Why Lizzo Says The Body Positive Movement Has Been Appropriated

Lizzo says the body positivity movement has become "commercialized."

In an interview with Vogue for their October cover story, the Grammy winner, who often shares messages about body positivity and self-love with her fans, explained why she believes the movement is being appropriated in the media and how it can improve.

"It's commercialized. Now, you look at the hashtag 'body positive,' and you see smaller-framed girls, curvier girls. Lotta white girls. And I feel no ways about that, because inclusivity is what my message is always about," said Lizzo. "I'm glad that this conversation is being included in the mainstream narrative."

"What I don't like is how the people that this term was created for are not benefiting from it," she continued. "Girls with back fat, girls with bellies that hang, girls with thighs that aren't separated, that overlap. Girls with stretch marks. You know, girls who are in the 18-plus club. They need to be benefiting from...the mainstream effect of body positivity now. But with everything that goes mainstream, it gets changed. It gets -- you know, it gets made acceptable."

Now, Lizzo said she'd rather be referred to as "body-normative" instead of "body positive."

"I think it's lazy for me to just say I'm body positive at this point," she explained. "It's easy. I would like to be body-normative. I want to normalize my body. And not just be like, 'Ooh, look at this cool movement. Being fat is body positive.' No, being fat is normal. I think now, I owe it to the people who started this to not just stop here. We have to make people uncomfortable again, so that we can continue to change. Change is always uncomfortable, right?'"

The "Truth Hurts" singer also spoke about why it's "important" for her to encourage her fans to register to vote in the upcoming election and explained why voting can be a form of protest.

"I just want to encourage people to register to vote. That is the most important thing to me. Because there's a lot of upset people, and there's a lot of people who have power," Lizzo said. "There's a lot of voter suppression in Black communities. But there's a lot of angry white kids now. And I'm like, 'Yo, register to vote. Go out. You won't get suppressed if you try to go to your ballot box.' You know?"

"I think it's important to remind people of what they can do," she continued. "My job isn't to tell you how to vote. But my job is hopefully to inspire you to vote…to activate you, so that you can take your protest to the ballot box."

Lizzo concluded by sharing a powerful message about using her role in the industry to make an impact.

"I think it's important that I take full responsibility for the way the world perceives me because that is the way they're gonna perceive someone who looks like me in the future," she said. "Maybe, hopefully, that would give some young girl someone to look up to and take away the opportunity for someone to weaponize her uniqueness against her."

"I had to travel the world and I had to meet people and read DMs and look into their eyes and really hear their stories to believe that I was making an impact in a positive way," Lizzo added. "And now that I believe in myself in that way, I'm gonna continue to just push that conversation by being a better me every single day."

In addition to covering Vogue, the singer also participated in a pandemic-era round of the publication's "73 Questions" series, in which she had the cameraman sanitize his hands before entering her house.

Watch the video below to see what Lizzo had to say about meditation, her TikTok addiction, fashion, mail-in voting and more.

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