Lizzo feels cancel culture has become 'trendy, misused, and misdirected'
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Grammy winner Lizzo shared some thoughts on cancel culture on Sunday, saying she feels the whole idea has become "trendy, misused, and misdirected."
"This may be a random time to say this but it's on my heart.. cancel culture is appropriation," the "2 Be Loved" and "About Damn Time" singer wrote in a tweet. "There was real outrage from truly marginalized people and now it's become trendy, misused, and misdirected."
She added, "I hope we can phase out of this & focus our outrage on the real problems."
Last summer, Lizzo was called out for a lyric in her song "GRRRLS" that some online claimed was an ableist slur. She had explained in an interview that she wasn't aware of this connotation and used it "in the way that it's used in the Black community" to mean "go off, turn up," but she still changed the wording on the track.
"Nina Simone changed lyrics — is she not an artist?" Lizzo said in a chat with Vanity Fair. "Language changes generationally; Nina Simone said you cannot be an artist and not reflect the times. So am I not being an artist and reflecting the times and learning, listening to people, and making a conscious change in the way we treat language, and help people in the way we treat people in the future?"
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images Lizzo shares her thoughts on cancel culture, saying it's become 'trendy, misused, and misdirected.'
Other celebrities have been grappling with the idea of cancel culture. British talk show personality Graham Norton offered a thoughtful response about the concept that went viral when asked about it in relation to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who continuously comes under fire for spreading anti-trans rhetoric. (Rowling has stated that she supports the trans community, though she repeatedly shares ideology linked to the controversial TERF movement.)
"You read a lot of articles in papers by people complaining about cancel culture and you think, 'In what world are you canceled?' I'm reading your article in a newspaper or you're doing interviews about how terrible it is to be canceled," Norton said of cancel culture in conversation at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October. "I think the word is the wrong word. I think the word should be 'accountability.'"
Los Angeles magazine recently published an article titled, "Cancel Culture Has Been Reduced to Time-Out for Adults" that unpacks the concept in light of Will Smith's Oscars slap and Kanye "Ye" West's pro-Adolf Hitler and pro-Nazi comments.
Kate Hudson also commented on cancel culture in an interview with The Independent. "People should just have a deeper awareness, right? And people who don't are being called out," the Glass Onion star said. "We should hold people accountable who do anything that's sexist, misogynistic, or racist. We should call out the lack of diversity in companies or the lack of women on boards. Kanye should be held accountable for his behavior. Period. There are clear things that [warrant], you know, 'You're cancelled, bye!'"
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