Ever since her rise to fame, Lizzo has spoken out about body positivity and related topics. While that core message is something she believes in, Lizzo has now said that body positivity could use some reconsideration.
In a new Vogue cover story, Lizzo explained her position that the term “body positive” has become commercialized and that it’s no longer accomplishing its initial goal:
“It’s commercialized. Now, you look at the hashtag ‘body positive,’ and you see smaller-framed girls, curvier girls. Lotta white girls. And I feel no ways about that, because inclusivity is what my message is always about. I’m glad that this conversation is being included in the mainstream narrative. What I don’t like is how the people that this term was created for are not benefiting from it. Girls with back fat, girls with bellies that hang, girls with thighs that aren’t separated, that overlap. Girls with stretch marks. You know, girls who are in the 18-plus club. They need to be benefiting from…the mainstream effect of body positivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed. It gets — you know, it gets made acceptable.”
She went on to say that she wants to move beyond body positivity, saying, “I think it’s lazy for me to just say I’m body positive at this point. It’s easy. I would like to be body-normative. I want to normalize my body. And not just be like, ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.’ No, being fat is normal. I think now, I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here. We have to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can continue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?”
Lizzo was also asked about her next album, but she was tight-lipped beyond expressing confidence in the material: “Oh, girl, I don’t know. I gotta finish the songs. It’s gonna be good, though. I’ll tell you that. It’s gonna be motherf*cking good.”
Read the full feature here.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.