Okay, you might think me dramatic based on this title, but that’s absolutely not the case here. There was a lot to like about Lizzo’s Christmas morning feature on CBS, but ultimately the feature barely scraped the surface on Lizzo’s impact on the plus size community, and focused on the “wrong” things.
Let’s recap briefly for those who missed it. CBS aired a Christmas morning feature story called Lizzo at Home, which essentially focused on the fact Lizzo has a huge home in LA and how far she’s come from sleeping in her car. A rags to riches story. At one point Lizzo points out that she has four Christmas trees. Overall, the brief 8-minute feature tells us that Lizzo used to be broke, and she’s now rich.
There’s nothing wrong with that on any level, and this is what we’ve come to expect in the country that created Capitalism. The interviewer states “for years, Lizzo has dreamed of waking up in her own home on Christmas morning.” Owning a home, the basis of the American Dream. It’s a cheery Christmas morning feel-good story based on monetary success. So, why was it disappointing?
lizzo is presented as superficial
This is no disrespect to Lizzo at all. As a tall, plus size woman she is a role model I’ve followed for a long time now. She is an icon who inspires millions of us, and companies want to work with her to hitch their wagon to her fame (see how the famous SSBBW influencer Corgifairy spoke about how Yitty did the same thing with Lizzo.) However, there really isn’t any discussion about Lizzo’s work in empowering body confidence and promoting fat women. The feature is literally a tour of her house so we can see how loaded she is.
We all know how badass Lizzo is, but her achievements are overlooked in terms of what they’ve meant to fat women, and presented in a purely superficial way as she strolls through her LA “mansion” with the waif of a presenter.
the mainstream media is still the same
It could be a generational thing (I know my parents look at success as a monetary value as opposed to a social change thing) but all this feature proved to me is that the mainstream media is only high on Lizzo because of her awards and how famous she is. Could they not, at least for a few minutes, speak about the impact Lizzo’s had on the plus size community and her fearlessness in presenting herself as a fat, black woman openly?
lizzo still shines
As I stated before, your girl isn’t bashing Lizzo here. Despite the overly fluffy nature of the feature, when she has the chance, Lizzo speaks about her “mission” and how she still feels like a “dork” in the music industry, but she’s going to create music and art that makes people feel good about themselves.
The highlight was seeing Lizzo openly use the word “fat” to describe herself. This was a gratifying moment. She wasn’t joking, she wasn’t trying to get a laugh by calling herself fat, she was simply describing her physical appearance with complete honesty and seriousness. This is why Lizzo is, and will continue to be, a shining light for the plus size community, even if CBS wants to simply feature her house and talk about how rich she is…