3 weeks ago
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Netflix star Jameela Jamil has spoken openly about sex on screen as she explains she thinks intimate scenes can ‘misinform’ people.
Jameela, 38, has a successful acting career, starring in Netflix’s hugely successful series The Good Place, Marvel’s She-Hulk series, and the wholesome Netflix rom-com Love at First Sight, but is perhaps best known for her activism.
The TV presenter and former breakout star from T4 in the noughties frequently uses her platform to discuss feminist issues and has now challenged the way sex is portrayed on screen.
Speaking to Metro, about throwing her support behind a pornography campaign aiming to promote realistic sex, the actress commented on her distaste for Hollywood sex scenes.
‘We can’t anymore have Hollywood movies where someone bursts through the door kissing, and then within 10 seconds, it’s penetrative sex, and then everyone comes within 60 seconds.
‘Because I think that misinformed a lot of people,’ she explained.
Jameela reaffirmed that she doesn’t ever participate in simulated sex scenes on screen, adding that they ‘do more harm than good.’
‘I don’t ever do them,’ she said. ‘I don’t see the need to have sex scenes in movies.’
The star added: ‘I think they do more harm than good because of the way that we portray sex so unrealistically.
‘My personal opinion is that I do think gratuitous sex scenes just feel a bit like an extension of pornography, the way that they’re done, the way that they’re carried out.’
She explained that she ‘lost her faith’ in sex scenes, but there is one actress whose scenes she supports.
‘I think I sort of lost my faith a long time ago in sex scenes and films, and found them often to be through a male lens and through, you know, towards a male gaze.’
She added: ‘I think Kate Winslet’s sex scenes, I will say, are of the healthier variety, massively, because she’s very, very keen on portraying what is realistic and what is real and what is intimate and sexy and erotic.’
The Titanic actress previously defended her ‘belly rolls’ in the biopic Lee, explaining that she wanted to look realistic on screen: ‘I take pride in it because it is my life on my face, and that matters. It wouldn’t occur to me to cover that up.’
The actress explained in addition to realistic bodies on screen she’d also like to see women of all ages.
‘I’ve always been very vocal about the fact that I feel deeply concerned about the encouragement of men at any age, finding very young girls sexually attractive,’ she said.
‘It’s the way the aesthetic is pushed to the point where, not just in pornography, but in everyday life and on Instagram, you’ve even got grown women feeling pressured to preserve their youth at any cost, because the bar has been lowered and lowered and lowered.’
‘We have grown women cosplaying as as nearly children to be deemed sexually attractive in pornography, and now In Hollywood and in life, everyone’s trying to look super, super young.’
Jameela has partnered with Cindy Gallop’s MakeLoveNotPorn in a campaign to end rape culture, by promoting positive sexual behaviour online and providing a sex education platform for the younger generation.
‘Pornography has a huge impact on the way that people think of sex and even get aroused, right?’ Jameela said, explaining why the project is so important.
‘We’ve seen now that there’s that there are links to what people are attracted to – especially when it comes to body types and penis size and breast size and all these different things – like it has the power to really warp our brains.
‘So being able to represent people who look like average, normal people in the street, who are having sex every day, making sure that they are representative pornography, that the way they have sex is realistic, is really important.’
She explained that this isn’t to say she is anti-pornography at all, she just wants the pornography that is consumed to be inclusive.
‘I’m not anti-porn, but I think what her [Cindy’s] slogan is, pro-sex, pro-porn, but pro knowing the difference and making sure that we portray sex in a way that feels empowering and pleasurable for everyone.’
‘If we’re going to participate in the porn industry, it has to be in a way that is not damaging and unsafe for women and girls or anyone.’
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English (US) ·