Lizzo goes nude as she says, 'if you love me, you love all of me'
Body-positive singer Lizzo has taken another step in her ongoing campaign to promote acceptance.
Posting a nude shot of herself to Instagram, she wrote, "“If you love me… you love all of me. You dont get to pick and choose. We should be unconditionally loving of one another, starting with being unconditionally loving to ourselves. Take a moment today and think about the conditions we cling to. Free yourself in love. You deserve it.”
Refusing to bow to pressure to slim down, Lizzo is an outspoken advocate for loving yourself and your shape. Last month, she posted a video of herself, captioning it, "“I gained weight. I look TF GOOD.” She accompanied it with nail-painting ('not bothered' and heartface emojis.
She said, "Hey, so I’ve been working out consistently for the last five years, and it may come as a surprise to some of y’all, that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type.
Watch: Lizzo says 'I gained weight', celebrates her figure in new video
“I’m working out to have my ideal body type. And do you know what type that is? None of your f–king business. If you’re not a fat shamer… keep scrolling… OK now that all the fat shamers are here...I am beautiful, I am strong, I do my job, and I stay on my job."
The much-loved star, who is an icon for many, is still affected by criticism - speaking about the 'hate' she receives alongside the love, Lizzo said, through tears, "Sometimes I feel like the world just don’t love me back. It’s like, it doesn’t matter how much positive energy you put into the world. You’re still going to have people who have something mean to say about you."
Her latest post has over 20 000 comments- largely supportive. Singer Erykah Badu posted a string of heartface emojis, while body-positive model Laura Adlington wrote "My Queen". Others commented "living legend" and "Please Lizzo, one dinner date, that's all I ask."
Others praised the star for her advocacy - "If I saw my body type represented more when I was in high school, I feel like s**t could of been so different," said one grateful follower.
Last year, the star, 33, told Good Morning America, "“I don’t mind critique about me, my music. I don’t even mind the fat comments. I just feel like it’s unfair sometimes, the treatment that people like me receive.”
She went on, "People are like, don’t let ‘em see you with your head down. My head is always up. Even when I’m upset and even when I’m crying, my head is up. But I know it’s my job as an artist to reflect at times, and this s**t should not fly. This shouldn’t be ok."
Read more: Lizzo calls out 'fat-shamers' on TikTok: 'I'm not working out to have your ideal body type'
Lizzo added, "Black women have been in this industry and innovating it forever. It is unfortunate that we are the ones who do suffer from the marginalisation the most and the erasure the most and I feel like if it weren’t for the internet, if it weren’t for social media, I could have been erased.”
Lizzo added: “But I chose to be undeniable and I chose to be loud and I chose to be great and I’m still here. It’s difficult.”
It's not the first time Lizzo has posed nude - the cover of her 2019 'breakthrough' album, Cuz I love You. She told an NPR interviewer, "I'm just a little bit more vulnerable than I am ever before. Even my vocal is a little bit more vulnerable.
So I wanted to...show vulnerability and strength on this album - and even to the album cover. Like, you know, being completely naked, but also looking so comfortable with myself, I think, is a testament to this album showing vulnerability and strength."
Watch: Lizzo says she doesn't want to be the face of body positivity
Talking about her body positivity journey, she went on to explain, "ten years ago, I couldn't find a bathing suit, and I couldn't find bikinis for my body size. And I was being told every day that my face was great, but my body needs work.
"I was being shamed in little ways that people didn't even realise they were shaming me. It was so ingrained. And I started to shame myself and actually believed what they were saying to me. And I think about 10 years ago, I made the decision that I just wanted to be happy with my body, and I just wanted to be happy with who I am and that I would wake up every day in the same body, and it wasn't going to change," she explained.
"That was the beginning of my journey with learning how to love my body. And it most certainly didn't end there, and it didn't apex there. Like, I had to work for many, many years to get to this point.
"And I'm still working on it every day. There's days where I wake up and I'm like, oh, my God. You know, this isn't me. But then I have to remind myself, this is you. It looks a little different, but it's still you.
"And you have to find that love for yourself deep down inside."
