Yesterday, Vogue revealed its October 2020 cover star – singer Lizzo. In the accompanying interview, she discussed the body positivity movement and how she believes it’s become “commercialised”.
“I’m glad that this conversation is being included in the mainstream narrative,” she said. “(But) 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.”
The singer says that the changes happened when the movement became mainstream, to the detriment of the people it’s meant to champion. “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,” she continued.
Rather than being pushed as a body positivity role model, Lizzo says would prefer to use the term body normativity. “I want to normalise my body,” she explains. “Not just be like: ‘Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.’ No, being fat is normal.”
Lizzo is not alone in her rejection of body posivity. Many have adopted body neutrality as a way of addressing the other movement’s shortcomings – read more here on it.
