Lizzo is known for her self-love lyrics and being an unapologetic voice for fat women. Now, in a new video, the award-winning musician is speaking out on the body positive movement and calling out the people who co-opted the movement while leaving behind those who it was intended to empower.
On April 8, Lizzo took to Tiktok to respond to a follower who had recently expressed through tears that “I really don’t understand why I can’t just exist in my body!” In her video, Lizzo explained that it’s because fat women have been left out of the movement they started. “Because now the body positivity has been co-opted by all bodies,” she replied.
“People are finally celebrating medium and small girls and people who occasionally get rolls, [but] fat people are still getting the short end of this movement,” she continued, speaking directly to the camera. “We’re still getting shit on—we’re still getting talked about, memed, shamed—and no one cares anymore because it’s like, ‘body positivity is for everybody.’”
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The “Love Yourself” singer went on to say that while everyone should use the movement to empower themselves and be positive about their body, they also need to recognize the roots of the movement. She explained that it was created by “big women, big brown and Black women, queer women,” and yet they “are not benefitting from the mainstream success of it.”
She finished the video with some blunt advice for straight-sized people: “Our bodies are none of your f*cking business, our health is none of your f*cking business. All we ask is that you keep that same energy with these medium girls that you praise, keep the same fucking energy.”
And to double down on this message, Lizzo elaborated on her point in the caption of the video. “Please use the body positive movement to empower yourself. But we need to protect and uplift the bodies it was created for and by,” she wrote.
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This isn’t the first time Lizzo has spoken up for fat women, and it certainly won’t be the last. In an interview with Glamour, she said that she was tired of being called brave for being confident in her body. “Let’s just make space for these women. Make space for me,” she said. “I think allowing that space to be made is really what’s going to shift the narrative in the future.”
In another Tiktok video posted after the one above, Lizzo responded to a user who asked her followers “Would you wake up a trade place with somebody who was on the heavier side?” Rightfully annoyed, Lizzo replied, “I’m glad she asked,” before making her message clear.
“You would not because you know their is a whole system that oppresses fat people that you do not experience and you will never experience,” she continued. “So let’s remember with body positivity, yes, we want to end harassment and shame, but we are also working to dismantle a system that oppresses fat people.”
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