Lizzo has called herself a “body icon” in a new interview about beauty standards, adding that she “wasn’t supposed to be a sex symbol”.
Speaking to People, the singer explained how her parents “taught me at a very young age how America treats Black people. How it treats Black women”. She added: “I saw very quickly how we treat fat people.”
“I wasn’t supposed to make it this far. I wasn’t supposed to be a millionaire. I wasn’t supposed to be a sex symbol, but I am,” Lizzo said.
“The funny, fat friend. I played that trope in high school,” she continued. “Or the friend who is gonna beat your ass ’cause she’s big. Or it’s the big girl who’s insecure ’cause she’s big… I don’t think I’m the only kind of fat girl there is. I want us to be freed from that box we’ve been put in.”
Lizzo went on to say she “had to blaze a trail” and that “there was no Lizzo before Lizzo”.
“I think I have a really hot body! I’m a body icon, and I’m embracing that more and more every day,” she added.
“It may not be one person’s ideal body type just like, say, Kim Kardashian might not be someone’s ideal, but she’s a body icon and has created a modern-day beauty standard,” Lizzo explained. “And what I’m doing is stepping into my confidence and my power to create my own beauty standard. And one day that will just be the standard.”
Last year, a TED Talk delivered by Lizzo on the Black history of twerking and how it helped her embrace her body was uploaded to the organisation’s YouTube channel. It came after she chose to speak out about abusive online comments she’d received online.
Later this month Lizzo is set to talk at SXSW as one of the festival’s keynote speakers.
She also confirmed that she is still working on her new album, the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Cuz I Love You‘, and said that the “musically badass, daring and sophisticated” record is about love.
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