Lizzo. Whether you listen to her music or not, it is a name that all of us have become familiar with. Her lively and unapologetic personality has completely taken the music and entertainment industry by storm.
As a plus size woman of color, she is constantly pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a female artist in the music industry. She showed the world that all bodies are beautiful by posing nude on her album, “Cuz I Love You.” She is not afraid to show off her body with form fitting dresses at award shows and performs all her performances in bold, bright colored, patterned leotards. Her playful nature translates into her wardrobe choices, such as the neon green ruched dress with jewel adorned sneakers she wore to the MTV Movie and TV Awards, the red Moschino “Siren” dress she wore to MTV VMA’s or of course the infamous micro Valentino bag she brought to the American Music Awards.
Lizzo has also opened doors for other underrepresented groups by having her backup dancers consist of every shape, size, gender and race at her performances and stays authentic by always playing with her iconic flute, also known as Sasha Flute. The music itself is not one genre, but has a mix of pop, hip-hop, R&B and soul. She has been breaking barriers in every way with her looks, music, dancers and dress, but there is one thing that remains the same: her message.
Lizzo is all about self love, body positivity, equality and being true to who you are, and that message is always incorporated within her music, performances and personal life. She has done an amazing job of including that message in a way that is still carefree and upbeat. During her VMA performance, Lizzo took the opportunity to address the audience with a message of self-love, while cleverly including the phrasing “feeling good as hell” within it from her hit sing “Good as Hell.”
Even on a personal level, Lizzo still remains authentic and full of self-love. Her social media consists of posts of her posing nude, in lingerie, twerking in the camera or even just a selfie with a caption about body positivity and having self confidence. Being one of the few well known female artists that is both plus size and a woman of color, Lizzo connects so well with her audience because she is very relatable to what many women out there in the world look like. In an industry that still categorizes female artists as predominantly white and thin, Lizzo is so out of the box and it is refreshing to see someone so different from what we are all used to.
She is a plus size, genre-blending, barrier breaking, fashionable icon and the way that she is always proud and positive and how she carries that into her music is inspiring. You can’t help but cheer up when you listen to her. Freshman Russian and French major Michael Snyder also agrees on the impact Lizzo has made in the industry and on her audience.
“I like Lizzo because she is authentically herself,” Snyder said. “She represents taking control of your own image and owning it no matter if it means stepping outside of social expectations. I think she is so impactful because she is one of the few heavy set musicians on the world wide stage and on top of that she is owning her body image and talents, showing people you can be impactful, multi talented and command your presence within the world no matter who you are.”
Through her music, she has inspired us and given us this feeling of empowerment that we can be proud of and feel beautiful as we are and should not have to feel obligated to conform to societal beauty standards and expectations.
Lizzo is showing us that all bodies are beautiful, our differences makes us unique, and the qualities that make us special should be celebrated and shown with pride. No matter where she is or what she is doing, she constantly displays to us that it is okay to be true to who we are and love ourselves no matter what.
