This rapper just became the latest plus-size Playboy centerfold and it's so body positive
While we'd typically associate Playboy with the "blonde bombshell" - that is, the embodiment of western beauty standards: white, lithe, and long-limbed - the publication appears to be moving away from such stringent notions of female beauty.
Playboy proved its commitment to championing diversity by making Lizzo - a black, plus-size rapper - its latest centrefold, and I think we can all agree that it's a big win for the body positivity movement.
The spread, which has a very 1970's feel to it, sees the musician sprawled out on a pink vintage sofa, adorned in lace, fur, fishnets - and of course - plenty of diamonds.
In the accompanying interview, Lizzo continued to espouse some of the messages she's known for sharing on social media. "We gotta be undeniable. We gotta fix ourselves in the culture so that we’re unshakable," she explained to interviewer, Eve Barlow. "Body positivity has to be mainstream."
She's also committed to being her own role model. "I’d never heard anybody say that before, so I thought, I’ma say it. I needed to hear it," she asserted. "People at shows would be so shocked when I’d sing 'I’m in love with myself'".
Lizzo went onto touch on gender politics; "The way we talk about gender has to change. Gender doesn’t really exist. We created social gender, so we gotta destigmatize it, take the importance off of skirt versus pants. That’s not even real, dog. What are you f*cking talking about? This is a boys’ club. Get your dumb a** outta here. This is a girls’ club, h*. Shut up."
This is not the first time that the singer has tackled such topics. During an interview with The Guardian last year, she discussed how "self care" and "self love" - two concepts that her body of work is known for celebrating - have been co-opted by brands.
"Shit is being exploited!" she exclaimed. "It’s a blessing and a curse. It’s unfair for us to assume that people know how to love themselves ... [corporations have] spent decades telling people they weren’t good enough and selling them an ideal of beauty. All of a sudden you’re selling them self-love? People don’t know how to love themselves, because they were trying to look like the motherfucker you were selling them!"
The 3o-year-old is one of only two plus-sized people to be featured in the magazine, which was founded back in 1953.