Cancel culture looks like it’s about to strike again. The latest victim is a big one … pun intended.
None other than pop sensation Lizzo is treading dark waters after allegations of sexual and verbal harassment facilitated a lawsuit against her. ‘Truth Hurts,’ Lizzo.
Reportedly, three former backup dancers for Lizzo are suing her for accusations of sexual harassment and facilitating of a hostile work environment. Dancers-turned-plaintiffs Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez asserted that they experienced “religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment,” according to the suit.
It also claims that Lizzo, who markets herself as being incredibly body positive and even celebratory of her morbidly obese body, berated a dancer for her weight gain and then fired her.
Supposedly, Lizzo brought her cast to a strip club in Amsterdam after a performance in the city earlier this year. While it was “non-mandatory” to attend the after parties, the lawsuit alleges that those who attended were “favored” and “had greater job security.” As stated by the lawsuit, and reported by NBC News, Lizzo allegedly, “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. Lizzo then turned her attention to Ms. Davis and began pressuring Ms. Davis to touch the breasts of one of the nude women.”
Davis declined but after Lizzo led the rest of the cast in a chant “goading her to do so,” Davis eventually acquiesced. Apparently, later that evening, Lizzo encouraged a member of her security team to “take it off.”
Lizzo even mentioned this type of disturbing act in an interview once in a seemingly celebratory manner.
aw man lizzo… pic.twitter.com/BSi9QllRHn
— BAVY (@itsbavy) August 2, 2023
What a freak!
Lizzo also is accused of inviting her dancers to a club in Paris but failed to mention it was a “nude cabaret bar,” which left many dancers, naturally, uncomfortable.
In the same suit, Shirlene Quigley, who served as the dance team captain for Lizzo, was accused of “proselytizing to other performers and deriding those who had premarital sex while sharing lewd sexual fantasies, simulating oral sex and publicly discussing the virginity of one of the plaintiffs,” as NBC News noted.
“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” the plaintiff's lawyer, Ron Zambrano said in a statement.
One dancer even soiled her pants during a 12-hour rehearsal out of fear that she’d lose her job. That’s the kind of culture Lizzo was allegedly creating.
Davis, one of the plaintiffs, claims she was forced to stay after rehearsal against her will to have her cell phone searched after recording a rehearsal so she could practice the steps in her free time.
Rodriguez was flipped off with both of Lizzo's hands and told a slur as she exited a rehearsal after claiming she felt disrespected.
Williams was fired after she challenged an assertion from Lizzo that dancers were drinking before performances.
The allegations paint a picture of Lizzo and her production company being hostile, inappropriate and abusive to their employees and the environment does not seem to be one that facilitated the inclusivity and positivity that Lizzo fronts in her shows.
Time will tell what happens with the lawsuit but if you or anyone you know gets a job offer from her or her production team, you may want to decline.
