As an unabashedly plus-size, unabashedly black woman performer dominating the music industry, Lizzo‘s body, and the way she chooses to dress (or undress) herself in the public eye, has been the subject of much scrutiny — particularly on social media.
When she dared to show a little flesh at an LA Lakers’ game late last year (think assless chaps but in T-shirt dress form), she received a deluge of criticism from prudes and haters across cyberspace. She also received and continues to receive an abundance of support from those of us thrilled to see the normalisation of body confidence in a woman like Lizzo.
The latest spanner in the works to take aim at Lizzo’s sexy, feel-good, body-positivity crusade is the social media platform of the hour, TikTok. Taking to the platform itself to address the deletion of posts of her in undergarments, Lizzo called out the platform’s double standards. “TikTok keeps taking down my videos with me in my bathing suits, but allows other videos with girls in bathing suits. I wonder why? TikTok…we need to talk,” read her overlaid caption while Lizzo can be seen having her hair done, soundtracked by her own live acapella stylings.
The video has over 2.1 million likes and counting. TikTok later issued a clarification, explaining the removed videos were the result of moderators confusing her spanx for underwear in a video where she raised her top, and hence violating the platform’s policy around ‘sexual gratification.’ The videos have since been reinstated.
We hope Lizzo’s no-nonsense confrontation of TikTok and her critics continues to prompt society and social media companies to reconsider how they treat and ultimately censor women’s bodies, and the bodies of all those they consider not conventionally desirable. Whatever the algorithm flags, we hope to see more bodies like Lizzo’s owning their beauty and sexiness, not fewer.