Sunday night, Lizzo and some of her friends went to the Lakers vs. Timberwolves game in LA. Lizzo lived in Minnesota for years, so I assume she’s a Timberwolves fan. That’s not why she was trending on Twitter for much of Sunday night and all of Monday. She was trending because of what she wore to the game: fishnets, a thong and an oversized t-shirt that worked as a dress. Or, it would have worked as a dress except that someone – ?? – cut a big hole in the back of the t-shirt so Lizzo’s ass was literally hanging out. She was seated courtside, so whenever she stood up, everyone behind her got an eyeful. And then at one point, she got up and twerked so everyone could see.
I did not write about this on Monday because A) I honestly don’t care, B) I’ve been feeling like there’s a growing backlash against Lizzo and people yelled at me for mentioning that feeling, C) I think it’s possible to hold a lot of contradictory opinions all at once. Like, yes, Lizzo has the right to do whatever she wants with her body and if she wants her ass out, so be it. And yes, so much of the commentary and criticism lodged against her was sizeist – it wasn’t that people thought it was gross that any woman’s ass was hanging out, it was specifically about Lizzo and her size. That being said, if a slender lady had worn that, of course it would have been a big deal too. The commentary would have been different though.
Anyway, the whole thing was a stunt to get people talking about her because (I suspect) Lizzo does not realize that she’s perhaps a tad overexposed (in every sense) at the moment. So Lizzo got the reaction she was looking for, so she got to “clap back” at all her haters with a video on her Instagram Live:
The singer, 31, responded to those trolling her outfit in an Instagram Live video Monday, quipping “your criticism has no effect on me.”
“Who I am and the essence of me and the things that I choose to do as a grown-ass woman can inspire you to do the same. You don’t have to be like me. You need to be like you. And never ever let somebody stop you or shame you from being yourself,” she began the clip. She went on to continue that her for her, being bold isn’t something new.
“Like, this is who I’ve always been. Now everyone’s looking at it and your criticism can just remain your criticism…Negative criticism has no stake in my life, no control over my life, over my emotions. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, I’m surrounded by love.” Lizzo clapped back that just because she’s famous, she has no intention of changing her ways. “I don’t ever want to censor myself…I’m not going to quiet myself. I’m not going to shrink myself because somebody thinks that I’m not sexy to them. It doesn’t really matter what goes on on the internet, nothing really breaks my joy. I’m a really solid, grounded person, and I know that I’m shocking because you’ve never seen — in a long time — a body like mine doing whatever it wants to do and dressing the way that it dresses and moving the way that it moves.”
“I just wanna spread that love and also spread these cheeks,” she laughed. “And you know what, if you really don’t like my ass, you can kiss it. ‘Cause kissing it makes it go away, I promise,” she said, blowing a kiss to the camera.
*deep sigh* It is what it is. Everyone involved in this discussion is doing what they want to do. Lizzo’s critics are yelling and body-shaming because that’s what makes them happy. Lizzo’s defenders are using this as a rare moment of body-positivity for bigger girls. And Lizzo was happy being a stunt queen and getting all of these headlines. Make no mistake – she loves the fact that she got to do that IG Live thing. That’s the whole reason for the stunt.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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