Jameela Jamil calls out Met Gala and everyone who went for 'honoring a known bigot'
The actor feels like it was a huge step back for Hollywood
Jameela Jamil, a self-professed 'feminist-in-progress' and social-media activist, has slammed Hollywood stars for attending the 2023 Met Gala to celebrate 'known bigot' Karl Lagerfeld.
The theme of the coveted annual event was 'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty', but the controversy surrounding the late designer and Chanel creative director seems to have been forgotten, according to Jamil.
Ahead of the sartorial shindig on 1 May, there was speculation many would boycott - but most were there recounting their memories of the late designer and honouring him with their red carpet looks.
Advert
The Good Place actor took to Instagram to vent her frustrations, saying: “Last night Hollywood and fashion said the quiet part out loud when a lot of famous feminists chose to celebrate at the highest level, a man who was so publicly cruel to women, to fat people, to immigrants and to sexual assault survivors.
“And all the women’s publications, and spectators online, chose to gleefully ignore it.”
37-year-old Jamil went on: “Nobody has perfect morals, least of all me, but Jesus Christ we had a year to course correct here, and not award the highest honour possible to a known bigot… and everyone just decided we can separate the art from the artist when *convenient*.
“And it’s one rule for us, and another rule for everybody else.
“Last night, we relinquished our right to be taken at all seriously about anything important."
However, she hadn't quite made her point, adding that this 'isn’t about cancel culture. It’s not even about Karl.'
She continued: "It’s about showing how selective cancel culture is within liberal politics, in the most blatant way so far. It’s about showing why people don’t trust liberals. Because of slippery tactics and double standards like this.
“And it’s not just Hollywood here, the general public online participated and were entirely complicit in the erasure of the truth last night.
"They replaced their pitchforks with spoons last night, to lap that sh*t right up… if we carry on like this, don’t be shocked when we lose the next election.”
After the Met Gala's theme was announced, the star shared a carousel of the late designer's controversial previous comments, asking in the caption: "Why is THIS who we celebrate when there are so many AMAZING designers out there who aren't bigoted white men? What happened to everyone's principles and ''advocacy"."
Jamil first publicly called Lagerfeld out following tributes to his 2019 death.
Her own 'in memoriam' read: “A ruthless, fat-phobic misogynist shouldn’t be posted all over the internet as a saint gone-too-soon. Talented for sure, but not the best person.”
Amelia Jones