Jeremy Clarkson has launched a rather surprising public attack on actress, writer, presenter, and self-proclaimed feminist Jameela Jamil.
The former Top Gear’s unlikely feud with Ms Jamil stems from the fact she had previously spoken out against what she described as “scarily thin” women at last Sunday’s Baftas.
The 40-year-old activist took to Instagram following the event to voice her alarm at the appearance of female attendees on the red carpet.
“The women at the Baftas were scarily thin, in a way that reminded me of watching when I was a kid,” she wrote.
Jameela Jamil is a famous actress, writer and activist
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“Where everyone looks like they could snap. It’s a specifically fragile type of thin.”
The Good Place star, who has long campaigned against normalised beauty standards, expressed resentment at what she views as Hollywood’s return to extreme thinness as the dominant aesthetic.
Ms Jamil argued that the pressure on women to achieve extreme thinness serves a deeper purpose beyond aesthetics.
“There is a deliberate POLITICAL reason behind wanting women and girls to be frail, hungry tired and easy to hurt,” she stated in her post. (sic)
Jeremy Clarkson wasn’t impressed with ‘socialist’ Jamil’s comments
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PAThe British activist challenged women in the entertainment industry to reject what she termed the “obedience” demanded of them, urging them instead to prioritise strength during a period she believes threatens women’s rights.
“This is not the time to be frail. Women need to be strong, to fight back for our ever diminishing rights and safety,” Ms Jamil wrote, calling for collective resistance against industry pressure to lose weight.
After facing criticism for her public remarks, the former Channel 4 presenter explained: “I’m a slim woman. I am aware that it’s not nice to be ridiculed for being too thin.”
Inevitably, what followed was a divide among Ms Jamil’s followers and social media users about whether or not her comments were warranted.
Jameela Jamil issued her controversial comments on Instagram
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And now, Mr Clarkson has had his say, writing in his latest newspaper column about why he would’ve liked to have been at this year’s awards despite his disdain for the pomp and ceremony.
“The thought of spending an evening with a lot of north London vegetablists fills me with horror and dread,” Mr Clarkson wrote in the Sunday Times.
“But I rather wish I’d been there this year because it sounds like it all got very Judaean People’s Front.”
Turning his attention to Ms Jamil, Mr Clarkson hit out: “There was even a women’s rights activist called Jameela Jamil who said that some of the women attendees were ‘scarily thin’.
Jeremy Clarkson wasn’t in attendance at the Baftas
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GETTY“Socialists hate thinness. They believe that everyone should be equally fat in the same way that they want us to be equally poor.
“And naturally, they reckon that if someone was born with a pretty face, they should be forced to send all their best-looking features to Rachel Reeves so that she can give them to someone who’s drunk so much they have a prolapsed stomach and a nose that looks like something you’d normally find hanging from the throat of a malibu stork.”
It wasn’t just Ms Jamil who ended up in Mr Clarkson’s firing line following the Baftas either.
The Clarkson’s Farm star also ridiculed Bafta judge Jonte Richardson following his resignation over the organisation’s handling of the incident involving Tourette’s campaigner, John Davidson.
“There was no time to deliberate further on Ms Jamil’s observations though, because one of the Bafta judges, a chap called Jonte Richardson, who co-founded the Alliance of Black Media Professionals, handed in his notice, saying that Bafta has ‘a long history of systemic racism’,” Mr Clarkson wrote.
“I must admit that some toast came out of my nose when I read that. Millwall football club has a history of systemic racism. So does the Ku Klux Klan. But Bafta? Less so, I feel.”
