Jameela Jamil has never been one to keep quiet on issues she’s passionate about, and she’s no different when it comes to the topic of skin positivity.
The “Good Place” star, who is of South Asian descent, addressed colorism in her own community. In a series of social media posts, she called out discrimination against darker skin and talked about her love of tanning.
Jamil tweeted on Monday about the pride she feels in tanning her “brilliant brown skin.”
“The discrimination in my own culture against our natural beautiful brown skin is disgusting,” she wrote. “Bleaching and whitening creams should be banned. (But use sunscreen kids. Tan responsibly).”
The desire for lighter skin spans many different Asian cultures and is prevalent in the South Asian community. A study on skin fairness product use in India found that more than 37 percent of the nearly 2,000 people who were surveyed reported they had been using skin fairness products.
Several campaigns have been launched in the South Asian community to combat the stigma tied to darker skin, including #unfairandlovely. The social media movement, which gets its name from a play on skin-lightening cream Fair and Lovely, called on dark-skinned people to share their own photos across platforms and celebrate the beauty of different shades.
In an Instagram post, Jamil also emphasized embracing her “boob stretch marks,” which she renamed “babe marks.”
“They are a sign my body dared to take up extra space in a society that demands our eternal thinness,” she said, adding “They are my badge of honour for resisting society’s weaponizing of the female form.”
Preach.