Two plaintiffs are doubling down on allegations against pop star and body positivity icon Lizzo, claiming that she body-shamed employees and was "contradicting" her message when off camera.
The suit, filed by three of Lizzo's former dancers, is alleging that the pop star harassed her employees with comments tinged with "racial and fat-phobic animus."
A former dancer for Lizzo's shows, Crystal Williams, said that at first she believed working for the singer as a "plus-sized Black woman" was her "dream job." That was before she learned that everything about the singer was not as it seemed.
"To me, I just couldn't sit with the fact that this was happening behind the scenes, and this is a big part of her fan base, but she's kind of contradicting everything she stands for behind-the-scenes."
LIZZO SUED BY FORMER BACKUP DANCERS, ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ‘FAT-PHOBIC’ TREATMENT
"We were doing promo for the show in South by Southwest (SXSW), and that was the first time I had physically shown up having gained weight in front of everybody to a Lizzo event," former Lizzo dancer Arianna Davis said on CBS News Wednesday.
"That was the only noticeable difference about me. My dancing ability was the same, my energy was the same, all the girls can attest to that. But the only thing about me that was different was my weight. [Lizzo] was trying to allude to the fact that I was gaining weight in a way that she wouldn’t get canceled."
Lizzo is one of the most prominent celebrity advocates for the "body positivity" movement, which promotes body types and weights that are not traditionally considered attractive by mainstream popular culture.
"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," the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Ron Zambrano, said in a statement.
Lizzo responded directly to the accusations in a Twitter post Thursday morning, calling the stories "sensationalized" and from "former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional."
"Sometimes I have to make hard decisions but it's never my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable or like they aren't valued as an important part of the team," the pop star said.
Lizzo told fans that she is not "the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days" and that she would "absolutely never criticize or terminate an employee because of their weight."
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