The Problem With Lizzo

 

No, it's not that at one point in this stupid ad she seems to be ordering a "French boy."  I'm pretty sure I heard that correctly.  Nor is it her current lawsuit issues, though they do factor in.  

The problem Lizzo is going to have in 2024 is with that part of her audience whose devotion to her had absolutely nothing to do with her music and everything to do with her image as an excessively heavy but extremely active woman who had made a fortune on stage without "buying in" to "socially acceptable fitness standards" (I'm quoting self-labeled fat activists here.)  And from what I've seen from Tiktok and YouTube, this is a significant portion of that audience.

Lizzo has a LOT of fans who are either extremely overweight or consider themselves "allies" to people "living in a larger body."  Over the past few years, many of them have accused their hero's detractors of "hating on Lizzo" because she is very fat.  Some of them even say that they aren't fans of Lizzo's music but will go to the mat against anyone who dares criticize Lizzo because Fat People and Their Allies Must Stick Together. 

But there's one thing that "Fat Activists" hate more than detractors, and that's when their fat icons go on weight-loss journeys.  And we've finally gotten to Lizzo's 2024 problem:  the musician, who is six weeks away from her 36th birthday, has apparently decided that the health consequences of being morbidly obese are not for her, and she's on a mission to change her body while she still can.   It was one thing to hear Lizzo accused of fat-shaming her dancers- that could be dismissed as mere gossip by the haters.  But when the pounds start to drop off, and Lizzo inevitably signs a promotional deal with Ozempic and clothing company that doesn't go higher than XXL, the bile is going to rise like lava in Vesuvius circa 79 AD.  

Here's hoping that Lizzo's explanation for the turnabout is "it's none of your damn business and I don't owe you an explanation," because that would be very accurate.  In any case, the reaction from some of the "activists" who infest the medias of Social will be entertaining to watch.  

In short, the problem with Lizzo is not Lizzo's problem at all.  She has every right to come to the rescue of her own body even if she can still walk and hasn't even had a heart attack yet.  The problem really belongs to the people who held her up as some kind of fat mascot to hold up to the world as an example of what fat people can do (for a while, until reality catches up to them.)  They'll be very vocal about the "betrayal."  Frankly, I can't wait.