When Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls reality show, championing body positivity and inclusivity, captured an Emmy last year, perhaps more notable than its upset win was the entertainer’s emotional acceptance speech.
Calling the trophy for outstanding competition series “nice” after beating out extremely popular TV programs like RuPaul’s Drag Race, The Voice, The Amazing Race and Top Chef, Lizzo said: “When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media, someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me.”
She closed her speech by pointing to her cast of plus-size female dancers of color, who cheered loudly from their seats. “One year ago these women were filming this television show that would change their lives forever. They are Emmy Award-winning superstars who are going on a world tour. Make some noise for my Big Grrrls. I love you guys so much.”
But almost a year after that defining moment, two dancers who appeared on Watch Out for the Big Grrrls as well as another Lizzo dancer filed a lawsuit against the Grammy-winning performer, accusing the singer and employees of Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. of racial, religious and sexual harassment. Lizzo spoke out Thursday morning, assuring fans in a post on social media that “there is nothing I take more seriously than the respect we deserve as women in the world.”
She also called the allegations, “as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous not to be addressed.”
Yet experts say Lizzo will have to go beyond statements such as that, in which she declared she is neither the victim nor the villain in this scenario, if she wants to restore not only her career but also her status as a global symbol of body empowerment.
“I think that she should’ve had a better response, and she knows better,” says author Roxane Gay, who’s written in support of Lizzo in the past, pointing to the way Lizzo “course corrected” last year when she immediately replaced language in her song “GRRRLS” that was singled out as an ableist slur.
“There was just no taking of responsibility, no direct engagement with the accusations and no apology. I think we all know how the court system works, so I doubt she could offer the statement that people would’ve liked to have seen from her, legally speaking, if she doesn’t want to just settle — which she can just, honestly, apologize, settle and move on. But we’ll see what happens.”
Moving on will be a layered feat for the 35-year-old whose very being is so intrinsically tied to empowering others, particularly women with a larger frame. Since she achieved mainstream success upon the release of her major label debut album, Cuz I Love You in 2019, Lizzo has sometimes received ridicule for her plus-size frame and the unapologetic manner in which she embraces it through her fashion on and off stage. She’s also been open about the toll negative comments have taken on her self-esteem and mental health. It’s why the accusation of body shaming from former dancer Arianna Davis, whose lawyers allege there were “thinly veiled concerns about [Davis’] weight gain, which Lizzo had previously called attention to,” is among the more shocking claims in the suit. Noelle Rodriguez and Crystal Williams are the other two plaintiffs in the case.
After the lawsuit was filed, others came forward to share what they say were negative experiences with the performer, including Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, who says she quit a project with Lizzo after “I was treated with such disrespect by her.”
“When you have a celebrity brand that is known for one thing — Lizzo being known for body positivity and for being proud of her authentic self — and then allegations come out which are the opposite of how your brand is positioned, it can create a level of cognitive dissonance among the audience,” says Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants. “We saw this with Ellen DeGeneres when she was perceived to be the Queen of Nice, and yet stories continued to leak about how she treated people that worked for her and that goes to credibility. What occurs in these situations is there’s a credibility challenge and fans and audiences begin to wonder and question what’s real.”
The credibility of the accusers has also been called into question after a video was released showing Davis praising Lizzo in an interview for season two of Big Grrrls, which will focus on finding singers as well as dancers.
“Everyone is always talking about due process, but when it comes to a Black woman who people feel has gone beyond what they assume is possible for her, all of a sudden, due process no longer matters,” says Gay. “It’s disappointing if true, and I tend to always err on the side of believing people when they say they’ve been harmed. But I also think that we should perhaps consider that the story may be a little more complicated than the media is portraying it as right now.”
Nicole Winnaman, a former entertainment branding agent who represented DeGeneres and Britney Spears, believes Lizzo’s public persona works in her favor — at least in the court of public opinion — particularly as it pertains to the accusation that she coaxed members of her dance team to engage with nude performers in Amsterdam in February.
“I think she should apologize if she has offended anybody in the circles that she is hiring, but I don’t think she’s done anything illegal. And I think that how she’s going about it is exactly right, that she’s a woman that has personally gone through a lot of body shaming in her life, and I think maybe she went in one direction that’s very over the top, but it’s where she sits. She wants people to be able to be naked, be nude, be loud, be proud and she doesn’t apologize for it,” she says.
“She doesn’t hide who she is or what she is,” adds Winnaman. “She’s very open about the way that she advocates for freedom of expression in all the things that she does.”
It’s for that reason Lizzo will have to fess up to some hard truths if she wants to continue leading the charge for self-expression while being accused of suppressing others, says Gay.
“One of the things that’s important to remember is that we’re all raised in a fatphobic culture, and you can absolutely be fat and harbor internalized fatphobia. That doesn’t make it OK, but to believe that she would somehow be immune after the amount of vitriol that she has had to swallow — I don’t think people understand the level of fatphobia and misogynoir this woman deals with,” Gay says. “It’s appalling, it’s constant and it’s incredibly cruel, and that doesn’t make behaving in that manner OK, but there’s no way she couldn’t internalize some of those messages. I think the path forward for her involves acknowledging whatever wrongs she committed, making restitution and admitting, ‘I’m not always perfect. I apologize. And I harbor some fatphobia.’”
Schiffer, who considers Lizzo’s social media response “a start in the right direction,” admits it “left open questions.” She’ll need to “double down” on her message of inclusivity if she wants it to stick, he says. “It may be a song or a video that reaffirms body positivity, or it could be a nonprofit that she may get involved with. I expect that you’ll see her make moves in that direction. If she was my client, I would have her reaffirming what her brand stands for.”
So far, no brands have come forward to address the status of their relationship with Lizzo. Fabletics, the parent company of Lizzo’s shapewear brand Yitty, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Dove, which tapped Lizzo as a brand ambassador for their The Selfie Talk campaign in 2021 and partnered with her on their 2023 Dove Self-Esteem Project Research for Kids Online Safety this past April, shared their partnership ended in May. On Instagram she’s lost more than 150,000 followers, according to CrowdTangle, which is owned by Meta (which owns Instagram).
“I think brands will shy away from her now that there’s been a lawsuit that’s been filed,” says Winnaman. “I think that that will hurt her, but I think social communities that support her will stand up to fight that.”
The communities that don’t, however, will use this incident as a way to mask their prejudices against the singer beneath an outpouring of support for her alleged victims, argues Gay.
“I think it’s wonderful that the victims are being believed, and there’s nothing about their stories that doesn’t seem credible on the surface, so I think it’s healthy and normal that they’re being believed. What I think is not healthy and normal is the absolute glee that some people are expressing,” says Gay. “People were waiting for Lizzo to make a mistake so that they could give in to their fatphobia and their anger that she dares to be positive about herself and love herself. That people see this as a doorway to being cruel to her is, I think, just as damning as the allegations against Lizzo.”
Despite the expected backlash, Schiffer is confident the general public sentiment toward Lizzo will once again lean toward positive, provided no additional incidents come to light.
“Lizzo’s career is not done. She’ll come back from this,” he says. “I suspect in nine months to a year, this will be a small asterisk and the public will have forgotten.”
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