All the Activists and the Oppressed Will Look Up and Shout, "Save Us!" And the Girlboss Will Look Down and Whisper, "I'm Tired"
Jameela Jamil does indeed gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss.
In the wake of the latest spate of horrific violence in Israel, more than a few prominent commentators have remarked that mainstream opinion disgusted with the plight of the Palestinians has reached an inflection point. While there has been sympathy and activism for Palestinians on the left for decades, it seems - for a variety of reasons - opposing state violence and apartheid conditions imposed by Israelis has become an increasingly safe stance to hold among your average middle-class liberal.
For better and sometimes worse, when an issue has become a cause célèbre among mainstream liberals in recent years, there has emerged a frenzied impulse for some to prove that they are the most in favor of whatever the accepted left position may be, the most knowledgeable about its history, and the most willing to pressure others into adopting that viewpoint.
Believe me, I’m more than receptive to the argument that posting as a form of activism has limited use, especially when it gets to the point that the so-called activism that Twitter users are engaging in consists of shaming others about not posting about the topic du jour. There have been plenty examples of that counter-productive dynamic on social media in recent years, in which way-too-online types have kept track of who has posted about BLM, Stop Asian Hate, and other identity based movements, with the express intention of naming and shaming those who keep silent. It’s good to encourage people to care about issues affecting disadvantaged people, yet such tactics often veer into bullying in practice.
That said, when a famous person makes their profitable online brand almost solely about being an activist, and constantly invokes people of color as a means of creating urgency for those activist causes, well, I can’t blame anyone for getting a little upset when said famous person keeps their trap shut about an ongoing much-publicized calamity involving an oppressed group of color.
That brings us to the case of Jameela Jamil. If you’re only familiar with her TV career, you likely know her as a pleasant enough actress from the hit NBC comedy “The Good Place,” or perhaps as the host of “The Misery Index,” one of those TBS shows that gets promoted ad nauseum during the NBA Playoffs and no one ever watches.
Ah, but then there’s Jameela’s social media presence, which seems like the answer to the question, “What if Chrissy Teigen were even more of a malignant narcissist?” As I’ve said endless times, I dislike the woke/anti-woke dichotomy because each side is easily exploited for nefarious ends and detests nuance. Whereas I agree that there is validity in most identity concerns, I also recognize identity-first approaches to societal problems are hegemonic among established and corporate interests these days, and often abused by cynical actors. Anytime entire groups of people are not allowed to question the claims and motives of individuals, regardless of context, just because that individual happens to belong to some protected identity group, that is bound to happen. But I don’t wish to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as it were. I’m not anti-woke; I’m woke critical.
For the anti-woke and woke critical alike - along with the rare woke types who actually have a functioning sense of humor - Jameela is an endless source of both amusement and frustration. She somehow manages to insert herself into damn near every controversy, finds a way to make herself the victim despite being a successful celebrity, then spouts off a jumble of social justice buzzwords to cover her tracks in case anyone has the impulse to tell her to pipe down. I don’t have time to get into her greatest hits but I’d encourage the morbidly curious to check them out.
Jameela love callouts. Jameela loves shaming people for not getting intimately involved with her pet causes, whether or not they have anything useful to add to the discussion. For her, your silence speaks violence. But as with many self-serving famous liberals, it doesn’t work the other way around. Pointing out her silence, it turns out, is also violence. Isn’t it nice having a worldview in which you can never be wrong? Welcome to the mind of the liberal feminist.
So little surprise that Jameela Jamil would weigh in on the heightened conflict between Israel and its occupied territories. Now you’ll have to excuse me because she posted this rather breathtaking inanity on Instagram a week ago. I don’t follow Jameela Jamil on any platform because I’m looking out for the remaining strands of my sanity. Unfortunately, however, she is both famous and inflammatory, meaning these takes have a way of finding me.
Now, is Jameela especially irate about Israel destroying buildings in Gaza? Is she mad about IDF troops removing a Sheikh Jarrah resident a day after he appeared on American cable news to detail atrocities he observed? No no no! Jameela is upset because it seems people were expecting her to rail against these injustices, and she simply cannot, she claims, because she is a poor, put-upon woman trying her best while beset with angry, violent men.
I can’t fit the lengthy caption into one screenshot, so we’ll have to break it down in text:
Listen, I get it. I truly do.
Oh? Any speech that sounds like a vice principal trying to level with you before issuing a suspension because “I gotta go by the book” is bound to reek of empathy.
You want and need help and attention for your cause. You want to know that people see and care about what is happening.
Okay, Jameela, and this is where you and your huge platform come in…
But more often than not, it is always the ones (mostly women) who speak up and out most about many subjects already, normally Black women
Of which you are not one.
or women of colour, and queer people
Never forget that even though Jameela has been in a committed heterosexual relationship for going on six years, she abruptly came out as “queer” in early 2020 after receiving backlash for being cast in an LGBTQ-themed show for HBO. I’m sure that’s genuine, just like every other Brooklyn white woman who came out as bi in the last few years, pretending they were brave for sleeping with one other woman in college.
who are most pressured to take on the entire world’s other problems too... rather than our powerful/straight/white/male counterparts who do frankly fuck all ever about anything. You expect them to not care so you don’t pressure them. You can see we care so you demand us taking on your issue. It is entirely understandable logic. But it’s not realistic, nor is it fair on us. We are already moving targets because of the issues we already take on.
No one pressures white people to go along with progressive social movements? Could’ve fooled all those diners who got yelled at and threatened during BLM protests last year. Moreover, who is the powerful one here, Jameela? I’m just some schlub who got cancelled over a claim no one bothered to investigate. The people in your DMs are nobodies. You’re a fucking celebrity who can instantly command attention and headlines.
When women, in particular, speak out about war, we are sent horrifying, personal and often terrifying private abuse. Almost entirely from men. This is the experience of a lot of my friends and myself.
Here comes the identity politics cover. This is becoming an all-too familiar tactic among privileged liberal feminists. Anytime they get blowback over a decision, valid criticism, whatever - they dig into their bag of toxic femininity and declare it all “harassment” so observers perceive them as frail little babies in need of protection. You see this endlessly in journalism now, especially from certain born-rich New York Times reporters. And while I don’t doubt they get some ugly feedback, so does everybody with a platform. That’s part of having status and being famous, something you actively chose to pursue. It’s not only bad when it happens to women.
The choice to not speak up about every single war, every single injustice, every single crime against humanity, on earth... doesn’t mean we don’t know, don’t care, or aren’t helping/donating privately. It just means there is only so much any individual can take on meaningfully.
In general, it is perfectly fine for people to keep quiet about sensitive global affairs, especially if they don’t really know much about the underlying issues. If Jameela had been getting mean DMs about not saying anything about Israel… who cares? She’s rich and lives a charmed life. No one who could affect her quality of life would ever meaningfully hold it against her. She could easily (in theory, at least) ignore such things and move on. But no - she STILL has to make herself the victim, and the most sure-fire way to do that in this cultural moment is cynical identity based framing.
I am OF COURSE always against military/police assault of innocent civilians.
And which military would that be? What civilians, pray tell? This is like broadcasting that you’re against the concept of “oppression.” It’s nothing, useless lip service and ass-covering.
I also want to point out to the men messaging me in DM that I’m useless or a coward for not speaking up about what you want me to... when I go back through your messages to me, over the past few years, there is NO mention of support from you, for the things I fight for, like the safety of women in India, or the safety of Black trans women in America, or gay rights in Russia. You’ve normally just commented on my legs...
How DARE these men - and surely it’s only men pressuring Jameela, miraculously not a single woman among them - not recognize her vital efforts promoting body positivity or gay rights in Russia while bombs fall on civilians? Where’s her parade?
Perhaps this could be a teachable moment for Jameela. See how damaging it can be when the mob descends on you for lapsing on just one issue? I spent a year and a half working for a progressive non-profit in Virginia, one that organizes those precious communities of color you invoke so often. Did anyone give a shit when it was time to tear me down? Fuck no. These are the puritanical liberal dynamics that have served Jameela so well. Now she gets to see the ugly side of them.
As a mental health advocate I advocate also for my own peace. I wish I was a superhero who could take on all the world’s issues by myself. But I’m not, I’m an actress, with a past of mental illness doing my best to be helpful to people in the ways I know how.
Well if pulling the gender, race, and sexuality cards weren’t enough, Jameela’s followers are once again informed she has dealt with mental illness over the course of her life. Hey, that makes two of us, Jameela. Somehow my struggles with depression didn’t stop people from “holding me accountable” for things I didn’t do, but if you want to cynically use it as a shield from criticism, go right ahead. You might want to question yourself, however, about the harm your tactics cause people with mental health problems for which you supposedly advocate. Trivializing these matters creates the impression that all of this is vapid posturing that no one should take seriously because it’s all a play for clout. Can’t imagine that helps anybody truly suffering.
I also wish that men weren’t so violent towards women who speak out.
One last vague gesture toward systemic victimhood for good measure. It appears in this case that people were begging for you to speak out, Jameela, and instead they got shamed for it in the most dishonest way possible.
One can’t help but wonder why exactly Jameela would be hesitant to speak up about this conflict, especially when she requires little or no coaxing to get on her soapbox when an issue or news story is in her wheelhouse of social justice concerns. Perhaps there are career risks for a professional entertainer working in corporate spaces being too stridently anti-Israel. After all, while I don’t indulge any fantasies about Jewish people controlling Hollywood, few would dispute that Jews do enjoy outsize power and influence in that industry disproportionate to their share of the populace. And while Jews in America hardly have uniform views on Zionism, the titans of industry tend to support it more than others.
I guess one encouraging dynamic about mainstream liberals arriving full force onto the side of the Palestinians is an opportunity to seriously reflect on the cynical potential of identity politics. After all, one of the most common ways for Zionists to deflect criticism of Israel has been to equate antisemitism with any attempt to chastise or boycott the nation they support. Knowing how well liberals are at compartmentalizing their thinking, I wouldn’t say I’m overly optimistic just yet.
Still, I can’t shake this behavior from Jamil. This entitled stance from a powerful woman, after the public asked her to do something painless that would nevertheless provide support to powerless people seeking justice, reminds me of another noteworthy libfem, Elizabeth Warren.
Recall that after Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the Democratic primary last year, the wealthy hyperwoke white women who largely comprised her base threw an extended tantrum about the idea that Warren should endorse her supposed ideological ally, Bernie Sanders. "She doesn't owe you anything! Let her be! She just finished a tiring campaign!" they exclaimed, excoriating fellow lefties looking to shore up their movement at the most important moment. It was these professional class white women, of course, who had pushed the long outdated "Bernie Bro" narrative for yet another four years even though Sanders' following, in addition to being simply larger than Warren's, was also more diverse.
Warren's campaign was often a parody of upper middle class white wokeness, most notoriously illustrated by her bizarre promise to have a trans child approve the Secretary of Education before they could be nominated. That this obsessive focus on identity came from a woman who had falsely claimed Native status for decades for career gain, and had been a registered Republican until her 40s, is really quite astounding. That the most malicious and identity reductionist white women in NYC media - people like Moira Donegan and Defector's Laura Wagner - were among her most vocal supporters online only made this dynamic more pronounced.
So Warren never endorsed Sanders, then she immediately proceeded to appear on SNL, completely compromised any credibility she had on MeToo by promoting a different standard for Joe Biden, then more or less begged Biden for a vice presidential nomination that eventually went to Kamala Harris. When it comes to standing for something that could actually help people, liberal feminists are constantly drained, couldn't scrape together a flick of energy to help if they wanted. But when it comes to advancing their career, these women are suddenly ultramarathoners.
I have my criticisms of Sanders, and it's clear Warren's support was so miniscule (3rd in her own state!) that even had she endorsed Bernie, it likely wouldn't have made much of a difference. I'm sure her supporters would like to attribute that lack of support for Warren to sexism - many already have - but I'm sure it has more to do with the fact that she backpedaled on Medicare for All, one of her key initial policy prescriptions, and the fact that obsessive focus on identity over all other issues is massively unpopular outside of the realms of Twitter and elite liberal institutions.
One might question the usefulness of relitigating the 2020 primary, and that's fine - except it's important to note these behaviors from identity-first feminists are becoming a pattern. Anytime someone asks them to do something helpful that might entail a career risk, they treat it like it's some kind of monstrous, unreasonable imposition. If there is valid criticism of their work, they dip into the deep waters of toxic femininity to call it "harassment," (funny how when I had a media career and got deranged feedback from readers, some of whom dug up personal information about me and my family, I never got to kick and scream about "harassment" for social capital and support) hoping to activate the protective instincts of those around them. After all, one must never forget that beneath the exterior of a powerful and influential Democratic politician, corporate journalist (or a celebrity actress who lambasts people for not being vocal enough about the issues she deems most significant) apparently lies a poor, feeble, fragile little girl who must be treated with the white-glove care of a Ming vase.