Lizzo spoke up about the body positive movement forgetting where it came from in a TikTok that reached 1 million likes.
The video posted by Lizzo started with @sheismarissamatthews, who was replying to a comment that read:
"Everyone has time to lose weight. EVERYONE. Just because you block comments doesn't mean you're speaking truth."
Matthews responded, saying:
"I don't know why I can't just exist in my body."
"Like, just let me f'king exist in my body."
You can see the video here:
The singer's own response brought up another point.
The body positive moment has been 'co-opted' by people of all body types, when it originally was meant for plus sized women.
Lizzo said:
"Because now that body positivity has been co-opted by all bodies, and people are finally celebrating medium and small girls and people who occasionally get rolls, fat people are still getting the short end of this movement."
She says the movement was started and created for "big women, big Brown and Black women, queer women," but they're not reaping the benefits from the growing trends in social media.
And she would be right.
Tigress Osborn, the chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), wrote for BBC on the origins of the movement and where it is now.
Originally, the movement was underground, declaring diet culture as the Fat Liberation movement's enemy. When the fat acceptance movement went mainstream in the 70s and 80s, it shut out the people of color who started the movement.
Osborn wrote:
"Many White activists believed that because Black communities and other communities of colour seemed to be more accepting of fat people, that meant fat People of Colour simply didn't need fat activism."
Even when the body positive movement took to the internet, a safer space than in public forums, queer and Black folks were still at the forefront. A powerful moment from 2012 was when Sonya Renee Taylor performed her spoken word poem, "The Body is Not An Apology," which launched a digital media campaign.
Now, hashtags that were filled with plus-sized bodies are now filled with mid- and straight-sized bodies, covering up the people who need fat liberation the most. Thankfully, Lizzo's large following brought awareness to this issue.
The comments section on Lizzo's video was filled with positivity.
@meganlove777/TikTok
@colleen/TikTok
@iamlaurachung/TikTok
@angsasaki/TikTok
@sqbsnax/TikTok
@carlymariin/TikTok
@oenvy_us/TikTok
Lizzo has been pushing boundaries as a body positive activist, whether it's the clothing she's worn sparking backlash, people fat shaming her on twitter, or trolls on her Instagram, she is not afraid to speak out.
As people gain more awareness of the Body Positive Movement, many will be looking to Lizzo to see what she does next.
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