Lizzo on the future of body-positivity: “I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here”

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Lizzo has opened up about the future of the body-positivity movement in a new interview.

• Read More: Lizzo – The Big Read

Appearing on the cover of this month’s Vogue, Lizzo said the movement needs to be more inclusive as “the people that this term was created for are not benefiting from it.”

Lizzo explained: “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.”

Lizzo continued: “They need to be benefiting from…the mainstream effect of body positivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed. It gets made acceptable.”

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I am the first big black woman on the cover of @voguemagazine. The first black anything feels overdue. But our time has come. To all my black girls, if someone like you hasn’t done it yet— BE THE FIRST. Shot by: @hypewilliams Story by: Claudia Rankine. Thank you Anna Wintour & @sergiokletnoy.

A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating) on Sep 24, 2020 at 9:36am PDT

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“Having a Black woman as vice president would be great,” Lizzo says, “because I’m just always rooting for Black people. But I want actual change to happen…in the laws. And not just on the outside, you know? Not a temporary fix to a deep-rooted, systemic issue. A lot of times I feel like we get distracted by the veneer of things. If things appear to be better, but they’re not actually better, we lose our sense of protest.” She makes sure to mention Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland and all the women who, inadvertently or not, often get dropped from the conversation: “We need to talk about the women.” – @voguemagazine story by Claudia Rankine. Link in bio.

A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating) on Sep 24, 2020 at 9:53am PDT

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‘Early in her career, Lizzo says, she was told by music-industry executives, “You can’t go white to Black. But you can go from Black to white.” Her response: “‘Well, I’m a Black woman. So I can do just about anything I want to do.’ How dare these people sit up and tell me who my music is going to appeal to or not?”… “When I go hiking or whatever,” Lizzo tells me, “it’s Black girls being like, ‘I like your music.’ ‘Hey, that’s Lizzo.’” These Black fans confirm for Lizzo what she already knows, that she’s “a Black woman making music from a Black experience”—and that her message can speak to anyone.’ – @voguemagazine story by Claudia Rankine. Link in bio.

A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating) on Sep 24, 2020 at 10:14am PDT

Lizzo went on to say how she wants the movement to move forward in the future. She added: “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?”

Earlier this month (September 2), Cardi B revealed that she wanted Lizzo to appear in the video for ‘WAP’.

The team-up between Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion arrived in August, included cameos from Kylie Jenner, Normani and Rosalía among others.

“I’m cool with Lizzo and everything. Like, we’ve been sending DMs to each other and all that,” Cardi told Hot 97 (via Hot New Hip Hop). “But she was on vacation and she wasn’t in town.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ because I had a whole vision about how I want to see Lizzo and everything,” Cardi added.

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