On Tuesday, news broke of workplace harassment allegations against the pop singer Lizzo. Three of Lizzo’s former background dancers—Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis, and Noelle Rodriguez—filed a suit against the “About Damn Time” singer, her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, and her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc., for a slew of harassment allegations including (but not nearly limited to) sexual harassment, body shaming, cultivating a hostile work environment, and, specifically on the part of Quigley, religious harassment. The criticisms of Lizzo, which are still unfolding as her former creative director and other previous collaborators of hers continue to speak out in support of the plaintiffs, have stunned the world as they present an incredibly stark contrast to Lizzo’s brand of body positivity, anti-bullying, and self-love. The irony mounts when you consider that the majority of Lizzo’s touring performers are, as the suit says, “full-figured women of color.” [Update, Aug. 3, 2023, at 10:00 a.m.: On Thursday, Lizzo fully denied all allegations in a statement posted to her social media.] News of the lawsuit sent the internet into a tizzy, with well-warranted criticism, dismay, unwarranted retaliatory fatphobia, and additional allegations flying every which way. Below, our best attempt to make some sense of the allegations against Lizzo and the public’s reaction to them.
Break this down for me: What exactly did Lizzo (allegedly) do?
The entire set of allegations, which can be read in the suit itself (uploaded here by Deadline), can loosely be split into four separate categories—not all of which implicate the singer directly. There are the allegations related to events that took place at a strip club in Amsterdam after a performance, the workplace harassment claims involving Lizzo, the sexual and religious harassment allegations against Quigley specifically, and the claims that Big Grrrl Big Touring interfered with the plaintiffs’ economic prospects. There are a handful of specific and disturbing claims in the suit that may not fit neatly into these categories, but safe to say, the accusations against Lizzo and her team are extensive and disconcerting.
OK, let’s start with the Amsterdam situation. What was that about?
After a performance in the Dutch city earlier this year, Lizzo’s crew, the plaintiffs say, went to a strip club in the city’s famed red-light district. The suit explains that though these after-show excursions weren’t mandatory, attendance at them was believed to curry greater favor with the singer. Allegedly, Lizzo encouraged her team to participate in the sexually themed audience-participation parts of the show, like “eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” Davis claims that Lizzo pressured her to touch the nude breasts of one of the performers, allegedly leading a chant goading Davis to comply, after she demurred. In the suit, the plaintiffs state that they were “aghast with how little regard Lizzo showed for the bodily autonomy of her employees and those around her.”
Yikes, that seems pretty uncomfortable. Does it get (allegedly) worse?
Oh, boy, does it ever. The general workplace harassment claims the dancers made are varied in type and scope, but here’s one awful example. After Lizzo allegedly accused them of drinking before performances (which they denied doing), the dancers say Lizzo forced them to re-audition for her show and run through a set numerous times, in a rehearsal that stretched for 12 hours without a break. Davis, who had to use the restroom, soiled herself for fear that if she left she would be fired. Davis alleges that she was given a see-through costume with no underwear to replace her wet clothing so she could finish the performance.
The suit also includes allegations that Lizzo engaged in weight-shaming, specifically naming Davis as one of the main recipients of snide remarks from the singer that, Davis says, were “thinly veiled concerns” about Davis’ weight gain. The plaintiffs also allege that the company was discriminating against Davis on the basis of disability, as Davis struggles with a binge eating disorder, anxiety, and depression—struggles, she says, that were exacerbated by the treatment she experienced from Lizzo and her team, who knew about her situation.
Disability discrimination is also implicated in another major part of the suit, which involves Davis’ firing, Rodriguez’s subsequent resignation, Davis’ false imprisonment, and Lizzo’s allegedly threatening parting remarks.
I’m sorry, but did you just say “false imprisonment”?!
Unfortunately, yes. Davis, who suffers from an eye condition—which, she maintains, Lizzo and her team were aware of—had recorded a meeting where the dancers were given performance notes so that she could review it in a less stressful environment later on. Davis alleges that Lizzo became furious when she learned, days later, that someone recorded the meeting, but Davis says she owned up to it immediately, explaining that she simply wanted to review the performance notes because they would directly impact her employment, and that she had deleted the recording the following day. Davis was reportedly fired on the spot, which caused Rodriguez to quit in solidarity (an act for which she was reportedly berated). Davis, on the other hand, was allegedly locked in a hotel room until she “agreed” to have her phone searched.
So that’s what Lizzo is being accused of, but what about Quigley, Lizzo’s dance captain?
There are some frankly bonkers allegations in the suit against Quigley, who, in addition to being Lizzo’s dance captain—the person who oversees the dancers and provides quality control for the company’s dance performance; usually, for more prestige jobs like world tours, the dance captains will also be the lead- or co-choreographers of the show—was also a judge on Lizzo’s reality show, Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, on which Davis and Williams were contestants before joining Lizzo’s tour. The plaintiffs accuse Quigley of forcing her Christian beliefs on others via constant proselytizing, while “deriding people who engaged in premarital sex,” “sharing lewd fantasies,” and unpromptedly displaying a “party trick” in which she would “simulate oral sex on a banana in front of the rest of the cast.” In one of the more egregious accusations against Quigley, Davis alleges that her virginity “became a topic of extreme importance” to Quigley, who would often bring it up in conversations with Davis. Allegedly, Quigley even went so far as to mention Davis’ virginity in interviews, and then nonconsensually publish the interviews containing that private information on her social media.
What the f—!
It’s important to remember that this is all alleged, but yeah … it doesn’t sound good!
OK, what about the economic part?
This involves the management of Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc., who is implicated in a few alleged infractions. The plaintiffs state that BGBT and Lizzo disliked the idea of dancers’ taking other jobs during breaks. When the dancers requested a retainer of 50 percent of their weekly tour rate during downtime since they wouldn’t be taking other jobs, a BGBT accountant instead allegedly countered with 25 percent, and called the dancers’ behavior while on tour “unacceptable and disrespectful,” while offering no supporting details. The plaintiffs claim that comments from the BGBT management team—a group they say consisted of mostly “white Europeans”—criticizing their laziness, unprofessionalism, and poor attitudes were only ever made toward the nonwhite cast members, leaving them with the impression “that these comments were charged with racial and fat-phobic animus.” It’s interesting, to say the least, that someone who prides themself on uplifting full-figured Black women would have a production company managed mostly by “white Europeans,” but I digress …
Woof, that is a lot. Understandably, people are upset by this, but why are people so upset?
Before Tuesday, Lizzo’s brand—with a few notable previous sour notes, which I’ll share in a moment—could be summarized in one word: positivity. Not only did she make anthems for the believers of the “dump him” fifth wave of feminism, but because she is a big girl on an incredibly public stage, she has fought back against an army of body-shamers antagonizing her online. Between early 2019 and today, it seemed as if, every six months, someone was trying to cancel Lizzo for no other reason than that she’s bigger than a Size 6—or, coming from the other side, for her trying to lose weight. She’s leaned into it, preaching body positivity and anti-bullying in everything she does, from the revealing clothing she wears, TikTok videos she makes, and projects she starts—like Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, which was created to highlight underrepresented full-figured dancers, the best of which she would cast on her “Special” tour.
Last month, Lizzo was praised for inviting a 7-year-old Black girl onstage after a TikTok of her dancing to Lizzo’s song “About Damn Time” went viral. Just last week, Lizzo was in the news again, for inviting an 11-year-old onstage who claimed, via holding up a sign in the audience, that she was a victim of bullying. While she was onstage, Lizzo gave her a hug and some encouraging words. It’s shocking to see a celebrity who has made their entire public persona one of acceptance and love be accused of such horrible things that are in direct opposition to those ideals.
You mentioned that others have spoken up. Who are they, and what have they said?
Shortly after the news broke on Tuesday, one of Lizzo’s former dancers, Courtney Hollinquest, wrote on her Instagram story that though she’s not a part of the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s claims echoed her personal experiences working with the singer. In support of Hollinquest’s message, Lizzo’s former creative director Quinn Wilson posted to her own Instagram stories, applauding “the dancers’ courage to bring this to light,” adding, “I haven’t been a part of that world for around three years, for a reason. … I grieve parts of my own experience. I’d appreciate space to understand my feelings.” In addition to Hollinquest and Wilson, filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison also came forward, claiming on her social media profiles that in 2019 she was supposed to work with Lizzo on her documentary Love, Lizzo, but she left the project. (The documentary was instead directed by Doug Pray and released on HBO Max last year.) Allison said that she “was treated with such disrespect” by the singer after traveling with her, and continued by commenting on “how arrogant, self-centered, and unkind she is.”
I’m sure the people who’ve disliked Lizzo for being fat in public are handling this extremely normally.
Nope! In fact, plenty of people online are using this news as an opportunity to make fatphobic comments about the singer, which is incredibly uncalled for and disheartening. It’s OK to dislike Lizzo because of these allegations, or any of her past infractions, like when she doxxed a food delivery worker after mistakenly believing that she had stolen her food (the worker sued Lizzo but later voluntarily dismissed the suit), or when she argued that all music journalists should be unemployed (she only kinda walked this back?), or when she claimed that serial abuser Chris Brown was her favorite person in the world (she didn’t walk that one back at all). I could go on, but I would like to make it very clear that Lizzo’s actions are not justifications for fatphobia or misogyny—in this particular case, they are just the opposite, considering that all three plaintiffs are big women of color.
This is a part of what makes Lizzo’s situation so complicated—it’s hard to be the voice or face representing a marginalized group, and when you falter, it unfortunately and unfairly opens up the entire community to more of the backlash it was already fighting against. Also, these situations with marginalized people marginalizing others are unfortunately not uncommon: Hurt people hurt people, etc. Maybe Lizzo herself is still dealing with some issues caused by the relentless fatphobia she has unfairly experienced throughout her career. But past trauma, of course, doesn’t give anyone the right to treat others harshly.
I don’t know what will become of this situation, but I do know that as more people continue to speak out against Lizzo, it doesn’t bode well for her future. Beyoncé has already reportedly removed the brief Lizzo shout-out in her “Renaissance” tour. (The queen works fast!) I’m only praying that the list of pop stars making recent news for being (allegedly!) shady ends here. Between Doja Cat, Ariana Grande, and Lizzo, I don’t know how much more I can take!
