Things got heated after Jameela Jamil‘s recent body positivity comments.
Model Sara Sampaio called out the “Good Place” actress for attacking her fellow models after Jamil retweeted a video of a runway show, writing, “This looks like the most fun, and not a long-starved terrified teenager in sight. Beautiful.”
Sampaio quickly accused the NBC star of being a hypocrite.
“How about celebrating someone without bringing other people down?” the 28-year-old catwalker tweeted. “Calling runway models ‘long-starved terrified teenager’ is extremely offensive. From someone that is always preaching for body positivity this just screams hypocrisy.”
The TV star, 33, defend her comments, saying that she was criticizing the modeling industry’s unrealistic beauty standards as a whole.
“I didn’t say all models in my tweet so try to calm down,” she said. “But I will say there is a *vast* majority issue with young girls starving themselves, and using drugs and cocaine to control their weight, to meet the very small sample sizes. If you don’t see that, then you are in a bubble.”
Jamil added that she doesn’t “preach” body positivity but instead brings to light the eating disorder culture which she said is “in NO small way perpetuated by the extreme thinness demanded of girls by the high fashion powers that be.”
The Victoria’s Secret Angel promptly shut down Jamil’s defense, saying that she was still dragging women down with her words.
“You didn’t say all models, sure, but you still chose to attack girls just so you can celebrate others,” she wrote. “Eating disorders, drugs and cocaine use aren’t a exclusive problem of models, it’s a huge problem is society as a whole. And when you talk like you know for sure majority of [models] Have eating disorders and drug problems, when that’s not the case.”
She furthered that Jamil shouldn’t speak with authority when she is not an expert on the industry.
“About modeling I can for sure talk with more certainty than you,” Sampaio said. “Sure that happens but it’s for sure not a vast majority.”
Sampaio reminded Jamil to celebrate people of all shapes and sizes without having to hurt other peoples’ feelings.
“It’s very simple to celebrate someone without having do drag other people. And make general negative assumptions about a whole group of people. most of these girls are teenagers! And they don’t deserved to be constantly put in a negative box like you just did,” Sampaio said. “I can say for a fact, while some girls unfortunately might do drugs the majority actually doesn’t! All I point out was that she didn’t need to bring other people down to celebrate others!”
But Jamil stood her ground, saying that Sampaio was misinterpreting her comments.
“@SaraSampaio, you MIDUNDERSTOOD the tweet in the first place… it was Not taking aim at *kids* for being starved and afraid. It’s definitely not *their* fault. Who on EARTH would blame children? it was taking aim at this (unbelievably f–ked) industry. Which is RIGHT to do,” she said.
She added, “Just to be very clear, calling out the fashion industry for needing more size, age, racial, and disability inclusion because media bleeds into our culture, which informs our society, and therefore affects our minds… is *very much so* a hill I’m willing to die on.”
She furthered that Sampaio should reevaluate aligning herself with Victoria’s Secret, saying, “You also proudly work for a transphobic, fat phobic company @SaraSampaio. Victoria’s Secret is a brand that sets out to exclude most women, so I would check yourself on that before you start policing me for calling out an industry wide epidemic of harm to young girls.”
At this, Sampaio defended Victoria’s Secret, saying that the brand had “made mistakes” and “understands that and has been working on changing that,” adding, “I’m also not someone that is going to resource on personal attacks to try to win some stupid twitter feud!.”
Jamil seemingly shut the model down again, saying she hopes Sampaio will start using her platform for good.
“If you’re speaking out against what your company did then GREAT. I look forward to seeing your activism on that with your big profile,” she tweeted. “You seem passionate about speaking out. So best of luck to you on helping young girls and trans people in this business. ❤️”
Sampaio ended the rift by saying that she still stands by her comments that “you never need to bash other people to celebrate others” and then not so smoothly change the subject to her Halloween costume.
Jamil-1, Sampaio-0.