corset was misplaced after the Met Gala. Someone definitely got fired over that. In order to have the corset for her ‘archive’ (we knew the Kardashian-West family home was
actually a museum!), Kim says she flew to London to have a second corset made. A fashion emergency is understandable, but the issue Jamil and many others are taking with Kardashian is the extreme tightness of the corset, which makes the celebrity's waist appear almost non-existent. That’s a physical, mental and emotional emergency.“I haven't been trying to cancel Kim K,” wrote Jamil. "I was always trying to arm YOU with the knowledge to recognize for YOURSELVES that this is a bullshit expectation of women, developed by the patriarchy. If YOU know that it's problematic, reductive and irresponsible for her to perpetuate such a heavily impossible beauty standard to her impressionable fans… then you're empowered and conscious and don't need me."Jamil says that her issue isn’t with Kardashian specifically, but with the societal forces at play that have made Kardashian think that unattainable beauty standards should continue to be followed and celebrated. "Is this wrong? YES. But I'm not sure she realises that she's doing to others what her idols did to her, in making her think a tiny waist is the key to femininity and sex appeal," writes Jamil.The
Good Place and
Legendary actor and judge encourages people to stop looking at images that are harmful, which means unfollowing Kardashian. "Don't let the debris of their damage spill out onto you. Unfollow people/brands that don't make you feel powerful and happy and grateful for what you have. You're the boss and none of them are s--- without you."While Jamil’s message is sound, her decision to repost Kardashian’s image feels unnecessary and counterintuitive to her point. Kardashian has yet to respond and likely will not, as this week’s incident is the latest in a long history of
Jamil criticizing the Kardashian family. Jamil has routinely spoken out against Kardashian and her sisters for promoting weight loss supplements and teas on their heavily followed social media pages.Jamil is the founder of the social justice Instagram account
@i_weigh, which promotes ‘radical inclusivity’ and celebrates body acceptance.[video_embed id='1983454']BEFORE YOU GO: Lainey apologizes for past racist and homophobic posts on her blog[/video_embed]
