Jameela Jamil slams social media filters: 'God help the youth'

Actress Jameela Jamil took to Instagram to warn against the use of face-altering apps.

The Good Place star shared a selfie video of herself with a filter that she claims is being touted as the beauty standard.

"This is what teenagers are being taught the motherf*cking beauty standard is. Plastic surgeons invest in these filters/apps. I'm sure of it. GOD HELP THE YOUTH," she wrote on the video.

In the comments, she further elaborated on the perceived harm of filters that substantially alter the user's face.

"Dude… this is ME," reads the caption. "And I know I sound like a [c*nt], but celebrities who use these feature transforming filters… Suck. You're contributing to the same shit that fucked you up. Stop the cycle. I beg of you. No likes are worth what we are doing to the kids. It also sets YOU up for emotional damage when you have to then reckon with your own actual face IRL. Nobody wins but the patriarchy when we do this."

Many fans echoed Jamil's statements of disbelief at how different the filter made her look.

"Wait is this you?!" read one comment.

"Whaaat I thought you'd shared someone elses tiktok!? Sick," read another.

This is not Jamil's first time speaking up about the possible long-term effects of face-altering filters that "enforce white patriarchal ideas of beauty," as she put it in April 2021, when she asked social media users to join her fight to ban "face transplant apps."

"Can you help me? I'm trying to get the attention of social media platforms. Like this picture if you agree with me that filters that change your actual features are a problem and should go. I'm not talking about the silly, fun ones; I mean the ones that enforce white patriarchal ideas of 'beauty' into our consciousness. Statistics of self hatred are on a steep rise. Especially in teens. We need to step in and stop this insidious dangerous shit. Make your voice heard here," read the post.

She continued, in her caption, to express her disdain for what she views as "self-hate for profit," noting, "I'm all for a grainy old fashioned look, or a dog ear, or a glittery starry effect. But somehow these quickly crept into non comedy, face transplant apps, that didn't even announce themselves as such, they pretended to change your hair colour or they were positioned as beauty apps. Horrifying, insidious, ageist, pervasive, fat phobic, ableist, offensive, racially insensitive, patriarchy fuelled propaganda on what is beauty."

The comments on the post have since been limited, but plenty of users seemed to agree with the idea that such filters distort self-perception and can lead to negative self-image; a 2019 study by John Hopkins School of Medicine, in fact, found that social media users who use photographic filters are generally more accepting of cosmetic surgery.

"I refuse to use those filters. I know I'll only get hooked and then dislike my actual face," read one comment on Jamil's 2021 post.

"Yessss 100% here for this! It's so dangerous and damaging, they need to be stopped!" read another.