Body positivity vs. Bad choices

If you watch basketball or keep up with celebrity gossip, then you know who Lizzo is. For everyone else, here is a quick rundown. Lizzo is a singer, fans most knowing her for her song "Truth hurts" as well, she is known for her plus size body and message of body confidence. Lizzo holds nothing back. She flaunts her style and body and does so in very revealing attire. Many of you may remember seeing her almost break the internet over her wardrobe choice for the LA Lakers game the other night. Lizzo wore a t shirt dress with the part that covers her butt cut out, revealing her ass and thong. No one would have been the wiser til her song was played at the venue, to which she started twerking for the jumbotron. 

Apparently,  many had an opinion on the matter and took to the internet to vent. Some comments were aimed at the children. "Totally not an appropriate place to dress and act that way." Others came to her defense saying things like "if she was skinny, no one would care." One of my favs was someone saying "if anyone has to start off by saying it's not because she's fat or black, sounds like those people have a problem with fat, black women." Woah! That's a little much. But both sides definitely brought their point of view to the floor.

For awhile now, the liberal, left leaners have been advocating for a body positivity movement. We all know liberals are great with linguistics.  Body positivity sounds great doesn't it? Yet, when you look into this movement a little deeper, many critics have weighed in, no pun intended. Questions surfaced like, "what is positive about being morbidly obese?" The same can also be said about being underweight. The idea of loving your body should come with expectations, not any old body should do. There is always room for improvement,  dont get comfortable because someone told you that you can love your unhealthy body as it is, #noregrets. Truth be told the movement itself seems to promote this ideal of love yourself no matter what without the disclaimer certain body types are harder on the body than others.  It's like this free pass has been given for making horrible dietary choices. Now,  let me be clear, I am not speaking of those with medical conditions or medications that pack on weight, no matter what you do. Nor am I lumping in any person who does make good choices but for whatever reason, the weight stays.  The keyword here is healthy choices. 

I am not aware of Lizzo and her dietary choices or medical conditions but if this is her natural state for her no matter the diet and exercise, then yes, have body positivity and do and wear things unapologetically.  It's not as if Lizzo is lazy by any means. She is a bust ass worker and it shows. It shows in her videos, live performances, which comes with practice time, effort and dedication. If after all of that, her body says, this is what the result is, should we say try harder or recognize not every over weight person is sitting on the couch eating bon bons all day? 

I really dont know what her life was like before being mainstream but we will see in the years to come, if Lizzo is in fact just a big girl or if this new life has come with new choices that will start to show. She would not be the first big woman in Hollywood to come out the other side with a body transformation leaving us all in awe. If she has body positivity now, will she feel the same if and when the weight comes off? Only time will tell. 

In the meantime,  I didnt see Lizzo in a bad light for her choice of clothing and twerking at a basketball game. Kids? Please. These same kids watch youtube and have access to much worse! And if you think, "not my kid" well, if you take your kid to a football or basketball game, the cheerleaders wear and do things on the court that should be equally offensive, if you think what Lizzo did was inappropriate. 

I dont mind people being positive about their body as long as they are making positive choices and promoting a healthy lifestyle. I believe we all are built differently and some people who have lost weight look unhealthy to me, like when Oprah lost all that weight back in the 90s, it looked unnatural.  Some of us can just carry our weight better than some and that is ok. The bottom line is to treat your body in a positive way and you will achieve positive results. Whatever those results, be it naturally bigger or small, embrace your best you!