30 Aug 2021

When Lizzo said “Give 'em something to talk about 🎶” - it definitely wasn’t this.

We’ve grown up in a society that was built on tearing down women - whether it's her appearance, what her background is or who she dates. But since when did promoting body positivity reflect hatred? Oh yeah, forever according to the non-progressive society we live in today. Let’s talk about it.

When Lizzo released “Rumors” - a proper banger of a track (and it did not flop, despite what everyone has been saying) she copped a massive amount of hate online and yep, you guessed it. Not because of the song but because of her physical appearance.

 

While Lizzo’s body and looks is literally nobody else's business or concern, she addressed the negative comments on an Instagram live a couple of weeks ago.

“People saying sh*t about me that just doesn’t even make sense. It’s fatphobic 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.”

It’s a problem that we hear about, time and time again and it’s at the expense of empowering role models that I truly wished I had as a kid. We grew up in an era where mid-rise jeans were it, where fat jokes in early-mid-late 2000’s movies were okay (think Mean Girls, Pitch Perfect and Shallow Hall) and while I thought they were a laugh at the time, I thought we would have moved past this nasty rhetoric.

Even today we’re seeing it in celebrity roasts, in the fast paced nature of TikTok and the damaging effects of Facetune. While we have got used to this behaviour and put up with it, I think it’s also fair to say that we’re so over it.

It also goes both ways - it’s the same responses like when people got upset with Adele and Rebel Wilson’s weight loss journeys, where people were commenting that these celebrities were “fatphobic” because they were celebrating weight loss. Does a change in their physical well-being warrant public commentary? I didn’t know we were still policing female bodies and what they wanted to do with THEIR own body - it’s a massive flaw in the body positivity movement. 

We can say the same for the “public mockery” Jonah Hill has been subjected to over the years where he felt like the “fat guy” in Hollywood.

 

Being in the limelight shouldn’t come with a cost of their physical and mental health - Zac Efron hinted that he has to “get out of Hollywood” as it is “not a place conducive to living a long, happy, mentally-sound life”, only proving the pressure of it all. 

It’s scary how many examples I can specify but the reality of it is, they don’t owe anything to anyone. And neither do we. I’m not saying we’re going in the wrong direction but no matter what, this behaviour shows the fundamental truths about life that people carry and as the up and coming generation, we have the power to change and to put an end to this negativity.

I’ll end on a note from the queen herself;