{"id":32181,"date":"2021-08-16T15:10:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T15:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=32181"},"modified":"2021-08-16T17:23:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T17:23:21","slug":"lizzo-rumors-song-video-fatphobic-response","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/lizzo-rumors-song-video-fatphobic-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Lizzo Tearfully Responds to the Fatphobic Response After “Rumors”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Leon Bennett\/Getty Images for BET<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lizzo<\/a>‘s career, like many musical phenoms of the digital age, has been unequivocally marked by the internet’s trollish proclivities. In spite of her luminous stardom, critics relentlessly admonish her for her body autonomy and liberation \u2014 a hallmark of her artistic identity.\u00a0 Following the recent debut of her collaboration with Cardi B<\/a>, “Rumors,” the popstar<\/a> is facing yet another barrage of fatphobic and racially-motivated comments.<\/p>\n

In an intimate Instagram Live<\/a> with her fans on Sunday, Lizzo expressed how her momentous debut has been unfortunately blighted by social media’s comments on her appearance. “On the days I feel I should be the happiest … I feel so down,” she tearfully shared. “Like, I worked so hard. I’ve been working triple time, quadruple time.”<\/p>\n

“People saying sh*t about me that just doesn’t even make sense. It’s fat-phobic, and it’s racist and it’s hurtful,” she vented. “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 …”<\/p>\n

While some fans expressed their general indifference towards the record, others egregiously compared Lizzo’s expanse of her sonic repertoire to her pursuing the caricature of a “mammy.” The trope, which gained popularity during the Jim Crow era, portrayed a plus-sized Black female servant of darker-skin who was inherently docile and submissive. Moreover, the de-eroticism embedded in the archetype has long pushed the notions that plus-size women are innately undeservingly of love and only existed to cater to the whims of others, particularly their white employers.<\/p>\n

In a rebuke of the racially-charged insult, she said, “What I won’t accept is y’all doing this to Black women over and over and over again \u2014 especially us big Black girls.” She continued, “When we don’t fit into the box you want to put us in, you just unleash hatred on us. It’s not cool. I’m doing this s*** for the big Black women of the future who just want to live their lives without being scrutinized or put into boxes.”<\/p>\n

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Loving yourself in a world that don\u2019t love u back takes an incredible amount of self awareness & a bullshit detector that can see through ass backwards societal standards\u2026 <\/p>\n

if u managed to love yourself today I\u2019m proud of u.<\/p>\n

If u haven\u2019t, I\u2019m still proud of u. This shits hard<\/p>\n

— ALL THE RUMORS ARE TRUE (@lizzo) August 15, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n