Why Is Lizzo Being Sued? Backup Dancers Declare Weight-Shaming & Poisonous Office

She’s outwardly a champion of measurement inclusivity and variety, so it comes as a shock to listen to why Lizzo is being sued.

Born Melissa Viviane Jefferson, the rapper-singer-songwriter has been outspoken on physique picture from the start. “I feel it’s lazy for me to simply say I’m physique optimistic at this level,” Lizzo advised Vogue in 2020. “It’s straightforward. I wish to be physique normative. I wish to normalize my physique.”

She continued: “Now, you take a look at the hashtag ‘physique optimistic,’ and also you see smaller-framed women, curvier women. Lotta white women. And I really feel no methods about that, as a result of inclusivity is what my message is at all times about. I’m glad that this dialog is being included within the mainstream narrative,” she mentioned. “What I don’t like is how the people who this time period was created for are usually not benefiting from it. Women with again fats, women with bellies that hold, women with thighs that aren’t separated, that overlap. Women with stretch marks. You understand, women who’re within the 18-plus membership.”

Certainly, she has a catalog of songs devoted to loving oneself, with lyrics like “Thick thighs save lives” in her tune “Tempo” and “Mirror, mirror on the wall, inform me what you see / It’s that, oh my God, it’s lookin’ heavenly” in “Scuse Me”. So the rationale why Lizzo is being sued will shock many followers.

Why is Lizzo being sued?

Why is Lizzo being sued? Three of Lizzo’s former dancers have accused the singer of sexual harassment and making a hostile work atmosphere, in line with a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom on August 1, 2023, and offered to StyleCaster by the plaintiffs’ legislation agency.

The criticism was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom in opposition to Melissa Viviane Jefferson, her manufacturing firm Large Grrrl Large Touring, Inc. (BGBT), and Shirlene Quigley, the captain of Lizzo’s dance crew. Plaintiffs Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez allege sexual, non secular and racial harassment, incapacity discrimination, assault and false imprisonment, amongst different surprising allegations.

“The beautiful nature of how Lizzo and her administration crew handled their performers appears to go in opposition to all the pieces Lizzo stands for publicly, whereas privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in methods that aren’t solely unlawful however completely demoralizing,” mentioned the plaintiffs’ lawyer Ron Zambrano, a accomplice and Employment Litigation Chair at West Coast Employment Attorneys.

In March 2021, Davis and Williams met Lizzo whereas getting ready to be contestants on her actuality TV present, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Large Grrrls to compete for an opportunity to hitch the artist stay on stage. Individually, Rodriguez was employed in Might 2021 to carry out in Lizzo’s “Rumors” music video and stayed on as a part of the dance crew.

In line with the lawsuit, contestants on the rapper’s present had been advised they’d be required to take part in a nude photograph shoot, one thing that was significantly distressing to Davis, who feared she can be despatched dwelling if she refused to take action. “Ms. Davis broke down in tears on set whereas struggling to decide on between a once-in-a-lifetime profession alternative and placing her physique on show in opposition to her will,” the lawsuit states. “This expertise foreshadowed the sexually charged and uncomfortable atmosphere Lizzo’s workers can be pressured to endure.”

Hostilities allegedly reached one other excessive level in February 2023 after the plaintiffs carried out a present with Lizzo in Amsterdam. The lawsuit claims that Lizzo invited her dance crew to the notorious Crimson Mild District, which is dwelling to intercourse employees, strip golf equipment, and different types of grownup leisure. It wasn’t a requirement to attend however the plaintiffs felt obligated out of worry of shedding their jobs.

“The primary occasion of the evening was a membership referred to as Bananenbar, the place patrons are allowed to work together with utterly nude performers,” the lawsuit states. “Whereas at Bananenbar, issues shortly acquired out of hand. Lizzo started inviting forged members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and consuming bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas. Lizzo then turned her consideration to Ms. Davis and started pressuring Ms. Davis to the touch the breasts of one of many nude ladies performing on the membership. Lizzo started main a chant goading Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis mentioned thrice, loud sufficient for all to listen to, ‘I’m good,’ expressing her need to not contact the performer.”

Included within the lawsuit are additionally allegations of racism. “BGBT administration handled the Black members of the dance crew in a different way than different members. BGBT’s administration crew consisted fully of white Europeans who typically accused the Black members of the dance crew of being lazy, unprofessional, and having unhealthy attitudes,” it learn. “Not solely do these phrases ring acquainted as tropes used to disparage and discourage Black ladies from advocating for themselves, however the identical accusations weren’t levied in opposition to dancers who are usually not Black.” As well as, the criticism continues, “Solely the dance forged—comprised of full-figured ladies of colour—had been ever spoken to on this method, giving Plaintiffs the impression that these feedback had been charged with racial and fat-phobic animus.”

Lizzo has not responded to the lawsuit nor requests for remark at this stage. This story is growing.

In March 2022, the Grammy winner was the quilt star of Folks‘s Ladies Altering the World Concern. “I feel I’ve a extremely scorching physique! I’m a physique icon, and I’m embracing that increasingly daily,” she mentioned on the time.

“It is probably not one individual’s excellent physique sort identical to, say, Kim Kardashian may not be somebody’s excellent, however she’s a physique icon and has created a modern-day magnificence customary. And what I’m doing is entering into my confidence and my energy to create my very own magnificence customary. And someday that may simply be the customary.” She continued: “I deserve the eye. I’m proficient, I’m younger, I’m scorching. You understand? And I’ve labored exhausting.”

That very same yr, Lizzo launched Yitty shapewear, made for “EVERY. BODY. PERIOD.” in line with the advertising supplies.  “I’m promoting that greater than I’m promoting thongs, greater than I’m promoting bodysuits or I’m promoting shapewear,” she advised the New York Instances. “I’m promoting a mentality that ‘I can do what I need with my physique, put on what I need and really feel good whereas doing it.’” That no matter physique you might be displaying off, it’s not, “‘Oh, how courageous.’ “No. No extra of that. Nothing to see right here however a physique, identical to your physique.”

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