FOR THE PPL IN THE BACK🍑
Lizzo is speaking out against TikTok’s unhealthy promotion of diet culture, fatphobia, and disordered eating. In a video shared on Jan. 6, the “About Damn Time” singer directly addressed negative comments from body shamers about her physical appearance. “The discourse around bodies is officially tiring,” she said while standing on the beach in a bikini.
Lizzo continued, “I have seen comments go from, ‘Oh my gosh, I liked you when you were thicc. Why’d you lose weight?,’ to ‘Oh my gosh, why’d you get a BBL? I liked your body before,’ to ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so big. You need to lose weight – but for your health,’ to ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so little. You need to get an ass or titties or something,’ to ‘Oh my gosh, why did she get all that work done? It’s just too much work.'”
Impassioned, the singer went on to point out that artists are not required to fit social media’s unrealistic beauty standards. “Are we OK? Do you see the delusion?” she asked the camera. “Do we realize that artists are not here to fit into your beauty standards? Artists are here to make art, and this body is art. And I’m going to do whatever I want with this body. I wish that comments costed y’all money so that we could see how much time we are f*cking wasting on the wrong thing. Can we leave that sh*t back there, please?”
In the comments section, fans overwhelmingly voiced their support for Lizzo’s speech. One user wrote, “Period!!! It’s no one else’s business, and I’m tired of people hiding their fatphobia behind the thin veil of pretending to ‘care.'” Another user added, “Preach!!!!!!!” Below streams of clapping and heart emoji, other users cosigned Lizzo’s powerful statement. “There are so many other things to talk about than someone else’s body.” A different user wrote, “Insecure people make the loudest noise. They not happy within themselves, and they project it, hoping others will feel unhappy within too.”
While conversations around body shaming have been circulating heavily across social media for years, Lizzo’s comments serve as a much-needed reminder that beauty is subjective. More importantly, her video is a reminder that the internet is a dynamic space for holding important conversations, and unsolicited assessments of other people’s appearances should be last on the list of discussion topics.
Watch Lizzo’s full TikTok speech here.