This is a joke, I do not actually or seriously want to call Lizzo that word in a demeaning way, because she is not. I myself have stanned Lizzo- but I will say that she hurt my feelings and I thought the bit was an entertaining lede to start discussing that, as it is a lyric from her song "Truth Hurts". Lizzo's fans call her a queen, and the short of the way in which they mean it is that she inspires them to love themselves as she loves herself. This is an important thing. Lizzo is beautiful, talented, and fun among many other good qualities. However, recent tweets from Lizzo have made me begin to wonder how much her love extends past her self love and how does this manifest itself in the world? This is not that I want to declare Lizzo a bad person or to cancel her, but if nothing else she did not think enough before she tweeted about her missing postmates delivery, and upon realizing the mistake did not make a thoroughly thoughtful apology, suggesting to me that she might lack compassion for others in some areas as well as greater perspective of the world beyond herself. The tweet that I am thinking about is shown in the image below.
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| From @nickthelovett's instagram September 2019 |
Lizzo posted this picture with the delivery girls' name, profile picture, and location. This girl could have been lost, the app could have malfunctioned, she could have mixed up orders, or she could have even just been hungry. It turns out that the delivery girl had waited the required five minutes but was not able to contact Lizzo, so she had to move on as instructed. Regardless of this information, Lizzo is rich and powerful! She does not need to have put this delivery girl on blast like this! Lizzo did eventually remove this tweet as well as make an apology tweet, shown in the image below again.
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From Huffpost September 2019 |
For me, this apology left much to be desired. What Lizzo said hits most of the major points which she should have addressed, and so is decent enough. Yet, this is the only response her followers get and honestly, I am unsure that she grasps the full range of consequences of her thoughtlessness because as far as I can find this is all we get and all she gave. Ultimately my purpose for writing this is to say that I think that Lizzo should consider all of this if she has not already. My purpose is also to encourage her fans and stan armies in general to think more about the power dynamics at play in situations such as these. Moreover, I mostly also am further analyzing this situation to demonstrate how Lizzo's tweet is related to body politics.
This situation is about people, and people are bodies. Lizzo is a proud fat black woman and she owns that and is so beautiful. Lizzo is also rich, famous, and well-liked. Lizzo has not always been proud, she has spent a lot of time talking about how hard it has been to overcome her insecurities and the haters. Thinking about what Lizzo represents as part of her identity is marginalized in society, and another part of her identity is highly privileged is difficult for me now that she has put another black woman at such risk. What does it mean? She put someone who she has much more power than on *blast. Personal information out there for the world to see because she did not get all of the information first! It was irresponsible and put the delivery girl at risk of losing her job and being harassed, maybe even worse. For Lizzo to move on to her regular production of content and not address how seriously this would have affected this service worker. There is not information about what happened to the delivery girl or if Lizzo ever approached her. The short is that Lizzo, a wealthy celebrity with a huge following and influence, but who is also different from her in that she is a pink-collar worker, put another woman of color at potentially large risk. She could have been a fan, and she still could be. Lizzo did apologize, but anyone can tweet something like that and then move on. What is she doing to further her self reflection and advocate for people like the delivery girl she put at risk?
I think there is a lot to explore about powerful bodies and how they take shape in today's pop culture. I love your claim that people are bodies and therefore how we choose to express ourselves have an impact on others. I think you could also ask how Lizzo's newfound fame/confidence has changed her possible outlook on treating others and why the culture she is a part of seems to foster beings that continue to put others down. As a prominent figure representing fat black women I too agree she is highly valuable and great for the work she has done in promoting self love and confidence. I would like to know what Cooper would have to say about this situation? I am thinking she would not take it on as a 'fat' issue, but as a fat activist (ps I am unaware if she identifies as such) Lizzo is still somehow contributing to the movement in all she does.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that this world is taught to be selfish. "YOLO" or the phrase you only live once use to promote growth and accomplishing goals, fighting for what you believe in and for what you want to achieve because you only have one life to do so. However, people are using YOLO as an excuse to do mean things to others as well. "lets go fight her Yolo etc). We are taught its a dog eat dog world, ive even heard "you came in this world alone and you will die alone to do what you have to do to survive". Why don't we all love each other. Someone could have began harassing that girl wile she was at work, I mean social media knew her name and Lizzo's fans probably looked for that girl on social media as soon as they seen the post. We have to be considerate in all we do. Yeah Lizzo had the right to feel how she felt, but we have to stop running to social media and acting off of impulse.
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