Karl Lagerfeld Called ‘Ruthless, Fat-Phobic Misogynist’ By Actress Jameela Jamil
When fashion designer and Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld passed away this week at the age of 85, he received condolences from the fashion world as well as various other corners of the celebrity ecosystem.
But others had less complimentary things to say about the late designer. Among them was Jameela Jamil, the British actress best known for her part on The Good Place.
On Twitter, Jamil ripped Lagerfeld as a “ruthless, fat-phobic misogynist,” while sharing an article about the designer from the feminist online magazine Wear Your Voice.
“I’m glad somebody said it. Even if it is a little soon,” Jamil added. “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.”
Jamil has been outspoken in the past about representations of women in media, arguing last year, per the Cut, that photo-retouching should be illegal. The actress has also launched a Change.org petition to prevent social media sites from allowing celebrities to promote “toxic diet products” on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Lagerfeld, long one of the world’s leading fashion designers, had a long history of saying not-very-nice things about larger and curvier women, as collected in a Vox article following his passing this week.
“No one wants to see curvy women,” Lagerfeld once said, while also blaming overweight people for society’s ills. He was also critical of the Me Too movement, arguing that if women don’t want to get groped, they shouldn’t become models.
The Vox article noted that Lagerfeld often said out loud what many in the fashion industry were thinking but did not verbalize, especially when it came to refusing to make clothes in larger sizes.
Jameela Jamil criticises people for mourning ‘fat-phobic misogynist’ Karl Lagerfeld https://t.co/bHAFXCs8mY
— The Independent (@Independent) February 20, 2019
According to Page Six, actress and model Cara Delevingne defended Lagerfeld in the replies to the actress’s tweet, and later defended Lagerfeld on the grounds that he was “born in 1933.” Delevingne’s tweets appear to have since been deleted.
The two actresses continued their discussion on Twitter through Wednesday morning, with Jamil going on to describe the discussion as “a really interesting thread between two people with very different views who aren’t trying to win, or be rude, just trying to appeal to the other’s empathy.”
On The Good Place, which finished airing its third season on NBC last month, Jamil plays Tahani Al-Jamil, an English socialite who finds herself unexpectedly in the afterlife. The 32-year-old was a radio host in the U.K. before she began acting.
