Lizzo Said The Body Positivity Movement Has Been "Made Acceptable" And Is "No Longer Benefiting" The People Who Created It

    "I want to normalise my body... Being fat is normal."

    Ellie Bate
    by Ellie Bate

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Lizzo is speaking out about the appropriation of the body positivity movement, saying she is now working instead on being "body normative".

    Amanda Edwards / Getty Images

    Speaking to Vogue for her first ever cover, the "Truth Hurts" singer said the term "body positivity" has been commercialised, and the people who created it are "no longer benefiting from it".

    "Now, you look at the hashtag 'body positive,' and you see smaller-framed girls, curvier girls," Lizzo told the magazine. "Lotta white girls."

    Joe Maher / Getty Images

    "I feel no ways about that, because inclusivity is what my message is always about," she went on. "I'm glad that this conversation is being included in the mainstream narrative."

    She continued: "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."

    "With everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed," Lizzo said. "It gets made acceptable."

    The "Juice" singer went on to explain that she thinks it would be "lazy" at this point for her to call herself "body positive", and so she's pushing for a different label instead.

    Vogue

    "I would like to be body-normative," she said. "I want to normalise my body."

    "Not just be like, 'Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive,'" Lizzo continued. "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," she concluded. "Change is always uncomfortable, right?"

    Earlier this year, Lizzo opened up about her relationship with her body image, revealing that self-isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic had been negatively affecting her mental health.

    You can read Lizzo's full Vogue cover story here.