“I haven’t been this upset since my good friend Taylor was rudely upstaged by my other friend Kanye, who was defending my best friend, Beyoncé.” – Tahani Al-Jamil, The Good Place 

If you’ve read Taylor Swift’s piece in American ELLE, you know she namechecked Jameela Jamil, star of The Good Place, who plays Tahani. It’s Lesson #6. Jameela has now responded on Twitter:

She’s excited, it’s understandable. Taylor Swift is a big deal, even among celebrities. But there are more layers here than what you’re reading on the surface. And it’s why I said in my previous post about Taylor’s pre-30 essay, that she’s still playing that gossip game. Because you know who Jameela Jamil has been targeting in her body and age positivity messages? 

 

 

To be fair, Jameela says it’s not personal. And that she’s trying to spread a bigger message about the media’s influence on our values and that the Kardashians may themselves be conditioned by an institutionalised misogyny. 

Still. 

Where Taylor is concerned, given her own history, combined with the Kardashians and the headlines that have put Jameela in conflict with the Kardashians, even though those headlines may not have been telling the whole story, the fact that Taylor specifically included Jameela in her essay… 

It can be both, right? She can fully support Jameela’s position about how women are made to feel about their bodies and their age and their appearance AND it can also be a bonus that, you know, Jameela isn’t exactly best friends with the Kardashian-Jenners. The point is, again, Taylor’s doing a lot more with this essay than what you get on the first read. And it’s very, very good for gossip.