If you’re ever in need of someone to make you feel “Good As Hell” about your body (or being that b*tch in any capacity, really), look no further than Lizzo.
In addition to being known as one of today’s most iconic women in music with chart-topping bangers like “Truth Hurts” and “Cuz I Love You,” the Grammy-winning artist is also one of the most recognizable figures in the body positivity movement. As a self-proclaimed and celebrated big girl, Lizzo is dedicated to using her platform to uplift and inspire others who haven’t learned how to love their bodies yet.
In 2018, she explained to The Guardian how capitalism has contributed to people being unwilling — and even not knowing how — to love themselves. “[Corporations have] spent decades telling people they weren’t good enough and selling them an ideal of beauty. All of a sudden you’re selling them self-love? People don’t know how to love themselves, because they were trying to look like the motherf—er you were selling them!”
And speaking of that “ideal of beauty,” which she (unapologetically) doesn’t fit into, Lizzo has spoken out about that, too. The “Juice” singer told PEOPLE in 2022, “I think I have a really hot body! I’m a body icon, and I’m embracing that more and more every day. It may not be one person’s ideal body type just like, say, Kim Kardashian might not be someone’s ideal, but she’s a body icon and has created a modern-day beauty standard.” She continued, “What I’m doing is stepping into my confidence and my power to create my own beauty standard, and one day that will just be the standard.”
Read on for Lizzo’s most powerful quotes about body positivity so you can start feeling “Good As Hell” about yourself, too.
Big Girls Are the Blueprint, Too
“I didn’t have enough women to look up to and they weren’t given enough space in the industry to carve out a lane for big girls that are brown and Black and want to sing and dance without getting sh*t talked and body shamed,” Lizzo explained to Vogue in 2019.
The Detroit native continued, “I’m out here and I set my mind to it. I want to be a sex symbol and music goddess and I’m out here trying to make that happen for myself. I’m here for the fantasy but I want to be a part of that fantasy. I’m just as fine as those girls,” she said.
The Ideal Body Type Is *Your* Ideal Body Type
In a simply iconic 2020 TikTok video, Lizzo set the fat shamers straight. Sharing a compilation of workout clips and mirror selfies, the “Truth Hurts” singer said via voiceover, “So I’ve been working out consistently for the past five years, and it may come as a surprise to some of y’all that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type.”
She continued, “I’m working out to have my ideal body type. And you know what type that is? None of your f—ing business. Because I am beautiful, I am strong, I do my job, and I stay on my job.”
Lizzo suggested, “So next time you want to come to somebody and judge them, whether they drink kale smoothies or eat McDonald’s, or work out, or not work out, how about you look at your own f—ing self?”
The Yitty CEO concluded, “Health is not just determined by what you look like on the outside. Health is also what happens on the inside. And a lot of y’all need to do a f—ing cleanse for your insides. Namaste, have a great day.”
The Discourse Around Bodies Is Delusional
In a January 2023 Instagram video, Lizzo pointed out just how absurd the conversation around bodies is, especially when aimed at public figures. She began, “The discourse around bodies is officially tired.”
The “Grrrls” singer said, “I have seen comments go from, ‘Oh my gosh, I liked you when you were thick. Why did you lose weight?’ to ‘Oh my gosh, why’d you get a BBL? I liked your body before,’ to ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so big. You need to lose weight. But for your health!’ to ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so little. You need to get a— and t*tties or something,’ to ‘Oh my gosh, why did she get all that work done? It’s just too much work.’ Are we okay?” Lizzo asked incredulously.
“Do you see the delusion?” she asked. “Do you realize that artists are not here to fit into your beauty standards? Artists are here to make art. And this body is art. And I’m gonna do whatever I want with this body,” Lizzo asserted.
“I wish that comments costed y’all money so we can see how much time we are f—ing wasting on the wrong thing,” she concluded.
She Doesn’t Need to be Validated by a Hashtag
In 2019, Lizzo told The Cut of her status as a body-positive icon, “I’m embracing the title, but it’s not a label I wanted to put on myself. It’s just my existence.”
She elaborated, “All these f—ing hashtags to convince people that the way you look is fine. Isn’t that f—ing crazy? I say I love myself, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s so brave. She’s so political.’ For what? All I said is ‘I love myself, b*tch!’”
“Even when body positivity is over, it’s not like I’m going to be a thin white woman,” the “About Damn Time” singe continued. “I’m going to be Black and fat. That’s just hopping on a trend and expecting people to blindly love themselves. That’s fake love. I’m trying to figure out how to actually live it,” she said.
Truth Hurts for the Haters
During an interview with David Letterman for his Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Lizzo opened up about how her own confidence and self-worth keeps haters from bothering her.
“The people who hate, that doesn’t really break my heart. Like, I’m fine,” Lizzo said. “I know that I’m beautiful. And I know that I’m a f—ing bad b*tch. And I’m successful and popping. And I know I’m healthy.”
She continued, “I know I can outrun any of these b*tches in any way, every way. Whether it’s physical, mental, spiritual, financial.” With a laugh, she joked, “I’m ’bout to run around your motherf—ing bank account. You wanna see me run, b*tch? You wanna see me run?”
She Genuinely Loves Her Body
During a 2019 interview with fellow musician Sam Smith for V Magazine, Lizzo said, “I love my body. No matter what angle you shoot it at, no matter the lighting, my body is just so f—ing beautiful all the time. I may talk sh*t about it sometimes, but f—. She’s still a bad b*tch.”
She’s Doesn’t Need a Movement to Embrace How She Looks
Lizzo explained to Allure in 2019, “The body-positive movement is the body-positive movement, and we high five. We’re parallel. But my movement is my movement. When all the dust has settled on the groundbreaking-ness, I’m going to still be doing this.”
The Grammy-winning artist continued, “I’m not going to suddenly change. I’m going to still be telling my life story through music. And if that’s body-positive to you, amen. That’s feminist to you, amen. If that’s pro-Black to you, amen. Because ma’am, I’m all of those things.”
She Can’t Be Insulted by Keyboard Warriors
After a segment of TikTok users began commenting her name under other videos of bigger-bodied women, Lizzo let them know their attempt at an insult was actually a compliment.
In her own TikTok video, she said, “To the people who be putting my name in the comments, thank you. Because you know what? If every time you see a big girl on this app loving herself, and putting herself out there, and being confident and loving her body, you think of me, or you think she looks like me — b*tch, that is a compliment.”
“That means I’m out here doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” Lizzo continued. “Letting you b*tches know that next time you try to make fun of a woman for her body, or her size, that b*tch, we’re out here and we don’t give a f—, and we’re confident, and we’re bad b*tches, and we’re cover stars,” she said.
She Shares Her Body to Normalize Its Attributes
In regard to sharing nude photos of herself, Lizzo told Essence in 2020, “I’m doing this for myself.” The “Cuz I Love You” singer explained, “I love creating shapes with my body, and I love normalizing the dimples in my butt or the lumps in my thighs or my back fat or my stretch marks. I love normalizing my Black-ass elbows. I think it’s beautiful.”
Criticism Has No Claim on Her
After she wore an oversized t-shirt dress with cutouts that showed off her thong to a 2019 Lakers game, some people took to Twitter to make jokes about Lizzo’s body.
In response, the musician put the trolls in their place while spreading an uplifting message about body positivity and mental wellbeing. She said during an Instagram Live, “If you really, really don’t like my a—, you can kiss it.”
Lizzo continued, “You don’t have to be like me, you need to be like you and never ever let somebody stop you or shame you from being yourself. This is who I’ve always been. Now everyone’s looking at it… and your criticism can just remain your criticism.” She added, “Your criticism has no effect on me, negative criticism has no stake in my life, no control over my life, over my emotions.”
We All Deserve to Feel Good as Hell
At the 2019 VMAs, Lizzo declared, “I’m tired of the bullsh*t. And I don’t have to know your story to know that you’re tired of the bullsh*t too. It’s so hard trying to love yourself in a world that doesn’t love you back, am I right?”
She continued, “So I just want to take this opportunity to feel good as hell. Because you deserve to feel good as hell. We deserve to feel good as hell.”
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