Ever since Lizzo burst into public consciousness in 2016, everyone has had something to say about her size. From criticism for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle, to disappointment amongst her fans for publicly exercising and juice cleansing, her body has always been a topic of debate.
And Kanye West became the latest person to body shame Lizzo this week during a conversation with Tucker Carlson in which he appeared to claim the promotion of obesity through Lizzo online was ‘demonic’ and part of a plan to speed up a ‘genocide of the Black race’.
‘When Lizzo loses 10 pounds and announces it, the bots…on Instagram, they attack her losing weight,’ Ye said. ‘The media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal when it’s actually unhealthy,’ he claimed.
Nights later in Toronto, Lizzo seemingly responded to Kanye’s comments: ‘I feel like everybody in America got my motherfu**ing name in their mother fu**ing mouth for no motherfu**ing reason,’ she told her concert audience. ‘I’m minding my fat Black beautiful business. Can I stay here?’ she jokingly asked the Canadian crowd. ‘Who can I marry for that dual citizenship?’
This is far from the first time Lizzo has had to defend herself from body shaming and it will not be the last. In 2020, fitness celebrity Jillian Michaels publicly called her ‘overweight’ and deemed her unhealthy. This August, comedian Aries Spears said: ‘I can’t get past the fact she looks like the sh**t emoji. She’s got a very pretty face, but she keeps showing her body off.’
As fans have noted on Twitter, Lizzo receives huge amounts of hate for her size precisely because she refuses to ‘cover up’ to make everyone else more comfortable. ‘Y’all don’t mind fat bodies,’ they theorised. ‘You just don’t want to see them scantily clad.’
The proud and unapologetic way Lizzo has repeatedly defended herself against haters is admirable: ‘You know what? I’m not going to say nothing,’ she responded to Spears’ comments that month at the VMAs. ‘They be like, “Lizzo why don’t you clap back? Why don’t you clap back?” Cause, b***h, I’m winning, hoe!...Best revenge is your paper, b***h.’
Yet despite her unwavering public strength, Lizzo clearly still feels the emotional toll of thousands of strangers having an opinion on who she is. ‘For the most part it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I don’t care,’ she told her fans on Instagram Live last summer. ‘I just think when I’m working this hard, my tolerance gets lower,’ she continued. ‘I’m putting so much loving energy into the world…sometimes I feel the world don’t love me back.’
In the past year, Lizzo won an Emmy for her Watch Out For The Big Grrrls reality show, launched her own shapewear brand Yitty, topped the charts with About Damn Time, released her fourth studio album Special and sold out shows to eager fans across the globe. Yet, it’s the hatred shown towards her simply for loving herself that hits the headlines endlessly. Please! Can’t we talk about something else?
As Lizzo told her fans online: ‘DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH YOUR BODY,’ and, unless you’re a doctor, leave everyone else alone. It really is that simple.