The Real Reason Lizzo is Flopping (it's not what you think)

0:00Your vehicle doesn't just get you from here to there. It's a bridge to the people and places that matter most. It's how you show up for your family, your community, and everyone else that depends on you. That's why for 125 years, Firestone has been building tires with one thing in mind to deliver products that are as reliable as you are. Firestone always dependable since 1900. This episode is brought to you by Chat GPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about Chat GPT work? It's the new way to use Chat GPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, you have Chat GPT work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting Work Mode, Available on Plus and Pro Plans. What is going on with Lizzo?

1:02Lizzo got canceled. A former wardrobe assistant accused Lizzo and her touring company of sexual and racial harassment. I think it is absolutely insane how hell bent she seems to be on trying to make people forget about the whole lawsuit situation. People are now unfollowing Lizzo because she lost too much weight. I actually unfollowed Lizzo about a year ago because it was too much weight loss content. And if you clicked on this video, you are probably thinking the same thing. Because back in 2019, Lizzo was on top of the music world and she was literally everywhere. She was getting number one hits, going on world tours, and performing at Coachella. She even broke the record for having the longest running number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo female rapper. She was literally breaking records and it was crazy. But what made it even more groundbreaking was who she was while doing all of it. She was a Plus-sized black woman at the center of mainstream pop. That is basically unheard of. It's actually crazy that she was able to do so much with how she looked. This is not a dig at her. This is a dig at the industry.

2:03They promote slim, white, petite women. That's what they've been promoting for years now. And Lizzo came out of nowhere and she really shook the system. Plus, size black women have always been pushed to the side, told to be the background characters, told that their bodies were not the kind that they could sell. So what Lizzo was doing in 2019 was generally unprecedented. We had never seen it at that scale before. But now, if we fast forward to 2026, Lizzo has dropped her 6 studio album and it didn't even chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and it only sold around 2000 pure copies during its first week. Those numbers are not normal for someone like Lizzo who was literally at the height of her career in 2019 getting back-to-back number 1 hits. So what has happened from 2019 to now? What has gone so wrong in her career that it's declining so rapidly? Was it the sexual harassment case that's still ongoing or the end of the body positivity movement, Lizzo losing weight, or was she just never really welcomed in the industry to begin with? Because of how she looks. So as you can see, we have a lot to go over today, so let's get straight into it.

3:05But by the end of today's video, you should be able to answer this question. Is body positivity real or is it just a pipeline to get your foot in the door? Let's get into it, yeah. Hey everyone, I'm N.K. And this podcast is your go-to space for honest conversations about beauty culture and the lives of modern women. If you aren't to that, make sure you subscribe, follow Rayfair Stars on Apple and Spotify and let's keep on going with this episode. Part 1. Who is Lizzo and how did we get here? So Lizzo's real name is Melissa Vivian Jefferson and she was born and destroyed on April 27, 1988. Then she moved to Houston with her family when she was around 10 years old. But then in 2010, she made a decision that most people building a music career would not really do. She moved to Minneapolis. And this is okay to Minneapolis. I never been. I mean, I would like to go just to check it out because I just like traveling in general. But Minneapolis is not really known as like a music place. They definitely do have their local talent and they have their little music scene, but to really break out and to become mainstream.

4:07Typically people go to Hollywood, they go over there just to try to get a record deal. Maybe in New York too, but I would say that's more so for rap and Lizzo was rapping. So I'm just surprised as she chose Minneapolis. Well, Pritz is from Minneapolis, so there is that. But we're going to talk about him later. He comes up again in this story. He thought she very important to Lizzo's story. But Lizzo moved to Minneapolis because she had dropped out of college and her father also got sick. So her family was struggling financially and I guess, you know, she just wanted to try at least one last time to make it in the music scene. Prior to her move, she was living out of her car and couch surfing. So just it was not ideal. And she was also a food critic for a little bit while trying to build her music career. But it just was not given. It was not clicking. And I guess Minneapolis, she just felt like that was the logical next step. And Lizzo was actually on the brink of giving up because I mean, trying to make it in the music scene, it is hard. Like they be acting like it's easy and whatnot. It's not cute. It's not easy. Don't know if I ever told you all this, but I'm pretty sure I did. But I did want to be a singer. I wanted to break into the music field because I really enjoyed writing.

5:08And I would like writing my own songs. I actually wrote my own novels too. So that's some tea for another day. But I really enjoyed writing and creating. So I wanted to be a singer and stuff. And then I kind of realized it was given like the monoch. Okay. Let me not say demonic, but like Hollywood in general. I was like, hmm. Do I really want this? Cause like the contract seemed kind of like, you know, signing your life away and stuff like that. So let me not get too off track. But as I did more research and just learned more about the music industry and how it is to other people, I was like, maybe I don't want it. But before Lizzo completely gave up her dream of being coming a famous rapper, she went to the South by Southwest music and film festival held in Austin, Texas. And she noticed something. She said that every band she saw every artist I walked on stage, literally everyone, they were from Minneapolis. So that was her sign. She was like, oh, if all of them are from Minneapolis, maybe I should take my behind to Minneapolis. So she did. So while she was there, she was trying to get settled did and she continued to pursue her career. She actually played a show at a venue called the varsity. And after the show, a girl came up to her crying and said, I don't know if you live here, but you need to be here.

6:13And we need to see people like you here. And after that interaction, Lizzo told Rolling Stone that that was the most love she had ever felt from one single person out of show. She called moving to Minneapolis one of the best decisions of her life. Lizzo has said that Minneapolis will embrace you in all of your rearsness and it takes who you are, breaks it apart and makes you find a new version of yourself. She had said before that she did not know how to combine her rap, gospel side and weird indie side until Minneapolis taught her how. So I mean, I have curious now to go to Minneapolis. Check out the vibe and see what's popping there. If you live in Minneapolis, let us know how it is down below in the comments down below. Period. So while Lizzo was there, she formed a hip hop trio called the shallus in 2012 with Sophia, Aris and Claire D'Lune. So they were a cute little group. They didn't really make much noise outside of Minneapolis, but they did their own thing. They actually won the city pages, picked to click poll as Minnesota's hottest new act. So like they were doing well, but not well. Like they were more so an indie act. But being in this group helped Lizzo perfect her songwriting skills, her performing, just also working with other people as well.

7:14So it was a step in the right direction. And the following year in 2013 after the group formed, Lizzo dropped her debut album called Lizzo Bangers. This album did not make much noise as expected because Lizzo, it was her debut album. Usually your debut album does not really make much noise unless you were assigned to a big record label like Atlantic, Universal. I don't know, like there's a lot of them out there, but Lizzo was not assigned to a major record label. But she did win some local awards in her city, but that was about it. Then in 2016, about three years later, she dropped her second album called Big Girl Small World. And it got strong reviews, but it still did not break her into the mainstream. So in spring 2013, Prince, who was also by Minneapolis, and remember I said that because you're paying attention period, so he kept close tabs on local talent because I guess he wanted to support his city because he came from Minneapolis. So he just, you know, try to support the city. Just like how you know, drag the entriot, or drag be giving out money and Toronto and stuff. So I guess some of the rives. So Prince actually saw the shallist, remember that group that Lizzo formed, that trio, whatever, back in 2012. So he saw them perform on a radio show and he was really impressed by Lizzo, so he invited her to Paisley Park.

8:20And that's where she recorded her verses on a track titled Boy Trouble for his 2014 album, Plectra Electrium. Girl, I do not know what that word is. Like, is that actually a word, Plectra? I mean, I'm gonna put the word on the screen so you know what I'm talking about, but I think it's Plectra like a mom. I don't know. It's not out to the Korean pronunciation period. Anyway, this was a life changing moment for Lizzo, and I feel like it further gave her more ammo to keep pursuing her career because someone like Prince, who is literally a legend, dressed in peace to him, but he was literally a legend. Imagine having him support your career or want you to be a part of his album. That was a huge deal for Lizzo. Lizzo has talked about the time that she has spent with Prince, and she's so grateful for it, and she has also said that it has completely reshaped the way she makes music. He told her to write with pure positivity that nothing negative could be on the record he wanted to make with her. And if we fast forward to June 20th, 26th briefly, Lizzo told a podcast saying that she made a vow after Prince's death that she would only make positive music. And when he left the world, she carried that commitment with her. It was so crazy. I made a vow a long time ago to only make positive music.

9:23And this is when I was working at Paisley Park a lot with Prince, and I remember like he wanted to do an album with me, and he's like, but it has to be positive. Like we can't say anything negative, or can't be any like, and I took that with me. Like when you know, he left the world, I was like, I made a vow. I said, I'm only going to make positive music, whether people think it's corny, whether people think it's fake, I don't care. She also told Upor that Prince had offered to produce an entire album for her before his death in 2016, but unfortunately that never happened because of his death. And if he didn't know, he died because of an overdose, unfortunately. Lizzo had talked about how she was so upset that she had no co-science because to make it in the industry, you have to have co-science or some sort of connection, or just have pure luck. Because it's honestly, it's hard. It's really not that easy as people make it out to be. And Lizzo had said that she felt too weird for the rappers, and too black for the indie world, that she was sitting in a league of her own. And I could totally get what she's saying, because when I was growing up, I honestly had no black friends. So I first lived in a very diverse city, it was very popular. We had different people, had Filipinos. We had the Indians, Sri Lankans, who else.

10:29We got everybody, basically. It was very diverse. And I just kind of made friends with everyone. I was literally friends with every race, every ethnicity. That was just me and that was a team. And then I moved to a smaller city. And unfortunately, there was very, very, very, very, very much only white people. There were a couple, a black people, but it was not that many, if I'm being honest. And I ended up making friends mostly with the brown girls. We just kind of got along, we vibed. That was just how it was. Like, never really had a strong black friend group growing up. When I got to high school, I wanted to actually try to make black friends. And throughout high school, I honestly did not have black friends. It wasn't until I went to university that I started having black friends. And now I do have black friends, so I just let y'all know. But I just felt like, because I had so many other friends that worked black, I felt like the black people didn't really want to be my friend. And that makes sense. I really tried to describe what I went through. It wasn't anything traumatic, obviously. I just wanted, you know, to have friends that look like me, but I'm very grateful for the experiences and the friends I did have on the way.

11:29And now I'm so friends with most of my friends. I have black friends. I have brown friends. So I can understand what Lizzo was saying, because you know, she felt too weird for the rappers, like the rap scene. Lizzo's aesthetic does not fit the female rap scene at all right now, and for being honest. And then also, she felt too black for the indie world. So it's like, you're just kind of in the middle chilling. That makes... I keep saying if that makes sense, but I hope it makes sense. I say all that to say that I understand what Lizzo is saying, or at least what she was feeling at this time. So back in 2015, before Lizzo really popped off, Billboard covered her actually, and the article was titled, Meet Lizzo. The body positive rapper opening for a slater kinni. So even before she became mainstream, she was already marketed as a body positive singer, rapper, right everyone to call it. But this article was discussing how she's an emerging artist from Minneapolis, and how she addresses body positivity throughout her music. Also, it talks about an interview she did back in 2014, where she was discussing self-acceptance and insecurity she faced while growing up as a big black girl. This interview involved her having to remove everything she was wearing basically. Like she took off her wig, her hat, her makeup, her shoes, like the clothes.

12:32Obviously, the bra underwear were on because it was posted on YouTube, so you can't go that far. But basically, she was doing that because the whole point of the video was to honor the idea that style is not just to close you where. The message is all about accepting yourself and others. So it's a great message. And honestly, like the interview was nice to watch. I definitely recommend you watching it, because I feel like it's important to have those type of conversations every once in a while, because listen, the social media standards, beauty standards, it's toxic as hell, and it's honestly such a hard thing to navigate as a woman. So because Lizzo would speak about her body and her insecurities, and also because she is plus size, and also because her music discussed her body and accepting herself, she was immediately branded as a body positive rapper. And to be fair, she did contribute to it by using the body positivity language. But there is a meaningful difference between her incorporating these themes into her work. And the industry deciding that the theme is the only thing worth talking about. Let's clock it. There are so many other things that other female artists have talked about, like when they're insecure about, because if we're being honest, everyone's insecure about something. And a lot of female artists have talked about their insecurities. The media does not make that their whole personality. But when it came to Lizzo, they made her body her whole personality.

13:38And I feel like that's really where the downfall started to happen. So back in September 2017, Lizzo released her song Truth Hurt, and it went absolutely nowhere. But then two years later, it ended up in the 2019 film titled Someone Great. And after that, the song ran viral on TikTok because it became a TikTok trend. People were using the opening line in their songs, which goes like this. I just took a DNA test turns out I'm 100% that be period. I'm sure you know, like I can't say the words without singing it just because the song was so popular everywhere. And that's how I found out about Lizzo. And that song is a buff. I can't lie. Another popular line goes like this. Why men great till they gotta be great. So she just had a lot of funny lyrics. They're just like great catchphrases to say. So honestly, it was a great song. That's a fun song. And when that song popped off, Lizzo popped off. Once the song went viral, it clacked to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent seven weeks, which is the longest run at the top for solo female rapper.

14:39And it also became again as World Record. So shout out to Netflix for helping us astray out. It also became one of the first mainstream examples of a song being resurrected by TikTok. A pattern that would later repeat with Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush. But those artists were already legends. So you know, they were already famous. They already had their money. They already made their millions or whatnot. But Lizzo's TikTok moment was completely crazy because she was an unknown artist. And of course, Lizzo had to capitalize on the success of her song because you'd be stupid if you did not. And she dropped her third studio album titled, Cause I Love You, With Atlantic Records. Her song, Good as Hell, originally released in 2016, re-entered the charts alongside it. She also did a remix of Ariana Grande and I actually love that song, Good as Hell. It's a catchy song. It's a Chichi Hazz Bob's, if you're a beat honest. Also, Juice, I think I would say Juice is my favorite song from Lizzo. So by the end of the year, she had performed at Coachella, the BET Awards, and the VMAs. She also walked the Met Gala in a custom Mark Jacobs code made entirely out of pink feathers.

15:48And she got a standing ovation from Ariana, so she was doing pretty well to say the least. Time magazine named her the entertainer of the year and Rolling Stone called her a new type of superstar. A plus-sized black artist dominating a predominantly white and slender pop landscape while beat unapologetically uplifting and openly sexual on her own terms. And the Rolling Stone quote is worth reading again if we read it out as because they have to add the plus-sized black artist. They just had to add that in. Like the music is and they're dead to talk about her music, but they're also mostly talking about her body and her appearance. And I mean, that was not a coincidence at all. The branding of Lizzo beat a plus-sized body positive icon was effective at boxing Lizzo into that space. At this point, her weights became her brand. So if she were to make any changes to her weights, that would cause an uproar because that was her branding. And from the beginning, I was like, I love what she stands for, but I was like, I don't think this will end well, especially in the industry like the music industry, Hollywood. What happens most of the time? Most of these ladies end up entering the industry, maybe their plus-sized or big, whatever, and they always end up losing weight.

16:54And I mean, I'm not here to say, oh, they lost weight, they're bad people. Absolutely not, because I support that. I think it's great to lose weight to be at a healthy weight. There's a joint pain, you don't have to deal with increased health issues. So I support that. So I'm not taking a dig at them. But once you work at yourself as a plus-sized body positive icon of what not, if you want to take healthier steps to make yourself healthy, you're going to lose fans, you're going to cause an uproar, and it's just going to be a lot. Because it happened to many women in the industry, which we are going to talk about in today's video. And I mean, if you are paying attention to what's going on with Lizzo right now, that I'm sure you have seen it happening to her. And it also reminds you of Clare O'Dow as well. I talked about her in the previous video, so definitely check that out. That's one of my favorite videos. So, period checking out. But basically, she grew her brand by having small TSMARAs, boobies. And then she went and got a boob job. And she pretty much lost all her audience, because they're like, you started your YouTube channel by making everyone feel comfortable with having a small chest. And then you got a boob job and completely changed your brand. Yes, I did have a boob job. It comes down to one word.

17:56And as I said, we cannot police these women's bodies. We cannot tell them what to do. And I understand the backlash when it comes to Clare O'Dow. That one was quite shocking. But as I said, I won't talk about it here. I already talked about it. So definitely check it out. And because Lizzo and Clare share similar stories, it has brought up the question of, you know, are these ladies actually body positive, or they are using it as a way to make money. So they can use that money to fit the beauty standard. That is on hot topic. So I definitely want to know your thoughts. Comment down below. But let's keep on going with Lizzo. So at this point in Lizzo's life, her career was doing amazing. In 2019, 2020, she was going on tour. She was making good music. She jobbed her apple and that was successful. She with her was doing well. So she was just still living out her dreams. She had finally made it mainstream. But we have to remember that Lizzo is a plus sized black woman. So you already know how that goes. So the Lakers gave in sit-in back in 2019 is probably the most talked about controversy when actually is the most talked about it's one of the most talked about controversies when it comes to Lizzo.

18:57And you probably remember it because this course audit was a lot everyone was sharing their two sets. It was just a lot. So let me just break it down if you forget or if you just need me to junk your memory, let's just get into it. But I will say though prior to this incident, people would always take jobs at Lizzo saying that she's big, she's ugly, she's fat, whatever they would constantly do that, especially at the start of her career. They didn't out-care because I mean when it comes to being plus sized like in the West, like they don't give a damn. Like no matter what happens, I feel like they will always value being slim. Like yes, we did go through an era of where having curves was nice, but you still have to be slim. I truly believe that the beauty standard in the West will not change that dramatically. Like sometimes we will want maybe curves, sometimes you will want them to be super slim, no booty, no nothing. But I would say right now we're kind of in the slim era like everyone's like toning down. No one wants a big bomb, big boobies. Actually, maybe big boobs I guess. Most people now want flat stomachs, they want to be small and slim or whatever. So we're in that era currently, but it wasn't like what a couple years ago where we were in the BBL era. So as you can see, things always change, but I just don't see it making plus size women in the beauty center. I just don't see that.

20:02Anyways, back to Lizzo and the Lakers game. So in 2019, Lizzo attended a Lakers game at the Staples Center, wearing an oversized black t-shirt with a circular cutout exposing her thong and fish net stockings. So basically her booty was out like she had stockings on and she had like her little thong on, but you could like pretty much see her booty. Yeah, so when the Lakers girls performed the routine to her song juice, she got up to dance and she ended up on the jumbo tron while her booty ended up there. Oh boy, I'm just remembering that this chorus, because like when it was happening in real time, it was a mess. People were making videos, tweeting about it, talking about it. Like it was just a lot. I mean, some people did defend her outright. They were saying that, you know, smaller celebrities, slimmer celebrities, they were things like this, but because she's big, you guys were hating on her. So basically shift the F up. The others were saying that they were not happy with the outfit and the way she was dressing because it was fall about context. You know, it's a basketball game. Children go to basketball game. I've been to several and there's always children like they love basketball, which makes sense. But critics were compared, Rihanna's sheer 2014 CFDA gown to Lizzo's outfit because I don't know if you all remember like back in 2014, Rihanna wore this dress and it was a nice dress, but it was see through so you could pretty much see everything. There's little left to the imagination.

21:11So look, I like the sparkles though. Like it was a cute outfit that her makeup was really nice too, but it was just with see through. And it did cause some controversy. Like some people were like, girl, you're short too much. Like what's going on. But for the most part, like if we compare it to Lizzo's backlash, Lizzo definitely did get more backlash, but Rihanna did get a little bit of backlash at the point. But Lizzo decided to address the backlash on Instagram live. She said that her body was shocking because people had not seen a body like hers doing whatever it wanted, dressing the way it dressed and moving the way it moved. She said she was not going to quiet herself or shrink herself because everyone was looking. She said negative criticism had no stake in her life and that she was the happiest she has ever been. Real value shows up in reliability. You don't have to second guess like a set of Firestone all season tires. They're designed to deliver confidence inspiring wet weather traction and a quieter ride, no matter the road season after season. Firestone all season tires for durability. You can count on just like people count on you. Firestone always dependable since 1900.

22:19This episode is brought to you by chat GPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about chat GPT work? It's the new way to use chat GPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, you have chat GPT work. Access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets slides and structured reports. Get started at chat GPT dot com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plants. She said that she had to learn to love her body on her own terms who I am an essence of me and the things that I choose to do as a grown 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. Like this is who I've always been. Now everyone's looking at it and your criticism can just remain your criticism.

23:21Negative criticism has no stake in my life, no control over my life or for my emotions. I'm the happiest I've ever been. I'm surrounded by love. And I just want to spread that love and also spread these cheeks. And you know, if you really, really don't like my... You can kiss it. Because kissing it makes it go away. I promise. But you know, I mean, I do agree with it. I definitely see her point when it comes to plus size women plus size people. We kind of want them to be in the background or not to be seen as desirable or you know what not. Like it's just basically what Lizzo was doing. What is groundbreaking because she was plus size. And typically when we see a plus size lady, she's usually covered up. She's not showing her body. Lizzo was showing her body. But I will say though that I feel like some of the criticism was actually valid because Lizzo was like torquing and like you know shaking her butt at this game with the camera on her. So like her butt was on the big screen. And to me, that's all where you do at a basketball game. As I said, there are kids there. There are families there. People don't go to games to see that. They want to watch the game. And for her to do that, I was like, uh, no, I don't think that's it.

24:29Even if she was smaller, I would still be like, girl, you don't need to do that at a game. It's a basketball game. Yes, if you're at a concert at the club at a bar. Okay, that makes sense, but at a basketball game, that's just not the vibe. So I understand what people are saying when it came to that, but also because she is plus size that added to the controversy 100%. The double bind that Lizzo was held to was pretty much documented and remained consistent throughout her whole career. She was criticized for being plus size and promoting obesity and then also criticized for doing unnutritionist, supervised, smoothie clients in December 2020 by fans who accused her of undermining her own message. But she pushed back on that directly, saying that as a big girl, people assumed that any health decision she made was about dramatic weight loss. And I was simply not the case. And see, that's the issue. Like that's what I was thinking at the story of her career. I was like, it is great that she is promoting body positivity. But the moment she changes anything, these people are going to be like, your fake, you're trying to be skinny now, you're terrible. Go away, boohoo. Like I saw that coming from a mile away. Like I'm not a seed off surprise. Any time Lizzo has done anything, I guess healthy, they think that she wants to lose a bunch of weight and become the beauty standard.

25:36And that also will turn away her fans. They'll turn them off because a lot of them feel insecure in their bodies. Seeing Lizzo do her thing, being plus size, you know, taking up space, was empowering and beautiful. And it still is, but it is just so hard to navigate because people put you in a box and they want you to stay there forever. You're not allowed to change. And that's exactly what has happened to Lizzo. And it's unfortunate to with Lizzo because you don't work, you know, I promote that. I'd be like, yes, workouts, you know, eat balanced meals. Just take care of yourself because yes, the aesthetic is cute. And you know what? Here's something I'll say about beauty standards. I find them annoying. Hate them. And I hate what they do to remain and how they make us feel insecure. But I also know that pretty peerless is a thing and also fitting the beauty standard to a certain extent helps you get further. My take on that is just to do it naturally. You know, go to the gym because it also helps your health. Eat balanced meals because it also helps your health. I don't promote the surgeries and all that like you don't need to go under the knife to change how you look to look like everyone else. You should lean into what makes you individual and unique and just take care of yourself. Learn a simple makeup routine, know how to do your hair. And that's going to change how you are perceived in this world because pretty privileged, not going nowhere. People judge people all the time.

26:41Especially when you are a woman, it is unfortunate, but that's just how it is. So obviously you don't have to take my advice. But I say, yeah, go to the gym, work out, build your muscles and take care of yourself. So when I saw Lizzo doing that, I was actually happy for her. Like that's great. But I just knew her fans would not be happy with that, especially because of the way she has branded herself. Back in 2020, sociologists and cultural critic, Tressi McMillan, Codum, wrote in Harper's Bizarre that what was being projected on to Lizzo represented a new racial logic. One that wanted to consume black women's bodies without feeling racist. She was basically saying that the celebration of Lizzo's body was never really about liberation. It was about finding a way to profit from blackness and fatness while keeping the underlying systems that punish both completely intact, which is what I've been trying to say throughout this whole video. We're going to talk about it more in depth later. Then Miss magazine, which is like a feminist magazine. I think it started like 19-something. Anyways, they make a lot of good stuff. They're definitely checked them out. They have some good articles. But they made a parallel point to Tressi. They were arguing that body positivity as applied to Lizzo was never actually re-addressing inequality. But rather, brought in who could be commercialized.

27:47And Clocic, this is what I've been saying for the past couple of videos now. I feel like these movements, they start off with good intentions. But then over time, it gets commercialized. People who are not part of the movement insert themselves and make themselves the forefront of it. And the movement just becomes a way to make money to market yourself. And that is what has happened to the body positivity movement, if we're being honest. A peer reviewed paper published in the quarterly journal of speech by University of Maryland researcher, Halianne R. Koo-Otis, described how body positivity as a movement had been co-opted, modified, and de-politicized. And how it has moved away from its radical activist roots, and into something so broadly defined that the people it was originally created for, you know, black, fat, disabled, and queer bodies were left behind while the movement itself got claimed by everyone else. This honestly happens to most movements, unfortunately. I feel like it happened to the natural hair movement that also, um, like feminism, and now we have body positivity. Anyway, so as I'll say before, Lizzo has been fat shamed throughout her career in December 2025. Another fat joke about Lizzo went viral, and she never actually said what the joke was.

28:55She just posted a bikini photo, addressed it directly, and then said it was a dumb joke, and that people were just laughing because she's fat. She chose not to repeat the joke, or to give it more reach than it already had, so we are going to do the same thing today. But she just used it as a starting point to say the same thing that she had been saying since 2019, that when you are big, they talk. When you are small, they talk. And that your body will never be good enough for them because it is not for them, it is for you. Then she told everyone to mind their business, and signed off by saying that her fat self stays living rent-free in people's head with the paid off mortgage. So clock it. So even though Lizzo experienced a lot of fat shamed throughout her career, she was still doing pretty well as she was solid in 2019, 2020. But I mean, you know now in 2026 that it's simply just not the case. Part 2, the body positivity machine. Okay, so let's start the section with the question that asked on Instagram to get you all's opinion on this topic. So I asked, what do you think the body positivity movement actually changed?

29:56So 36% said the way we talk about bodies, then 34% said fashion and advertising, then only 9% said it changed the way they thought about their own bodies, then 21% said it changed absolutely nothing to NADA. It's interesting that only 9% of you guys were like, yeah, it changed the way I felt about my own body. That means that everything else was external when it came to the body positivity movement. The language change, the sizes change, the ads change of course because they're trying to make that smulla. But when it came to how people actually felt about themselves, it seems like the number was small, at least according to you all. But then I told you, yes, I've opted up to my story, so I wanted to read what she said. So she's like, the fact that I can now go on and take talk and see women that look similar to me and talk positively about it makes me feel like I'm not alone. And it actually helped me accept some parts of myself. And do agree with what she said because I feel like the body positivity movement, it had its good and it had its bad for sure. It really took off on TikTok. TikTok is really what made it what it is today.

31:00I mean, what it is today, I feel like it's kind of non-existent. It's definitely still on TikTok, but it's just not how it was back in 2020 when we had the pandemic and we had Lizzo popping off. Like, it's just completely different to how it was back then. But I do feel like there are good parts to it, there are also bad parts to it. And I feel like when you see representation of like when you see people who look like you and they're loving themselves, they're being seen as desirable, it just makes you feel better. Anyways, thank you all so much for participating in these polls. It always makes the videos more interesting. If you want to be part of future polls, make sure you check me out on Instagram. It's NK's world of TOOBD's. So it's NKSWRLDD. Per. Okay, can I be honest for a second? My hair styles back in the day, they were definitely not cute, they're not giving. I really didn't know how to do my hair and it's actually sad that I'm just learning now at my big age to do my hair, but I mean, it's a learning process. But honestly, I would just relax my hair, I would put in a weave, I would put in wigs, or I would just put in braids because I just did not want to focus on it.

32:00And I realized that I called all of these styles protective styles, but I wasn't protecting anything. I just cared about getting the styles done. Because I realized, okay, I'm protecting my hair when my hair is on ground, like what's going on? So my natural hair journey is still ongoing. I'm trying to go for like low-key waist length hair or like, you know, hip length hair, low-key. But I've been searching for products that are easy to use that fit into my routine and nourish my hair. And Basque and Lather have consistently delivered. Basque and Lather is a black owned, family-operated hair care brand that started when the CEO, Shane as younger sister, had an hair issue that a dermatologist basically wrote off. He told her family that yeah, her hair is probably never going to grow back. But instead of accepting that, showing her and her mother, they got to work. They started formulating stuff, did a lot of research. And now, guess what? Shane as younger sister's hair is down to her back, like we love to see it. Like that dermatologist is like, girl, your hair is never going to grow back, but her mother and her sister were like, nope, not on our watch. So their hydrating hair mist has been my go-to for fighting frizz. And just in between wash days, I just like to spray it a little bit, oh, get a little spray in just to get some moisture back into my hair cells or hair cuticle.

33:02Yeah, that's what you call it. And it also has aloe vera and avocado oil, so you know it smells good. Then their stimulating scalp and hair balm is 100% natural. And I really like this one too, because it's gripping my scalp, you know. Sometimes your scalp is getting itchy or need some moisturization, so definitely putting it on your scalp, massaging it in has been great. Also, I like to use it after I wash my hair. I usually go in with the balm, then I go in with an oil, and then I just twist my hair, call it a day, whatever. So it has been very helpful with my wash day routines. But guys, your hair is the first thing you see in the morning, and it sets the tone for how your day is going to go, so definitely invest in yourself, invest in your hair. Explore Baskin Lathers and Vile Best Sellers and products for healthier hair of all types. Go to BaskinLatherCo.com and use the code NKsWorld for 20% off. That's BaskinLatherCo.com and use the code NKsWorld NKSWRLD for 20% off. Okay, so here's something that I want you guys to think about as we go throughout this timeline.

34:02Because it's honestly really important to know how Lizzo was being perceived by the public to understand what's going on with her career right now. So as I said before, I buy 2019, Lizzo was being described in the press as a body positive icon on par with the musician and honestly sometimes above it. People saw her first as a body positive influencer or icon or whatever over her music, and that's definitely problematic. CNN was writing about how her confidence in showcasing her body had placed her at the pinnacle of contemporary pop culture, her voice, her musicianship, her Grammy nominations, her decade of independent grinding, all of it was in the piece. But the framing puts her body in self love messaging first. So you read about what her body looks like, how she looks like, how she's trying to uplift everyone else and how she is so brave for showing her body in the way that she does before you read about what her music sounds like and what she's been able to achieve with her music. Now compare that to how CNN covered other artists who are breaking through at that same period.

35:05When they wrote about Billie Eilish in 2019, the coverage focused primarily on her sound production style, lyrics is up and her aesthetic as a creative choice. And her body was not the entry point into her story. And I want to be fair because I can already hear what you all are saying. You're going to be like, okay, well, Lizzo made her body her brand, she kept promoting her body, like that's pretty much the forefront of everything she talked about, which is fair. But as I said before, I feel like other artists, they are insecure about certain things or they brand themselves in a certain way, yet the music still comes first. Lizzo, the music came second and I just feel like it's because she was black and also plus size and in the end of the day the West they do not like plus size people purring. Because even Taylor Swift, like she has made a career out of writing songs about her relationships and her reputation and people still see her as a musician first. Great to there happened a lot of jokes and a lot of media coverage on her relationships, but in the end of the day that has not tainted her career or image.

36:06She is still very much well-liked, very successful, she still do her thing. And also Harry Styles builds an entire era around fashion and gender fluidity. And we talk about him as an artist who expresses himself through clothing, not as a clothing brand that also makes music. Even Dosa Kat, I mean she talks about her appearance and her sexuality constantly, but the conversation for the most part stays centered on her artistry. I mean she has great songs, I can't even hold ya, she's going on tour, I'm having a little bit to her concert because I look you out of go but I'm not quite sure. I'm in the middle right now but you see how easy I get off track, so let me stop. To be honest, the difference between Lizzo and every other artist that I just mentioned is what her body represented to an industry and an audience that had decided a plus size black women succeeding at the highest level of pop music was primarily a cultural statement rather than a musical achievement. So we can't put everything on Lizzo. And if we're being honest too, I've seen many plus size women they talk about how whenever they wear an outfit that's somewhat revealing or a bikini or whatever.

37:08People are always telling them, oh you're so confident for doing that, you're so brave for doing that. So I feel like you've been conditioned to see a plus size women as like kind of like background people like that they're always ashamed, they always want to cover up. And when Lizzo did the complete opposite, that was considered a cultural statement. To be fair it was, it is, but because I just feel like the West is so fat phobic that she wasn't able to be more than just a plus size body positive icon. The commercial machinery around the body positivity movement became the most visible in April 2022 when Lizzo launched Yiddity. But keep in mind there are so many brands that were trying to be more inclusive. Also we saw Victoria's Secret they were trying to be more inclusive and not uphold impossible beauty standards. But they only did that when the money started dropping so clock it. But I mean I made a video about that so definitely watch that video. But of course I can't talk about all the brands that popped up during this time. So we are going to talk about Lizzo's because this brand further pitch and hold this out into the body positive icon like her music already did it and her interviews and whatnot.

38:17Just the way she looked she kind of already marketed herself as the big girl who is confident. And she created this brand so it furthered people's perception of her as you know a body positive icon like literally clap or drink actually don't drink clap or do what do a set up do a push up every time I say body positive icon. Anyway so Lizzo had said that she started wearing shapewear in fifth or sixth grade because she felt like she had to. She described wearing body girdles and tight corsets to school as a pre-tead and she said it was a painful shameful experience because she had grown up in a society that made her feel ashamed of how she looked the moment she became aware of how she looked. So the idea behind Yiti was to take that pain and reframe it. Shea wear has always been sold as something that she wore to fix your body before you could be seen in public. Lizzo wanted to build something where that was not the starting point at all. I mean because corsets they'd be uncomfortable too like I mean I don't wear corsets they are very very uncomfortable but I am Nigerian and we have as show be it's like a it's a cultural tradition where we wear matching clothes when we're going to parties weddings or whatever.

39:25Obviously the outfit styles are very pretty but a lot of them are very tight like they have corset styles and I've done the corset styles and girl like by the end of the night I'm ready to take it off because after you've been dancing all day eating, drinking whatever like your stomach is ready to pop so that's the closest I've come to wearing corsets regularly. And I mean the outfits are cute they're very pretty but it's just very painful so like I just know corsets are not cute but they help you get snatched. Anyway so Lizzo spent about three years developing Yiti she said she saw every fabric picked every color and tried on every piece multiple times. So the brand officially launched in April 2022 through a partnership with Fabletics which size is ranging from extra small to six X which at the time was one size larger than what SKIMS offered which is Kim Kardashian's brand. The line launched with three ranges first we had the nearly naked and that was for a traditional smoothing then major available was for sportswear and mesh me could be worn as part of an outfit or I could also be worn as underwear.

40:2765% of the pieces were made from recycled fibers and the package was 100% recyclable. So shout out to Lizzo shout out to the environments because we need it. Lizzo later expanded into gender affirming shapewear under a sub label called your skin by Yiti specifically designed for trans non binary gender fluid and gender non conforming people that expansion is worth noting because it showed the bread was at least trying to serve communities that had been underserved by the shapewear category. So on paper this was a business woman taking the message her career had been built around and turning it into a product when genuine thought behind it. I mean unlike these celebrities who be making fashion fashion make up rent every two or five seconds like hello. I mean let me not say too much because I might insult one of your face but I feel like everyone's trying to make a makeup brand right now. I don't like we have enough makeup brands unless you are actually good on makeup and know what you're talking about. Okay, I'll trust you and I'll buy from you but if you don't really know that much about makeup like well, I mean I will say though that I tried the I do like Selena Gomez's blush the rare beauty blush and I also like Haley Bieber's blush too.

41:31That what do you call it like the pocket blush those are a good quality blushes are we'll say that I'm wearing the Haley Bieber one right now. I forgot the color. I think it's honestly I forget the color but I think I pretty sure I like my makeup down below. If you're interested you can always check it out there. So everything was pretty cute for Eliza when she launched her brand but people started looking closer at the pricing and how it worked because Yiti operates inside Fab Lettics description structure. So if you are a VIP member which costs around $60 a month you get significant discounts sometimes between 20 and 50% off everything across both sites. But if you are not a member then you are paying full retail price which means that if you are a member you are paid like maybe $30 for a body suit and if you are not a member you are paying around $80 for the same body suit. Crazy like $70 a month for Fab Lettics and I don't buy anything and I keep forgetting to like use my credit or cancel it and I've had it for a year now a year. So the real value shows up in reliability you don't have to second guess like a set of Firestone all season tires.

42:40They're designed to deliver confidence inspiring wet weather traction and a quieter ride no matter the road season after season. Firestone all season tires for durability you can count on just like people count on you. Firestone always dependable since 1900. This episode is brought to you by Chat GPT. Hey it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about Chat GPT work? It's the new way to use Chat GPT for bigger multi-step projects and when you need more than just answers give Chat GPT work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets slides and structured reports. Get started at chat GPT dot com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans. Brandt I'm marketed itself as for everybody was actually most accessible to people who could afford a monthly subscription on top of the products cost. And the people who are less likely to be able to afford the membership and then also the products are for the most part the same people that the brand was claiming to center.

43:47Honestly no clothing stores should have a subscription service. No like I buy the clothes and I leave period why am I paying a monthly subscription and then on top of that I am paying for a clothes. No this is not Netflix like I know but also encourages you to buy something every single month because you're already paying $60 a month for the subscription but then you're like okay I have to take advantage of my subscription so I should buy something every single month. How no how how no no but I mean if any of you all have tried Fab Lettics let me know let me know if it's worth it maybe I'll try it for one month or maybe I'll just buy a regular price because I feel like the subscription is just not giving. And if it be an honest a lot of people have question and criticize Fab Lettics and Yiddies payment structure because honestly like if I have to pay subscription to buy clothes I ain't doing it. And even a 2023 academic paper asked a straightforward question about Yiddies. Was it actually about inclusion or was it just a brand using body positivity language to make money without giving anything back to the community it claimed to be for.

44:51And this is what a lot of people were wondering they're like okay we understand that you're trying to make a brand that includes a lot of people but the prices are just not making sense. So are you really trying to be inclusive or are you trying to make money I mean in the end of the day every business is trying to make money they have to make money to survive to pay people whatnot so I understand that but also during this time body positivity it was a huge thing so everyone was trying to do stuff to make money to be more inclusive. But in the end of the day it was about the dollar bill it was about making money so I am not saying that Lizel builds Yiddies cynically but I am just saying that a brand rooted in body liberation that exists behind a subscription paywall is a pretty clear example of the gap between body positive messaging and body positive practice that runs throughout this entire story. Before we talk about what happened to the movement let's talk about what the movement was actually supposed to be about because I feel like a lot of us use this phrase but we don't know the origins at all.

45:52So believe it or not body positivity did not start on tick talk it started in 1969 when a man named Bill Fobre found to the National Association to aid fat Americans which later became the National Association to advance fat acceptance. And he started this because of how terribly his wife was being treated for being plus sized. But before that back in 1967 so two years prior to him making this this group a radio host organized a fat in in Central Park where participants were burning pictures of Twiggy to protest anti fat discrimination. So Twiggy was a British model who at 17 years old became the face of the 1960s fashion. She was extremely thin at the time when that specific body type had never been the dominant beauty standard and overnight her image was on every magazine cover worldwide telling women that they should look like her and it was very different from the 1950s fashion because the women were more curvier but the 1960s came along and it was about being slim like Twiggy.

46:53They actually called her Twiggy because of how slim she was so I feel that that's insulting but I mean she goes by that name now so there's that but a mess. So when the activists were burning her pictures in Central Park they were not burning her personally but they are burning what her image represented they were pushing back against the super slim thin ideals that honestly has come back now in 2026 so. Clock it these beauty standards they just go in a cycle so at this point don't chase anything because they literally just cycle out people they cycle out beauty trends to keep you in secure period. And that same year as the fat in in Central Park a writer named Lou louder back keep publishing essay in the Saturday evening post titled more people should be fat yes that was the title and this was a very direct piece of writing it was actually one of the first times where someone was defending fatness in the mainstream American press and it was considered radical for its time. So Lou wrote this piece because of what his wife was experiencing similar to bills experience because his wife was plus size and she was simply not being treated well.

47:58I mean to the state people be fat shaming their fat and phobics are not surprised not much has changed well I know a lot has changed but a lot also has not changed when it comes to how we treat plus size people. Lou wanted to document the discrimination that his wife was going through international publication so that people could not pretend that it was not happening the piece exposed ways that people were being treated as second class citizens he said that colleges were turning away fat applicants employers are passing over qualified candidates because of their size too. He also made the argument that the waistline had in some ways replaced the accent as a guide to social class in America meeting fatness had become a marker the culture used to make judgments about someone's worth intelligence and character which is something that I still see happening to the state especially when it comes to women. But he also said that there is something distinctly unhealthy even sinister in the anti fat madness that has swept this country and he said this back in 1967. But if you're being honest that sentence still holds up to this day because listen I like to have a four yes it's good to work out be healthy be at a healthy weight so you're not increasing your risk of getting health complications so I definitely agree with that but a lot of people are so scared to be fat not even because of the health issues but because of how they're going to be perceived in society because people while society as a whole they hate fat people for being honest they don't like them and that is why despite Liz will be an extremely popular during her height of her career.

49:26She still face a lot of backlash for being plus sized so the essay that Lou wrote ended up having a huge impact because of Bill remember we talked about it before you actually do because you're paying attention but he read the article and he felt deeply moved by it and that's when he decided to start the first formal fat acceptance organization in American history. So clock it then by 1973 a more radical group called the fat underground have taken up and it was founded by Judy free spirit and Sarah Fischmann. These women were operating at the intersection of feminist, queer and fat liberation politics and they released the fat liberation manifesto and this manifesto opens up by stating that fat people are fully entitled to respect and recognition as human beings and also that their bodies have been exploited as objects of ridicule creating an immensely profitable market selling the false promise of relief from that ridicule. It connected fat liberation to the struggles of the other oppressed groups against classism, racism, sexism, ageism and financial exploitation.

50:27One member of the fat underground, Racha Fischmann, put the group's position even more directly. She said that doctors on the enemy and weight loss is genocide. She was very direct, very harsh straight to the point and sometimes you have to be that way to get people's attention but at the time people were quite shocked about what she was saying. But she did not hold back. She said that the medical establishment had distorted facts about fat bodies in order to profit from the weight loss industry and that by doing so it was exporting and harming the very people it claimed to be helping. And I mean I can't argue with that. I mean we had to show the biggest loser and that was ineffective at actually helping people lose weight in a healthy way and also being able to sustain that weight loss. A lot of them ended up becoming huge like after and they also lost weight in a short period of time and it was a lot. I feel like the weight loss industry is all about aesthetics versus health and that's also the biggest issue too. So I mean she's not wrong, like things like this still apply to this day. And then when the singer cast Alia back in 1974 when she died, the fat underground activists, they publicly held the medical establishment responsible and accused it of fat phobia driven neglect.

51:34So cast Alia was a singer that struggled with her weight throughout her career. And it was worse because first she's a woman and then also she's in the spotlight. So of course when you're in a spotlight, they are going to go in on you and basically call you fat, call you ugly, call you whatever until you lose the weight. So she died due to heart failure and the medical examiner said that there was a lot of strain on her heart due to the fact that she went on a lot of diet. She did like a lot of yo-yo diet and those are not good. Like if you're losing weight, gaining weight super quickly, that's not healthy. Like it has to be a slow, steady and sustained pace to actually be sustainable long term. But unfortunately the weight loss industry does not promote that. So during the 1960s to 70s, people were really opening their eyes and being more vocal about how fat people were being treated in the country. And people were starting to take a stand against fat phobia. Miss McAzine, which I talked about earlier and you remember a close-up paid attention period, but they put it plainly in their history of fat liberation. They pointed out that there was no accident that fat acceptance, second wave feminism and queer rights all came up at the same time.

52:37These movements were connected from the beginning. This was a political movement and it was radical. It was about challenging the systems of power that discriminated against fat, black, brown, disabled and queer bodies. It was not about self-love affirmations. But by the 2010s, it was completely different. And the body positivity movement had adopted like an Instagram aesthetic. Brand started featuring diverse body types and advertising and calling it body positivity. A deed is launched on my body, my swim campaign that included Maya Jamma, who people immediately pointed out upheld the conventional beauty ideal rather than challenging it. Then Mattel introduced tall, petite and curvy Barbies in 2015, conveniently timed to coincide with the start of their sales, the cliting. So it's interesting. Did you all start including more curvy or Barbies because you really wanted to or because the money was not giving the way it was giving back in the day? Just some food for thoughts. Also, Victoria's Secret, we talked about this before, but they rebranded as a collective of diverse women in 2021. And the time it was interesting because it was when they were getting canceled and also the sales were just not giving what they used to give.

53:42So it really just makes you think, okay, do you guys, as she wanted to be inclusive or do you guys just want to keep on making money? Fat activists of Jess Baker, she had a name for what body positivity had become by this point. She called it the Lisa Frank Bow Poe, which was basically her way of saying that it had turned into something bright, cheerful and completely toothless. It was all about stay hydrated, thank your body, tell yourself you're beautiful, do your son's salutations, post an affirmation, etc. While it is good to be positive, there is also something called toxic positivity where it's just too much. So you really have to have a balance and expecting people to be happy all the time is just not real. Like, be our human, it's just simply not going to happen. And to just tell people, be happy, just, you know, do this and you'll be great. Like, no, that's not how it works. That's what body positivity had become. It was not even about addressing the core issues. It was all about, you know, be happy, stay hydrated and be that girl. Toxic positivity is a huge issue. Some of the things I'm going to say might be hard to hear for the hyper-positive community, so I wore my most inviting sweaters.

54:45Toxic positivity is the pressure to display only positive emotions. But Dan, isn't being positive all the time a good thing? No, you wide-eyed robot. People are made to feel a spectrum of emotion, and some of those emotions will make you feel a little uncomfortable, a little sad, and will make other people not want to talk to you within our party. But that's okay. Movement had started as a political demand for equal rights. But by the time it reached Instagram and social media in general, it had become an aesthetic, especially on TikTok. And Lizzo, whether she intended it or not, became the most visible face of the body positivity movement. So, is body positivity real or isn't just a part fine? I feel like this is a burden question of today's video and also my Clara Dow video, because they're very similar if you think about it. But let's talk about some ladies who have been at the center of this debate. So first, let's start with Adele. I'm sure you saw this coming, because back in 2019 to 2020, Adele lost a significant amount of weight.

55:49And the reactions from her fan base were pretty harsh. People felt very strong because they love Adele. Like, you know, a lot of people form parasolial relationships with these celebrities. And especially when these celebrities represent their insecurities, I feel like they latch onto them even harder. That's why when Clara Dow turned around and got a boob job, her followers who really latched onto her, they're like, whoa! Like, I felt so connected to you, but you just turned around and changed how you look, like what the f? But a lot of Adele's fans felt betrayed and they accused her of selling out and giving in to the same misogynistic beauty standards that she had always seemed to resist. But Adele's response was consistent throughout every single interview. She said that she was body positive then and body positive now, and that it was not her job to validate how people felt about their own bodies. Mars. She described the transformation more as a mental health outcome of exercise after her divorce rather than on an aesthetic goal. But we can also talk about Rebel Wilson in this conversation as well, because she went through a similar transformation around the same period under what she called her year of health.

56:53She said that she had received a lot of pushback from her old team in Hollywood when she announced that she was planning to undergo physical change to basically lose weight. She said that her own team pushed back and they asked her why do you want to lose weight in the first place? Because her size was a part of her brand and that was making her millions of dollars, so they're like, girl, wait a day at mid-aid before you lose that weight. Cause, money's on the line. But she didn't care if she decided to go through it then and she did lose the weight. I'm not sure how this has affected her career since then, but I will be honest though, I haven't seen her much on my screen since her weight loss. To be fair, I don't watch that many movies, unless the movies popular, I'm gonna watch it. But I'm glad she took the steps to lose the weight. However, it's so interesting to see how her size became a part of her brand and even though losing weight would have helped her health wise, they're like, girl, don't do it, we need the money. So, these people, they don't give a damn about you, they just care about how much money you can bring in. They're like, a pocket or a pocket. But also Amy Schumer, she lost quite a bit of weight too and she spoke about using GLP1 medications because she had some health issues.

57:56But once her fans heard this, they were not happy at all and they called her a hypocrite. Because she was telling fans that she loved her body and that they should love theirs too and that they should reject the stupid beauty standards. So, a lot of people felt like she just gave in to the beauty standards and that she wasn't even listening to her own message. So, listen, the pattern across all of these women is the same. They became famous at least partly because of how they looked, then the industry and the audience built an identity around their bodies and then when those bodies changed, the same audience that claimed to be invested in body acceptance felt personally betrayed. Which tells you something uncomfortable about what the audience was actually invested in. It was never really about accepting all bodies. It was about accepting those specific bodies, staying exactly as they were, as a reassurance to the rest of us. Because here is the thing about the ozemic era that arrived right in the middle of all of this. GLP1 weight loss drugs went mainstream from 2023 onwards and it was right at the moment when body positive marketing had reached one look like commercial saturation.

58:58Size inclusive campaigns were everywhere, body neutral messaging was everywhere, and plus size shape real lines were everywhere. So, it was all over the place. Everyone's like, okay, let's be inclusive, slay, shout out to that. And that was those cute, I mean, it was mostly give a money grab to me. The movement started off so great, but of course we have to commercialize it because capitalism. But then during the height of body positivity, then we had the GLP1 drugs and they were normalizing rapid, medically assisted weight loss at a scale that we have not seen ever before. So, it's very interesting because everyone was embracing their big bodies until ozemic was introduced into the picture. So, from 2023, that's when body positivity just wasn't giving what it used to give and now in 2026 is definitely not giving what it used to give. But, Lizzo was the face of the moment. Lizzo was considered a body positive icon. And when the moment ended, she was still considered it. So, what now? Part 3, where it all fell apart. So, it's not just the body positivity movement that affected Lizzo's career. It's also other things as well, starting with the lawsuit.

1:00:05That was arguably when her career started to take a big hit. Prior to the lawsuits, people are ready to not like Lizzo because of what she represented. They didn't like that she was taking up space in a predominantly white slender pop landscape. So, people didn't like her. And then when the lawsuit dropped, that was like the smoking gun. That was all people needed to dismiss her completely. So, let's get into it. Back in August 2023, three former backup dancers named Ariana, Crystal, and Noel found the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Lizzo, her production team, and her dance captain, Shirley, and Quigley. Ariana and Crystal had actually appeared on Lizzo's Amazon Prime Reality show, Watch Out for the Big Girls. And the allegations were serious. There were nine charges covering over a two-year period, including sexual harassment, racial and religious harassment, disability discrimination, and false imprisonment. The specific allegations included dancers being pressured to attend a nude cabaret show in Amsterdam and touch performers with Lizzo allegedly leading chance of one dancer's name until she complied.

1:01:12They also talked about a 12-hour rehearsal, so grueling that one dancer reportedly lost bladder control. And one of the most striking allegations of all of this, given that Lizzo has branded herself as a body-positive icon, and that everyone should feel confident in who they are, Ariana Davis, who has a bench eating disorder, she alleged that she felt pressured to justify her weight gain and share personal details about her health after Lizzo raised what the lawsuit described as thinly veiled concerns about weight gain she had noticed. So, essentially, Ariana had gained weight and Lizzo was asking about it, and Ariana felt like Lizzo was prying or she was being inappropriate with it, or, in other words, fat-shaming her. And the last allegation landed the hardest and really just traveled throughout the internet, people were going in, because here was a woman whose entire bread was built around not judging bodies, only to be accused of doing exactly that to the people who worked for her. The dancers' attorney said it like this, the way that Lizzo and her management team treated her performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stood for publicly.

1:02:17But Lizzo was quick with it, and when the news broke, the comments were actually making jokes, they were like, how the F is Lizzo fat-shaming someone, like she isn't no right to do that, she's in no position to do that. There was just a lot of discourse and people were shocked. I would say a lot of people were shocked that Lizzo was accusing these things, but most people were making jokes out of it, because I mean, when it comes to fat people, people don't really care, they just... As I said, the West, they're fat-robates, because it's so sorry, fat-robates. But Lizzo denied everything as soon as the lawsuit came out. She posted on Instagram saying that the allegations were unbelievable as they sound, and two outrage is not to address. She said that she would absolutely never criticize or terminate an employee because of their weight, and that she knew what it felt like to be body-shamed daily. She said the stories were coming from former employees who had already been told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional. So now she was claiming that these dancers they would let go, and they're mad and they're bitter, so that's where they're coming after her. Crystal Williams told CBS that she filed the lawsuit so no other dancers would have to go through the same experience.

1:03:20The Ariana told the CBS as well that her dancing ability and her energy were still the same, the only thing change was her weight. So we were getting two completely different sides of the story. Since 1900.

1:04:28And honestly it was hard to know who to believe because it literally sounds so crazy that someone like Lizzo would do this considering everything she stands for. But I'm gonna say that most people did believe the dancers, but they were also hung up on Lizzo like Lizzo why would you do this? You're literally supposed to be a body-positive icon, and you're shaming someone for getting weights like it just sounds so crazy. The whole thing was a mess, but in February 2024, Lizzo moved to dismiss the case, and some claims were dropped, but the motion was largely denied and the case moved forward. So if you fast forward to June 2025, Lizzo filed an appeal arguing that the suit wasn't attacked on her first amendment right to perform her music. Then in December 2025, a judge dismissed the specific fat shaming claims within the broader suit. After this, Lizzo posted a TikTok saying that there was no evidence she fired them because they gained weight and that the truth was finally out. But the dancers' attorney, they came out to clarify what was going on because they didn't want Lizzo to change the story.

1:05:33Basically they're saying that the fat shaming claims were dismissed as protected speech, not as factually disprove it. Lizzo's legal position is out, fat shaming is okay because it is free speech. So not looking good for Lizzo at all. And as of June 2026, there has been no trial date set, but the case is moving forward through the courts, and Lizzo has had publicly that she will not settle. In a May 2026 interview with Gail King, she said that settling would be an easy way out, but she is fighting because she knows it is not true. I think it is an easy out, but I'm fighting the case because I know that it's not true. I am not going to sit here and tell you who to believe because honestly, I really don't know. I do want to see this trial go through and see what's happening, and I want to see the evidence laid out. And from that, I'll be able to make my own decision because everything generally just sounds so crazy. It's outrageous. Why would you fact shame someone when you've been fact shame your whole life?

1:06:37I don't know. But I will say though that the lawsuit did something to Lizzo's public image that no negative review or a bad press cycle could have done. It created a very specific contradiction between who she said she was and what she was accused of doing. And her audience truly did not know how to deal with it because you always want to believe the victims first, but her audience they were deeply invested into Lizzo. If it comes out that these things are true, it would be a big slapping the face to Lizzo's fans. So in 2023, while the lawsuit was making headlines, and it was just a lot for Lizzo, she decided to start working out for her mental health. She said she was not trying to punish her body, but she was trying to heal it, and she started using the phrase, wait, release instead of wait lost. A deliberate choice to separate what she was doing from diet culture. Because when we hear wait lost, we immediately think, okay, a dramatic wait lost, we think diet culture we think being super slim and skinny, so she wanted to separate herself from that. But even though she tried to separate herself from that, in the end of the day, she was still losing weight, and of course her audience were not happy, but we're going to get into them a second.

1:07:42But she started doing Pilates, yoga sculpt, pickleball, hiking. She described it as emotional work, as much as physical, saying that she had to purge negative energy before her body started to change. Then by September 2024, her change was visible enough like she had lost a couple of pounds of this point, and she decided to post them before and after TikTok. But then by January 2025, she posted that she had reached her weight release goal, and she said that she had not seen the number since 2014. Then in March 2025, photos from the Vanity Fair Oscar party showed a change, significant enough that people who had not been following her closely stopped scrolling. And of course, the ozampic allegations started immediately, because whenever you lose weight now, people automatically think that it's ozampic. Like it's actually irritating, it's annoying. There are ways to lose weight without ozampic, but because ozampic is so popular now, and a lot of celebrities are endorsing it, people think that that is the only way to lose weight. But Lizzo has consistently denied using ozampic, and she said that she lost weight because of Pilates and being in a calorie deficit and also doing the emotional work first.

1:08:48So whether you believe it or not, that is irritatory. I personally don't feel like she is using ozampic to lose weight. But regardless if she uses ozampic or not, that was not really the big issue. The issue is that she lost weight, and now she is trying to fit into a beauty standard. That is misogynistic, according to her fans. If her beat honest, her audience had built their sense of body acceptance, partly around watching her publicly and unapologetically exist in a plus sized body and do whatever she was doing. So her losing weight, of course, caused controversy. Then on November 23, 2025, she published a sub-stack essay titled, Why Is Everybody Losing Weight And What Do We Do? She wrote about discovering through therapy that her weight had been a protective shield and a comfort zone that releasing it was energetic, rather than vain. That was the personal part. She also said she was sick and tired of her identity being overshadowed by her fatness, that people could not see her talent as a musician because they were too busy accusing her of making being fat her whole personality.

1:09:51And there it is. I am sure that Lizzo wanted to make other people feel confident in themselves and promote different body types. But she really got boxed in into the body positive icon, and that's all she could be. That's all she could stand for. Everything had to come back to her body. And it's not just the industry, it's also the audience, the fans, the brand deals, the media, everything. They also contributed to this. I feel like the fans might have played the biggest role for being honest because a lot of people felt seen through Lizzo, which is beautiful, but then you start attaching yourself worth to someone who you don't know. And that's always a no-go area. You should not do that. Even if they tell you to always love yourself a lot, you don't know them, and people are human, and most people succumb to the beauty standards either way. Lizzo also talked about having to actively fight against the maimey trope by being a hypersexual and vulgar because by definition the maimey trope desactualizes black women. But she said that it did not work and that they saw her body and judged her anyway. Because honestly, once you're black and oversized and a woman, they immediately put you in the maimey role. And you're just seen as a background character to help other people. You're never seen as the love interest, the main, girly, like you're just always in the back.

1:10:59And when I think of the maimey role, like a recent example would be in sinners, the character Annie, she was Michael B. Jordan's love interest. But the way they framed her was so weird because she was basically helping everyone, making sure everyone was good. And I had no idea that she was a love interest until her and Michael B. Jordan got freaky on screen. The way the movie framed her, it was not giving love interest. But then when they started making it out, I'm like, oh, y'all together, like, it was shocking to me. It was shocking me and my homegirls, but people on the internet, they were also surprised too. And they're like, um, why is she the love interest like blah blah blah? Because when you look like that, they never expect you to be the love interest period. But to be fair, even the posters, the way they portrayed Annie, it was not giving love interest. So that's not just on the audience. It's also on how they framed her in the movie and also in posters. But that's just an example of like the maimey trope if you don't know what I'm talking about. In Lizzo's essay, she also talked about what was happening in pop culture. She said that the sizes were getting smaller plus size models were losing bookings and that big girls were starting to lose weight.

1:12:05She even acknowledged in her essay that some people had used the body positivity movement as a way to make money. And then abandoned it, the moment it stopped serving them. She also said that she had work to do to regain the trust of the movement that gave her wings. A lot of people don't like Lizzo. Some people were moved by it, but others were furious. One common said that she went from promoting it to not promoting it and that was the issue. And then a plus size model replied and said that the essay was not about plus size women being erased. It was about Lizzo trying to repair her damaged career. Then Jamila Jamil, who was actually mentioned in the essay, she published her own response saying that Lizzo's references were inaccurate, vague and deeply unhelpful. But she did say that Lizzo was not mean or rude to her in the essay. In Lizzo's essay, she described seeing a post where Jamila was talking about how she hates scene before and after and how it's triggering and how she has to block it from her timeline or something like that. So Lizzo said she took that personally because Lizzo posted her own before and after and she did not see how it could possibly be triggering.

1:13:08Then Lizzo said that she had seen photos of Jamila when she was heavier and that Jamila posted those photos to remind people of her experience and to validate herself as a body activist. But that Jamila is now objectively thin and Lizzo acts while he was okay for Jamila to post old photos of her own body changing while no one else's body was allowed to change without being called out for it. Lizzo was not rude in her delivery and Lizzo was trying to explain that she's not trying to be rude but it was just a genuine question because Lizzo did feel attacked because she posted her own before and after. But overall, even though Lizzo was being vulnerable and I guess you're just trying to get everything out, it seemed like her essay was not really well received. So on January 5th, 2026, honestly not that long ago, Lizzo released her fifth studio album called BITCH. It sold 2,649 copies in its opening. We ended it in not chart on the Billboard 200 and by week 2, it had dropped to 650 copies and roughly 900,000 streams.

1:14:10For context, her 2022 album titled Special debuted at number 2 with around 39,000 copies first week. None of the singles from her album charted in the US or even the UK. So the fact that her album did this bad was quite shocking considering that she was getting number 1 hits. Her album debuted at number 2 like she was on top of the world prior to 2026. So it's like what the F happened and we talked about what happened obviously but it was just crazy because a lot of celebrities get in controversy but typically does not affect their careers the way it's affecting Lizzo's. But Lizzo talked about it on the Swiftologist podcast in June 2026. She said there were 24 hours where she based her success and worth on that number and it was so crushing. She said she had to come to terms with the fact that her relationship and musical connection with the world were different now. She also talked about the industry shifting. She said that back in 2023, TikTok used to mean something when it came to streaming but now in 2026, when it comes to the music world, it don't mean it.

1:15:12I mean in 2023, TikTok used to mean something for streaming and now in 2026, three years later, it means nothing. We have YouTube videos, they don't count for streaming. YouTube doesn't count as of this year. Like y'all. So she also said on Twitter slash X that streaming have replaced radio and that she was a radio darling that her fans had discovered her music through the radio and that the very obvious and public attack on her career had changed things. But industry figures were less sympathetic when it came to Lizzo. Ray Daniels told the Rolling Stone that if you know the industry is changing, you should be warding your fans ahead of time and asking them to request your song on the radio. Then a unnamed former senior label executive spoke to the Rolling Stone anonymously. He said that Lizzo never had a core fan base. That she was a song and radio hit driven artist who lacked the kind of devoted core audience that sustains a career when the hits stop coming. Then he connected the flop directly to the lawsuit. He said that a big part of her brand was being the underdog, being self-confidence, supporting everyone and body positivity.

1:16:16When you are accused of body-shaving people treating them terribly, your fans don't want to see when your fans don't feel like they can trust you anymore because you're doing the thing that was done to you for your whole life. So this person is anonymous. I don't know who they are. We don't know their motivations. But the argument itself holds up regardless of who is saying it. I don't feel like the fans who left were leaving because the music changed because the music is quite similar. But they were leaving mostly because of the lawsuit. It was a huge contradiction with Lizzo's brand. Then on top of that, she lost weight, so even more of a reason to leave. So here's where I land when it comes to Lizzo and this whole mess. Lizzo did not fail the body positivity movement. The movement failed her. The movement that gave her wings and that made her famous was never the radical fat liberation politics that started back in 1967 and Central Park. Back then, the movement actually demanded structural change and now it does not. Because by the time it reached Lizzo, it was an aesthetic. It was a vibe and it was a way to make money. It was not a real movement anymore. And it's the same industry that was promoting her saying that she's a body positive icon that she slays and that she's amazing and that she makes women feel good about themselves.

1:17:24They dropped her the moment that she stopped selling the moment that the lawsuit came out. They just did not really mess with her anymore. She was the face of a moment and when the moment ended, the industry moved on without her. So by the point of this video, you should have been able to answer this question. Is body positivity real or is it just a pipeline to get your foot into the door? Hey everyone and welcome back to another segment of her next move by me this time about Lizzo. I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Honestly, it's kind of sad how Lizzo's career has ended up. Like it really depends on how this trial goes. Because I really don't want to believe that Lizzo did this, but I also want to believe the victims of course. I really don't know how I feel about this. Like y'all, let me know how you feel. But I do feel bad for Lizzo because of how terrible she was treated. But at the same time too, I saw this coming and it's just so sad how the body positivity movement started off so great. And now it's this. Actually, I can't even say it existed right now because we're in the old sun big era. Like people are just promoting like slimness. So I don't know y'all.

1:18:26It's just it's sad. I'll just say that. But anyways, let's get into Lizzo's next move. So the first thing she should do is take a break from the public. Take a break, girl. Like they have been going in on your booty since time. So just take a break. Do what you got to do. Figure out how you want to rebrand yourself because I don't think it's smart to be branding yourself as a body positive icon. Nope. Toss in the bin. It's just not going to resonate with the audience with the music industry. Don't. Just yeah, don't do that. Next one is to focus on your health. So keep focusing on your health. I'm glad that you were able to. I'm talking like as if I'm talking to her, but I'm glad that she was able to work on her mental health and use exercise as a way to help her because exercise is a great way to release stress. And also it's a great way to care for your mental health and to care for your physical health. So definitely keep on doing that because yeah, people be rude to her. People are cruel to her. And I think exercising is a great way just to release all that negative energy.

1:19:27And the last thing Lizzo needs to do is to stop explaining. She's been explaining why she lost weight. She's been explaining her stance on body positivity. She has also been explaining why her album flopped and also blaming the industry her label. She needs to stop explaining and just do at this point because people don't care. If you clock the tea, people don't care about what she's saying. They will always find a way to discredit her. They just don't like her. So that's why if I was her, I would stop explaining and just start doing. Start working on different music. Start experimenting with their style and just keep on doing what you love because clearly you love music. But you just have to keep pushing forward because I know it feels like everyone's against you right now. But if you keep pushing forward, you're able to produce great music, keep focusing on yourself. It's possible that you can make a comeback. But as I said, the industry really sucks though. And they really just don't like her. But it is still possible. Anyways, if you all have a next move for Lizzo, leave it down in the comments down below. Hopefully she can recover from this because a part of me does feel bad about how she's being treated. I can understand people not feeling bad for her because they'll say that she contributed to this. But I don't know. I still feel bad regardless of understanding both sides of the story.

1:20:36Anyways, thank you all so much for watching. I'll see you later and I'll do so. This episode is brought to you by Chat GPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about Chat GPT work? It's the new way to use Chat GPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, you have Chat GPT work access to your apps and files and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides and structured reports. And yet started at chat GPT dot com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plants. We're some see heroes and other see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion dollar swings. The end of jobs or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype. While others follow the noise. We follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg dot com.

1:21:40There is so much NFL on ESPN right now. Monday night football plus pregame and post game NFL live NFL prime time. Everything you need to stay on top of every game every week. Unbelievable. And now NFL network is on the ESPN app more football, more coverage, more ways to watch footballs on all season long on ESPN and streaming on the ESPN app.