Lizzo lawsuit: What is weight-shaming and what can you do about it? Advice from an eating and appearance expert

Lizzo performing on stage at BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival
Lizzo performs at the BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival on May 27, 2023, in Napa, Calif. Lizzo has been sued by three former dancers who accuse the Grammy winner of sexual harassment and allege the singer and her production company created a hostile work environment. Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File

The Grammy-winning singer Lizzo has made a name for herself as a champion of body positivity and inclusivity

But that image has been challenged by a recent lawsuit accusing her and her dance team captain of creating a hostile and “overtly sexual” work atmosphere and weight-shaming.

“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” Ron Zambrano, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

Even the singer herself alluded to the surprising nature of the charges, saying the claims were “as unbelievable as they sound” in denying the allegations.

headshot of Rachel Rodgers
Rachel Rodgers associate professor, department of applied psychology. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

But what is weight-shaming? Moreover, what can we do about it? 

Rachel Rodgers is an associate professor of applied psychology and director of the Applied Psychology Program for Eating and Appearance Research (APPEAR) at Northeastern University. APPEAR studies the messages that society sends people about which appearances are socially valuable and the emphasis on using behaviors to change one’s appearance—studying how those messages can increase the risk for body-image concerns and risky body-image behaviors. It uses this information to develop interventions to buffer people from those messages and inform policies and practices that can change the appearance-focused environment.

Rodgers described weight-shaming as simply as it sounds—“making a person feel ashamed of their weight.” 

But the causes and mechanisms of this, or any, weight-based stigma are anything but simplistic.

“The reason that (weight-shaming) is possible, is that we live in what we call a ‘diet culture’ where being anything other than thin, really, is considered to be shameful,” Rodgers says. “And that it’s shameful because there is this underlying understanding that weight is controllable, which is not the case.”

Rodgers says there are several factors that play into weight-shaming. 

The media is a major factor—Rodgers notes that larger-bodied characters are seldom the heroes of shows.

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