Happy Friday or #FridayFeels, Notedd Tribe! This morning, I felt like sharing my perspective or “feels” regarding Lizzo and Cardi B’s new song “Rumors.” As always, feel free to share your thoughts, as I want this to be an open discussion where we can all hear and learn from one another.
I was chatting earlier with a colleague about how you can have every amazing thing happen or every goal reached in a day. Still, it takes one negative experience, gesture, or just a word to overshadow it all.
“Rumors” is about rising above it all, but instead, it resulted in accusations of Lizzo making music for a white audience and another opportunity to comment on her race and weight. Like many of us, we do what we do for ourselves, but there is this feeling that Black women are breaking barriers for the Black women who are rising behind them to create the space for them to be more of themselves. Lizzo is a voice for Black women, especially when it comes to body positivity and self-love.
Lizzo shared in a now-removed IG video, “… Y’all doing this to Black women over and over again — especially us big Black girls. When we don’t fit into the box that you want to put us in, you just unleash hatred onto us.”
As someone who enjoys reading other’s perspectives, we came across Brooke Obie’s Refinery29 article “Leave Lizzo and Fat Black Women Alone.” She highlights the “importance in connecting the dots between fatphobia, misogynoir, and transphobia to better our chances of attaining safety and freedom from white supremacy.” Toward the end of her article, she shares how breaking free starts with the concept of radical self-love. Brooke references Sonya Renee Taylor’s description of the term from her book and movement The Body Is Not An Apology.
Radical self-love is not to be confused with the conditional and wavering “self-confidence” or “self-esteem.” Feeling better about yourself doesn’t change systems of inequality. It’s a political, social justice act of wonder, appreciation, and acknowledgment of your inherent existence as love.
It is an act that interrupts a system that profits off of us not believing [our bodies are divine]. That’s political; that’s radical. And if enough of us divest from that system, that system falls.
Yes, we must all stay strong and positive, rise above it all, but chile it’s challenging when you continue to be the topic of negative discussion when everything that you are trying to do (meaning Lizzo) including this song is about empowerment.
Join the discussion here by adding a comment below or share your thoughts by sending us a private note here!
I hope everyone has a great weekend, starting with some radical self-love!
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"Black womanhood is always conditional under a patriarchy"
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Happy Friday or #FridayFeels, Notedd Tribe! This morning, I felt like sharing my perspective or “feels” regarding Lizzo and Cardi B’s new song “Rumors.” As always, feel free to share your thoughts, as I want this to be an open discussion where we can all hear and learn from one another.
I was chatting earlier with a colleague about how you can have every amazing thing happen or every goal reached in a day. Still, it takes one negative experience, gesture, or just a word to overshadow it all.
“Rumors” is about rising above it all, but instead, it resulted in accusations of Lizzo making music for a white audience and another opportunity to comment on her race and weight. Like many of us, we do what we do for ourselves, but there is this feeling that Black women are breaking barriers for the Black women who are rising behind them to create the space for them to be more of themselves. Lizzo is a voice for Black women, especially when it comes to body positivity and self-love.
Lizzo shared in a now-removed IG video, “… Y’all doing this to Black women over and over again — especially us big Black girls. When we don’t fit into the box that you want to put us in, you just unleash hatred onto us.”
As someone who enjoys reading other’s perspectives, we came across Brooke Obie’s Refinery29 article “Leave Lizzo and Fat Black Women Alone.” She highlights the “importance in connecting the dots between fatphobia, misogynoir, and transphobia to better our chances of attaining safety and freedom from white supremacy.” Toward the end of her article, she shares how breaking free starts with the concept of radical self-love. Brooke references Sonya Renee Taylor’s description of the term from her book and movement The Body Is Not An Apology.
Yes, we must all stay strong and positive, rise above it all, but chile it’s challenging when you continue to be the topic of negative discussion when everything that you are trying to do (meaning Lizzo) including this song is about empowerment.
Join the discussion here by adding a comment below or share your thoughts by sending us a private note here!
I hope everyone has a great weekend, starting with some radical self-love!
Lauren Strayhorn
Founder/Editor-in-Chief