Three former dancers allege the singer contributed to creating a hostile work environment.
Even if Lizzo does turn out to be a hypocritical garbage person, the internet misogynists are going to run wild with this. This time they get to go after her and her accusers.
The conversation around this is going to get real horrible real fast, knowing the internet.
I’m keeping an open mind on this one because some of these allegations is a bit constructive/interpretive:
Ms Davis alleges the two questioned whether she was “struggling with something as she seemed less committed to her role on the dance cast”, the case details.
“In professional dance, a dancer’s weight gain is often seen as that dancer getting lazy or worse off as a performer. Lizzo’s and Ms. Scott’s questions about Ms. Davis’s commitment to the tour were thinly veiled concerns about Ms Davis’s weight gain,” the documents allege.
So what actually happened is she was asked if something was wrong because they thought she was less committed.
Her argument here is that reading between the lines they really meant “you are too fat”.
But what if reading between the lines they actually meant “you keep phoning it in during rehearsals”?
Yes, that one could be misinterpretation. But there are also more problematic behaviours listed in the lawsuit:
The legal action, filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, includes allegations the dancers were “forced to endure sexually denigrating behaviour” and were “pressured into participating in disturbing sex shows” between 2021 and 2023.
Among the claims against Lizzo - whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson - are that she “pressured Ms Davis to touch the breasts” of a performer in a nightclub in Amsterdam, and Ms Davis - after resisting - eventually acquiesced “fearing it may harm her future on the team” if she didn’t do so.
The case also alleges that staff working for BGBT scolded dancers for “unacceptable and disrespectful” behaviour while working on the tour, without specifying what that behaviour was.
The dancers allege that “only the dance cast - comprised of full-figured women of colour - were ever spoken to in this manner, giving [the dancers] the impression that these comments were charged with racial and fat-phobic animus”.
Additionally, it alleges the dance team’s captain, Shirlene Quigley, pushed her Christian beliefs on performers and derided those who engaged in premarital sex.
She is also accused of openly discussing one of the former dancers’ virginity, and posting about it on social media.
“pressured Ms Davis to touch the breasts” of a performer in a nightclub in Amsterdam, and Ms Davis - after resisting - eventually acquiesced “fearing it may harm her future on the team” if she didn’t do so.
So that could be bad, or it could be “go on girl, touch em!” and she interpreted refusal to be deleterious to her career without direct evidence.
The dancers allege that “only the dance cast - comprised of full-figured women of colour - were ever spoken to in this manner, giving [the dancers] the impression that these comments were charged with racial and fat-phobic animus”.
That confuses me. It’d make more sense if the dance cast had women of full-figure and not full-figure, and women both of and not of color if only the former of each were being denigrated. But it could also be that the dance cast misbehaved and was scolded in entirety and this is an assumption.
Additionally, it alleges the dance team’s captain, Shirlene Quigley, pushed her Christian beliefs on performers and derided those who engaged in premarital sex.
She is also accused of openly discussing one of the former dancers’ virginity, and posting about it on social media.
2nd line is about Quigley as well? That sounds weird since Lizzo isn’t exactly a Christian virture bastion and her videos and songs can be quite sex-positive. But even if so, that’s tangentially only a problem with Lizzo for employing her.
These accusations seem oddly non-specific for sexual harassment.
Regarding the nightclub … the easiest way I’ve found to sort my feelings out on this was to imagine how hard I’d cringe if this skit was in my corporate-sponsored sexual harassment training. The answer is something around the level of crawl-in-a-hole-and-die rather than endure this skit, and I’m pretty sure “Director So and So is planning a company party and suggested a strip club. How would you respond?” was an actual scenario in one of the many I’ve had to sit through.
True, they do sound more serious, I agree. But the problem with the example I quoted is it makes me wonder what the standard is for these other allegations, in terms of the relationship between what was actually said and what was inferred.
If someone’s the kind of person who assumes having their commitment questioned must be veiled fat shaming, then they might be doing the same kind of leaps with these other things.
For example, being scolded for disrespectful behaviour, might genuinely be because the clique of dancers were the only ones engaging in the behaviour.
It just makes me a little hesitant. Perhaps the suit makes it clearer.
People also need to remember that we should believe accusers long enough to find out whether their accusations are accurate. So we should believe it is possible and look for more details instead of dismissing them outright.
So we shouldn’t throw out everything just because a few of them are phrased like sour grapes or remind us of people that infer the wrong things. Let’s wait for more context before vilifying the dancers or Lizzo.
I agree. Hey thanks for this explanation:
we should believe accusers long enough to find out whether their accusations are accurate
I always want to keep an open mind until we get more detail, and I bear in mind with rape that it’s an underreported crime and statistically the vast majority of accusations that go before the courts have merit (not sure about stats around pressuring people to do sex acts or fat shaming).
The exhortation to “believe” outright always troubled me but thanks to your comment I see what it means is that people to be in a mindframe where they can believe as in finding out - it’s not an exhortation to prejudice (in the literal sense of the word).
It is hard to get a catchy slogan with a little bit of nuance to catch on so they tend to end up as absolutes.
Fat-shaming is so commonplace especially in ballet and dancing in general and this is quite a common way to put it - using the allegory of “motivation” even when they refer to shape, so I would argue that this is a justified way of “reading between the lines”.
I hope it isn’t true. I’m not a fan of her music, but I love the positivity she puts out in her performances and her persona, as well as her support of drag culture. I’ll wait to see what comes of these accusations and others.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Pop star Lizzo is being sued by three of her former dancers over claims including sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
The legal action, filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, includes allegations the dancers were “forced to endure sexually denigrating behaviour” and were “pressured into participating in disturbing sex shows” between 2021 and 2023.
Though never explicitly stated, the questions “gave Ms Davis the impression that she needed to explain her weight gain and disclose intimate personal details about her life in order to keep her job”, the legal action says.
Additionally, it alleges the dance team’s captain, Shirlene Quigley, pushed her Christian beliefs on performers and derided those who engaged in premarital sex.
They were accused of being “lazy, unprofessional, and having bad attitudes” - the case claimed these are tropes often used “to disparage and discourage” black women and that other dancers were not treated like this.
Since when promoting a healthy life style is bad? I’m fat myself, and would never think of crying ‘fat shaming’ when someone mentions my state of roundness.
Sure, it’s not healthy to be too fat, or too thin for that matter, but your health is your own business and I don’t think that being made to feel bad, unwanted, ugly, unconfident, or whatever because your fat is nice or helpful to anyone.
There’s a middle path where people encourage eachother to make healthy choices without making people feel bad for looking different.
And probably your employer should steer clear of that subject entirely. That conversation belongs in the realm of family and friends. (Besides possible general healthy lifestyle, keep our insurance rates down type of postings not aimed at specific employees or conditions.)
It’s not. Somewhere along the way (at least in US) there was a “movement” for “body positivity”, which is great, when applied reasonably. It should be “we all have things we don’t like about ourselves, but so does everyone, so love you”. That’s totally reasonable. That’s healthy. That’s fantastic for younger people who see all the “influencers” and “models” or fashion images, and feel bad about themselves.
What it turned into was “no matter how unhealthy/obese you are, love your body, and be outspoken about it”. So, regardless of being 400lb, incredibly unhealthy, and doing major damage to yourself, love and be proud of your body.
Hell, some of my most formative years were the heroin chic era. It’s equally damaging, in the opposite direction. At least women’s clothing models are looking more and more like “normal” women, in a lot of cases.
Lizzo accused of (…) fat-shaming
The pot calling the kettle black I see. Either way, it’s despicable.
It could be fat shaming or it could be people who are frequently fat shamed through their life by being called lazy assume anyone who is telling them they aren’t putting in enough effort are also fat shaming since the accusation is that they inferred that is what it meant.
More context is needed.
Better get ahold of Till Lindemann’s lawyers.
Just wait, newspapers will be sued for libel and forced to alter their articles and remove her name from the title…
Or the opposite will happen.
Who knows, “celebrity does something awful” stories never have satisfying ending.
Well, that’s genuinely a bummer. Loved Lizzo’s music, personality, and confidence. Here’s hoping this is a wake up call for her and she gives a sincere apology
You don’t know that she’s done anything wrong. These are only accusations. Wait for more details before you change your opinion of a person.
These things are almost always one person’s word against another’s and you rarely get more helpful details. In the absence of a recording or something, I choose to believe the victims until shown otherwise. Imo our personal standards for judgement need not be as strict as those for legal action.
Oh so most celebrities are exactly the same… glad people keep realizing this over and over and over…
Of course she deserves her day in court, but this doesn’t surprise me in the least. Something about her has always felt off
“Yeah, you be shamin yourself”
“What?”
“It’s a white woman thing, you be shaming yourself, you have to stop that, and now you have to replace your whole lawn with clover”
“Fuck all that”
“Take it up with the white women, don’t shoot the messenger”
