I love Lizzo full stop. I have enjoyed how she has given plus-sized women the courage to embrace their bodies and curves. I also like that Lizzo fully states that she is not anyone’s role model and that she is just living her life. I know that there was backlash late last year when Lizzo decided to go on a 10-day cleanse and people accused her of promoting diet culture. Then earlier this year, Lizzo had to again clapback at trolls for fat shaming her. However, the debate that I have seen over Lizzo this last weekend has been heartbreaking. I have seen women call Lizzo a “mammy” and many other mean tweets about her body. What started the entire meanness over the weekend was Lizzo’s and Cardi B’s new single and video, “Rumors.” I guess Lizzo saw the nastiness being said about her and she took to Instagram live. She said it’s painful when people criticize her instead of her music. Below are a few more details from Lizzo’s live via Yahoo!:
“On the days I feel I should be the happiest…. I feel so down,” Lizzo, sitting in her bathroom, told her social media followers as she dabbed at her eyes. “Like, I hurt so hard.”
Though [Lizzo] didn’t describe the hateful messages in detail — explaining, “I’m not even going to say them, to give them power” — they appear to be focused on her appearance.
“People saying s*** about me that just doesn’t even make sense,” the visibly upset star shared. “It’s fat-phobic, and it’s racist and it’s hurtful. If you don’t like my music, cool. If you don’t like ‘Rumors’ the song, cool. But a lot of people don’t like me because of the way I look… ”
“Sometimes I feel like the world just don’t love me back…
“It’s like it doesn’t matter how much positive energy you put into the world, you’re still going to have people who have… something mean to say about you. And for the most part it doesn’t hurt my feelings; I don’t care. I just think when I’m working this hard, my tolerance gets lower. My patience is lower. I’m more sensitive and it gets to me.”
Let me preface everything I am about to say with this, I didn’t like the Rumors song or video. The song didn’t click with me nor the lyrics. However, I loved seeing Cardi and Lizzo working together on a project. I personally like seeing powerful women collaborating instead of fighting each other. With that being said, I can actually say that I didn’t appreciate a song without attacking the people who worked hard to create it (I’ve grown). How people were coming for Lizzo hurt my feelings and I wasn’t even the one they were coming after. Calling Lizzo a “mammy” is downright ugly, unfair and definitely a misuse of the term. Lizzo is not non-sexual. The fact that people were fat shaming Lizzo especially after she has been honest about struggling with her weight is cruel.
I am proud that fellow Houstonian was vulnerable about the pain that people’s words caused her. People need to use kindness when critiquing art and not attack the artists. People need stop being assholes full stop. I wish there was a way to ban folks who are unnecessarily cruel and nasty from the interwebs or at least ban our eyes from seeing their bullsh*t. I will always support plus-sized girls (I’m one myself) being happy and taking up space without feeling shame or the need to hide because they don’t meet people’s ideal of beauty or health. I am sending so much love to Lizzo. I hope she knows that there are far more people who love and support her than who don’t.
A few responses to the Lizzo hate:
Well this is an idiotic take. This has been her personality since before she became mainstream, from when she was doing the underground circuit, she’s always been outgoing.
Relegating fat, black, outgoing women into the Mammy trope is giving fatphobia and misogynoir. Pee-yew.
— Steph (@StephanieYeboah) August 13, 2021
This is a @lizzo stan account. ❤️👑
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) August 16, 2021
All Lizzo gotta do is remind herself Prince co-signed on her music. The other girls wish they had that and never will.
— Brittny Pierre (@sleep2dream) August 16, 2021
This is a @lizzo Appreciation Post 🥰
— YOUNG HOLLYWOOD (@younghollywood) August 16, 2021
