In defense of Lizzo

Dear T,

Allegations against Lizzo made the news this week because a slew of ladies said she "isn't what she pretends to be.”

What are the allegations? According to Vox,

The plaintiffs claim they were made to feel their employment was precarious, and that they had to comply with requests that made them uncomfortable in order to continue working. Some of those requests were of a sexual nature, including, among other things, pressure from Lizzo to attend a performance with nude dancers in Amsterdam, to eat bananas placed in nude dancers’ genitals, and pressure on one of the plaintiffs to touch a dancer’s breasts.

Lizzo denies all this, of course; but so far from proving she's a fake, everything listed above (if true) proves she's too honest. You can’t say “every body is beautiful” without denying some body parts and people are disgusting. You can’t show a bare fat ass at a basketball game and pretend to value others' right to decency. And a woman who values only her opinion is going to not value others' opinions. And I quote, I don’t need your positivity or your negativity. I don’t need your comments at all. How about that?

A small leap of logic from there leads us to the following philosophy. Why should people be afraid of other people’s bodies? Especially if I say to not be?

Lizzo said to NPR in 2019,

There was a wave of feminism where we were burning bras, now I'm like, "Bitch, my bra is in your f****** face!" And I think that that is just a testament to human beings and how we evolve. ... I think that the wave of feminism right now that's overtly sexual and in your face I think is just the response to where we were. Like, I'm going to wear a suit and I'm going to boss up on you. ... You-can't-tell-me-what-to-do type vibes, and [I'm] like, "No, I'm gonna tell you what to do!"

And then she told them what to do.

But just in case anyone thinks I'm against Lizzo here, I'm not. Not in this case. I’m against her, of course, like I’m against any grown man who shows his dick to passing women. Or against people telling me I can’t have an opinion when they just announced their opinion. Or against Harvey Weinstein and the way he treated “auditions.” I’m against all these things in themselves, and insofar as she represents them, I’m against her.

But in this case I’m against her accusers. Not because their accusations are false. I’m against them because Lizzo followed through with her public philosophy, and now her supporters say they're offended by it.

Yours,

-J