Taylor Swift praises 'amazing' Jameela Jamil for promoting body neutrality
'We're looking at the way we treat critiquing women's bodies,' Swift tells DJ Zane Lowe
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Your support makes all the difference.Taylor Swift has praised Jameela Jamil for her stance on body image activism, expressing the importance of promoting body neutrality.
The Grammy Award-winning artist recently joined DJ Zane Lowe for an interview on Apple radio station Beats 1.
During their discussion, Swift opened up about the scrutiny she has experienced throughout her career regarding her musical talent and her dating life, in addition to the “internalised misogyny” that exists in society.
The singer said that witnessing the personal lives of young female artists being probed in the media puts her “in a real sad place”.
“I think when I was the youngest, it was hard because I didn’t understand why nobody was saying that this was wrong,” the 29-year-old said.
“And I think now, thank God we’ve had MeToo movements and moments where we’re looking at ourselves as a society and we’re looking at internalised misogyny. We’re looking at the way we treat critiquing women’s bodies.”
Swift continued, referencing the work of The Good Place star Jamil, who in 2018 launched her body neutrality-focused I Weigh movement.
“We have amazing women out there like Jameela Jamil saying, ‘I’m not trying to spread body positivity. I’m trying to spread body neutrality where I can sit here and not think about what my body is looking like’,” she stated.
“We have made incredible progress. We’ve made incredible strides,” she added.
During her interview with Lowe, Swift also explained the extent to which her dating life has been placed under the spotlight throughout her career, particularly during her early twenties.
“When I was like 23, and people were making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I’d sat next to at a party once, and deciding that my songwriting was a trick rather than a skill and a craft,” the Reputation singer said.
“It’s a way to take a woman who’s doing her job and succeeding at doing her job and making things. In a way it’s figuring out how to completely minimise that skill by taking something that everyone in their darkest, darkest moments likes to do, which is to slut-shame.”
Earlier this year, Swift expressed her admiration for Jamil’s work as a body image activist in an interview with Elle magazine.
The singer said: “I’ve been loving how outspoken Jameela Jamil has been on this subject. Reading her words feels like hearing a voice of reason.”
On Twitter, Jamil thanked Swift for her “lovely words”.
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