Jameela Jamil Weighs In 'Size Doesn't Matter'

Model and actress Jameela Jamil has something to say, and we think the whole industry needs to listen up…

- Giselle Wainwright 

There’s a song playing in the background when I speak to Jameela Jamil. It’s Dua Lipa’s I Don’t Give A F**k, which is pretty damn apt. 

Jameela’s in the middle of something of a media whirlwind. Two weeks prior, the presenter-turned actress who is regularly outspoken on social media, brought her followers’ attention to an Insta-snap of the Kardashians which detailed each of their weights. It prompted rage from 32-year-old Jameela. 

‘Toxic,’ she wrote. ‘This is how women are taught to value themselves. In kilograms. Grim.’ Her response? A list of traits that determine her ‘weight’: ‘I’m financially independent.’ ‘I like my bingo wings’… 

And then… BOOM, the ‘I weigh…’ campaign went viral. 

‘I had no idea of the reaction it would create,’ says Jameela. ‘I was just angry at how women are valued in 2018. Every man I know is eating as much as he can. Every woman I know is eating less. In the ’90s we had heroine chic, where we had to look like we were so thin we were on drugs, now we expect people to be smaller, but with huge tits and a massive arse, too. Everyone’s obsessed with how women should look. Men can get old, that’s just ‘sexy’, women are just supposed to ‘stay constant’. Yes, I’m pissed. This is what we’re valued for, how ‘little’ we are. Too little to function. But @i_weigh has started something.’