Leave Lizzo alone: why her thong dress should command respect

When Christina Aguilera stepped on to a motorbike wearing ass-less chaps in her 2002 Dirrty video, people were shocked and argued the singer went too far. “I knew it was a bold move, and I knew a lot of people would not be ready for it,” Aguilera later said.

With this in mind you’d be forgiven for thinking that the disdain for Lizzo, who on Sunday night wore an ass-less dress and a thong to a Lakers game, is nothing more than the standard fare reserved for scantily-clad women. It is not.

After videos of the Juice musician’s outfit went viral last night, people paid their respects on Twitter: it seems multiple children had their innocence stolen at the game. Lizzo, dancing happily on the Jumbotron mm-hming at Karl Towns, apparently did not realize she was at a family game.

While the language of the outrage focuses on moral decency, the Rikishi jokes, the photos circulating comparing Lizzo to Jabba the Hutt, the countless memes of grimacing children and the “just why” commentary all seem to be another question: does she not realize how fat she is?

Lizzo does realize; she just doesn’t see being fat as an insult. “When I’m looking at my body and I’m shaming every little thing about it… I have to find love in those things. And I think that is why I’m able to call myself fat,” she said in an interview with CBS this year.

Some argue that this is nothing to do with Lizzo’s size: an ill-advised outfit is ill-advised on anyone, fat or not. Those people would be well advised to consider that when Nicki Minaj wore a bondage outfit to a Lakers game in 2018, people barely bat an eyelid. Nor was the same disdain afforded to Rhianna after she attended a Raptors game in a see-through shirt and no bra. If RiRi pushes fashion to its limits, after all, it’s a statement to be celebrated. But when Lizzo dares to push the envelope, the discourse takes a whole different slant infused with fat-shaming.

And when the cheerleaders do it? Oh, that’s just sport.