jameela jamil, tahani, body shaming, cardi b, kardashians
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Big on the Internet

Jameela Jamil Is Not Done Calling Out Celebrities Who Shill Dangerous Weight-Loss Drinks

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Vivian Kane
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Published: Nov 28, 2018 05:42 pm

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Jameela Jamil—aka Tahani on The Good Place—has long been calling out society’s unhealthy obsession with weight, which tells girls and women to aim for as low a number as possible on the scale, rather than valuing actual health.

In the past, she’s called out the Kardashians as being “double agents of the patriarchy,” making money off of eroding women’s self-esteem; she’s called out gym culture and the notion that body size is more important than overall health; she launched an Instagram campaign to encourage people, especially women, to separate their feelings of self-worth from that number on a scale.

Now she’s coming after celebrity influencers who use their platform to hawk unhealthy, weight loss supplements to their (largely young, female) followers. Last week, she said she hopes “all these celebrities all shit their pants in public,” seeing as the teas and shakes they’re selling are basically just non-FDA-approved laxatives. She also notes they wouldn’t because they don’t they don’t really use these products, they just take money to recommend them to young girls.

Cardi B’s response on Instagram was to say “I will never s**t my pants cause there’s public restrooms everywhere… ooo and bushes,” which really seems to miss—or only reinforce?—the whole point of her shilling laxatives.

Of course, Cardi B isn’t even close to the only celebrity making money off of these dangerous products.

And she says she’s not going to stop calling them out.

Selling “thinness” is not just different from promoting health, it can be entirely antithetical.

Tuesday, she posted a fake endorsement video for one of these weight-loss laxative drinks. It’s NSFW if you work someplace that doesn’t enjoy a whole lot of fart sounds.

In a follow-up tweet, she wrote “I know I’m being a bit extra over this whole thing, but the war against women’s bodies/general image is ongoing and out of control. Teen surgery, eating disorders and self harm are at an ALL TIME HIGH. So it’s going to involve a big noise to fight back. Don’t like it? Mute me.”

She also sent out this reminder:

Jamil did clarify that she doesn’t want to “cancel” any of these women. But she also won’t stop calling out their choice to take endorsement money in exchange for selling unhealthy attitudes. What she does want to cancel is “dietox product culture.” And it looks like it’s going to be a while before she lets up on that goal.

(image: Colleen Hayes/NBC)

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Image of Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.
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