Junior Kelly Fulk

How do you think the recent controversy might’ve affected others, people such as her audience or her employees?

I think this pointed out an important point about how we put celebrities on a pedestal and often they can get away with a lot because they’re (celebrities) or because they’ve promoted something kind of beneficial before. But just because they did (before), doesn’t mean they’re perfect all the time and I think we should treat all the controversy–assuming it’s true–address this kind of stuff the way we would address any kind of controversy against anybody. It should not be tolerated.

We can see that Lizzo is a very big influence in the body positivity community but after this controversy, we could see her (allegedly) contradicting what she promotes. How does the controversy make you feel?

Honestly it makes me wonder a lot about marketing, I don’t know if her managers have told her to promote body positivity in order to separate herself and be unique, if they told her to tell her backup dancers that they can’t promote that as well. I think that’s wrong but if it’s the truth then that would suck. However I don’t think this controversy means Lizzo can’t promote body positivity anymore, I just think it’s hypocritical when you treat your employees that way.

How did you feel when you found out about all of the controversy?

I didn’t really care, I don’t listen to a ton of Lizzo; celebrities always gossip anyway. I mean it sucks though I do feel bad, if it’s true I feel awful. That kind of behavior shouldn’t be happening, I’m not in support of it.

This controversy addressed a lack of accountability with Lizzo, do you think maybe it’s a possibility that other behavior has been overlooked with different people because of the image they promote?

Definitely, whenever Taylor Swift does anything she could be doing some pretty awful stuff and people don’t care. Flying on private planes, we get really mad at Kylie Jenner for doing that because nobody likes her but if Taylor Swift does it it’s fine because she’s Taylor Swift. It’s different when you’re a woman, you get critiqued more. This doesn’t mean that they didn’t do bad things, I just think there’s a lot of male celebrities where we sweep their wrongdoings under the rug.

At the moment, this controversy has not been proven to be true or false. How would you react, depending on if this were a true or false claim?

If it were to be proven false I’d be like “Oh that’s weird how did the rumor get out and why was it done to Lizzo?” Just the whole critiquing women, especially women and minorities (because of) people hating to see women in power. If it was true I would be really upset because I know that Lizzo was an icon for so many people, it would suck that we wouldn’t be able to support her anymore.

Sophomore Kevin Tran

How do you think Lizzo being an advocate of many minorities may affect those communities?

She has a very big reputation in the community and if it was proven that she did do those activities, then it would be really bad for her reputation. This would be extremely detrimental to her career because that’s her whole brand. All of her songs are her being a proud black woman, proud of being plus-sized and just overall proud of herself. Now knowing how she may have been hypocritical with one of the things she heavily promotes, it would be first of all disgusting and second of all really bad because she lost her community’s trust.

How do you feel about everything blowing over so quickly?

I think as a society, come pick this up, come cancel her already. If it was actually proven that she’s innocent  then good for her but, why are we not holding her accountable? I think we were for a few days because it was a joke and something to talk about but if this really happened then we need to start (looking at) what other things that may have happened.

These Lizzo accusations have not been proven to be true or false yet, to what extent do you think these accusations are true?

Lizzo claimed it was false, but at the same time, why would you admit to that? She said it was false but do we really believe her? I don’t know, but I do know that it was not one, not two, but three people and probably more that will come out with their own experiences. That’s already interesting itself but we know that there’s already some basis to it.

Based on this experience with Lizzo in the workplace, how do you think her future work experiences with employees will go?

Well, I don’t think that they would really care. It’s (an example of) everything blowing over in a few days that everything just gets ignored, and as of now, people might not want to affiliate with this behavior.

Sophomore Anoushka Jena

What did you think about Lizzo creating a hostile work environment, do you know what she did to make a hostile environment?

Actually when I heard about that I was really surprised. When one of the statements she said was “I know what it feels like to be body-shamed on a daily basis and a lot of people know that” I was really surprised when I heard she was the one reportedly sexually harassed and created a hostile work environment. I was under the impression that that can’t be true, no way.

How do you think this reflects on the minority communities Lizzo promotes?

I think they definitely took it as a hit because Lizzo is definitely one of their biggest icons and idols I suppose in that community. She’s always the one talking about body positivity, loving yourself and not letting any other people judge you or look at you, or make you feel (bad about) how you look. I think they look at it as a hit, but I don’t think even for a second anyone thought it was true because of all people, why would she be the one saying and doing those things to other people?

As a fan yourself how do you think this affected them?

I think her fans were probably really shocked about it at first considering the main reason why she has so many supporters is like a lot of them are supporters because of what she stands for such as body positivity and other things, so I think they were probably shocked, enraged, mad and upset.

How do you think this reflects in our society today?

I think people are always willing to jump on the hate train when someone is doing good and being successful. People are always watching (and) waiting for one wrong move, one wrong word or moment to jump on them and talk about how everything is wrong. I think that shows that we’re always looking for the flaws in people and the mistakes they make and I feel like that has to change. This is just one example out of many.