Jameela Jamil Just Called Out Shapewear for Making Pregnant Women Think They Need to 'Look Less Fat'

Kim Kardashian West's SKIMS maternity collection hasn't even launched yet (it's set to drop September 16), but it's already causing its fair share of controversy online.

In an instagram post shared on Saturday, Kardashian West revealed the new maternity line. "Introducing Maternity Solutionwear that offers the best in comfort and support for your changing body during and after pregnancy," she wrote in the post, before giving details on the product launch, as well as sizing (XXS – 5X) and available colors (nine different skin tones).

For the most part, comments on the post were positive—full of praise from expecting women, new moms, and those who have been pregnant in the past on the need for comfortable, supportive products during pregnancy. But not everyone had something good to say about the new SKIMS line. Some Instagrammers commented on Kardashian West's posts about the safety of her Maternity Solutionwear, while others wondered why moms-to-be even needed the garments at all. (It should be noted, though, that maternity shapewear and pregnancy support garments aren't something Kardashian West has invented—they've been around, in one form or another, for quite a while.)

RELATED: Kim Kardashian’s Skims Shapewear Just Launched at Nordstrom—Here’s What to Shop Before It Sells Out

Another person who initially seemed to be unimpressed with the idea was The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil. While Jamil didn’t directly reference Kardashian West or her Maternity Solutionwear, she took to Instagram on Sunday to share her thoughts on maternity shapewear in general. “It would be so cool if pregnant people could just be allowed to be pregnant and get bigger and not be self conscious, and enjoy the miracle taking place inside their body and not have to worry about feeling embarrassed/shamed that their body is changing for an amazing reason,” she wrote. "I wish we could just normalize just focusing on the inside of a pregnant body, not the outside. You don’t need your shape corrected or hidden," she added in the caption.

Kardashian West was quick to clap back—again, not mentioning Jamil, but responding “to anyone who has an issue with maternity solutionwear.” She wrote on Twitter, “if you haven’t been pregnant before you may not know the struggle of what it’s like carrying all of this weight the way I did along with millions of strong women, @skims maternity line is not to slim but to support.”

In the Twitter thread, Kardashian West went on to explain that her Maternity Solutionwear can "help with the uncomfortable weight being carried in your stomach which affects your lower back and the compression on the leggings helps with pain relief caused by swelling." She also said that this product is what she felt she needed when she was pregnant, and that she's proud of the line that many people have requested and provided positive feedback for.

It also didn’t take long for Kardashian West’s long-time friend Chrissy Teigen, who is pregnant with her third child with singer John Legend, to chime in. “On the controversy that is pregnancy shapewear: it’s not to be smaller. these brands aren’t pressuring us to be smaller. thanks for looking out for us everyone but we’re good!” Teigen wrote on Twitter. 

Attached to the tweet was a video of Teigen in what looked like garments from Kardashian West’s new line—although she didn’t confirm this. “I merely want to wear underwear that’s pretty, that I feel good in, that’s soft, that’s comfortable, that stretches nicely over my belly, and that my pussy doesn’t eat,” the expectant mom said. (And as an actual pregnant person, Teigen is in a pretty good position to comment on maternity shapewear and how helpful/necessary it is.)

Here's where it gets interesting: Though neither Kardashian West nor Teigen specifically mentioned Jamil in either of their rebuttals for the new SKIMS collection, Jamil felt that some websites still concluded that the women were having it out in a two-against-one social media spat—which she also called out on Instagram, sharing a headline from a recent BuzzFeed article.

“This is annoying,” Jamil wrote on Instagram. “They weren’t responding to me as I wasn’t one of the people saying the product wasn’t safe.” She went on to state that she’d read Kardashian West’s description of the product before she spoke, and that she’d also spoken to Teigen, who confirmed “wasn’t at all” about Jamil. “I was only talking about the discourse online around body shaming (that popped up due to the backlash that I had nothing to do with) during pregnancy and people wearing awkward to piss in shape wear specifically to look slimmer rather than for support,” said.

Jamil also pointed out, quite rightly, that if she was calling Kardashian West out, she would, well, call her out directly. “I’ve hardly been shy about it in the past. I’m not a passive aggressive person. I’m extremely direct,” she wrote, likely referencing the few different times Jamil has called out the Kardashians for promoting weight loss products. 

For right now, that's where the social media drama has stopped. And whether Jamil was initially responding to Kardashian West's Maternity Solutionwear line—and then, whether Kardashian West and Teigen were responding Jamil's comments—one thing's for sure: Maternity shapewear is personal decision for pregnant women or new moms; if you want to wear it, you have the option (now with the SKIMS brandname), and if it's not for you, you don't have to buy it.

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