Jameela Jamil Is Coming For Airbrushing Now
The last time we checked in on Jameela Jamil, she was joking about her poop shake/tea runoff in a fake Instagram influencer video. She has now taken a break from calling out flat tummy tea sellers and is going after magazines Photoshopping women.
Jameela recently wrote a viewpoint piece for BBC News titled: Jameela Jamil on why airbrushing should be illegal. If you have ever dared to select the gaussian blur tool in Photoshop, you might as well get fitted for an orange jumpsuit and some prison-issued shower slides.
Her piece opens with the statement that she believes airbrushing has been turned into a weapon against women, and that it’s the cause of a multitude of problems, like low self-esteem or a distorted view of your own face. She’s not wrong there. I downloaded one of those face-fixing apps once, and for about a week I had airbrushed my face smoother and my eyes wider and glassier than a Precious Moments figurine. Jameela is arguing that some women get used to it and have a hard time separating digital fiction with reality. And she wants it banned.
“If you see a digitally ‘enhanced’ picture of yourself, you run the risk of becoming acclimatised to that level of flawlessness and it makes it harder for you to accept your actual image – the one that exists in real life, in the mirror. You then might want to take measures to match what is achieved on the screen. Often this is only achievable with expensive, painful and often risky cosmetic procedures or surgery.”
The Kardashians, some Real Housewives, and every Instagram “model” is probably so confused right now. “Duh, filters aren’t real and so that’s why you need surgery. Jameela, honey, what aren’t you understanding here?”
Jameela adds that for her, airbrushing is a problem when photo editors try to lighten her skin, and thus make her feel bad about her race. She’s spoken before about how picture-perfect faces and bodies contributed to an eating disorder as a teen, and cites a statistic from Britain’s National Health Service that admissions for eating disorders have almost doubled over the past six years. She also spoke about it on Twitter yesterday:
Photoshop in advertising and magazines is so often used in ways that are ageist, ableist, fatphobic, racist and deeply sexist. It does more harm than good. We are making people almost allergic to the mere sight of normal human features. This only ends badly.
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) December 2, 2018
I haven’t banned all photoshop of myself because I’m being some sort of martyr for women, I’m doing it for MY mental health, so I don’t set myself up for a fall when I look in the mirror, after seeing a digitally enhanced “flawless” avatar. I don’t want the pressure or scrutiny.
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) December 2, 2018
And she cited some examples of just how much airbrushing happens on women’s faces in media, as opposed to men. Like that men are allowed to have foreheads that look like mattresses stacked in a warehouse, and women aren’t.
An example of Photoshop being weaponised against women: This is how we portray men in their 50s on magazine covers and women in their 50s. Look at the difference. Men who age are sexy in HD. Women mostly just shouldn’t dare age. Men can celebrate the inevitable, we must fear it. pic.twitter.com/XKykaZuiYf
— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) December 2, 2018
While many disagree with her and think she’s policing women again, I understand where Jameela is coming from here, but using Nicole Kidman as an example of extreme Photoshop doesn’t really work. She looks like a wax mannequin on the cover of that magazine, but that that’s what Nicole Kidman looks like in real life too.
Pic: Wenn.com/FayesVision