Lizzo accused of sexual harassment, fat-shaming dancers
Three dancers are suing Lizzo for allegedly creating a hostile work environment.
Lizzo's fans are giving her the side-eye after some of her dancers came forward to make some alarming claims.
The 35-year-old and her team have been accused of sexual harassment, false imprisonment, disability discrimination, and more.
The claims are made in a lawsuit filed by Noelle Rodriguez, Arianna Davis, and Crystal Williams against the singer and her production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, Inc. (BGBT).
According to Variety, one of the women claims that Lizzo's dance captain Shirlene Quigley publicly discussed her virginity without consent, and chastised those who had premarital sex.
But one of the most shocking claims involves a visit to Amsterdam’s Red Light District where Lizzo allegedly forced one of the dancers to touch nude performers who were engaging in a live sex show.
“The main event of the night was a club called Bananenbar, where patrons are allowed to interact with completely nude performers. While at Bananenbar, things quickly got out of hand. Lizzo began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas," the lawsuit states, according to the publication.
Arianna Davis claims Lizzo began pressuring her to touch the breasts of one of the nude women performing at the club, despite making it clear that she did not want to touch the performer.
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One of the dancers also accused the 'About Damn Time' singer and her team of fat-shaming her.
Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, is known for her body-positive posts.
“I didn’t have enough women to look up to and they weren’t given enough space in the industry to carve out a lane for big girls that are brown and Black and want to sing and dance without getting sh*t talked and body shamed,” Lizzo told Vogue magazine in a 2019 interview.
But according to her dancers, Lizzo does not practice what she preaches.
"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 [choreographer Tanisha] Scott’s questions about Ms. Davis’s commitment to the tour were thinly veiled concerns about Ms. Davis’s weight gain, which Lizzo had previously called attention to after noticing it at the South by Southwest music festival," Variety quoted the lawsuit.
The dancer felt that Lizzo's statements "gave her the impression that she needed to explain her weight gain and disclose intimate personal details about her life in order to keep her job”.
Two of the women were fired, while the third resigned.
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Lizzo and her team are yet to respond to the claims.
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Main image credit: Instagram/@lizzobeeating
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