(VitalNews.org) – Lizzo, the singer and dancer who has publicly said that she likes “being fat” and wants to create media representation for other obese women, is now the subject of a lawsuit by three of her former backing dancers who have accused her of chastising one of them for gaining weight, amongst many other accusations. The women have accused Lizzo and her team of creating a hostile work environment that featured sexual harassment, body-shaming, false accusations of drunkenness, and a dance “audition” that lasted for 12 hours and caused one dancer to soil herself as she was too afraid to ask permission to go to the bathroom.
Two of the dancers who have brought the suit, Crystal Williams and Arianna Davis, were fired shortly after being accused of drinking alcohol before a show. The women denied the accusations to Lizzo and told reporters that it would have been impossible for them to drink as the singer banned any alcohol from the dancers’ dressing rooms, despite the rest of her crew being allowed to drink alcohol. The lawsuit also described a scene in which Lizzo pressured Davis to touch a naked performer at a strip club in Amsterdam, despite Davis repeatedly saying she did not want to do so. Davis told reporters that she had been singled out as she was clearly uncomfortable with the lewd nature of the club, and only went out of fear of being later ostracized by Lizzo and being denied future employment opportunities with her.
Despite Lizzo allegedly taking her team to a strip club and encouraging them to touch the dancers, her dance team captain Shirlene Quigley, also named in the lawsuit as a defendant, has been accused of forcing her conservative, religious views on the dancers. Quigley has been accused of insulting those who had intimate relations out of wedlock, all while sharing details of her own risqué fantasies and discussing which dancers she thought might be virgins.
Representatives for Lizzo, real name Melissa Jefferson, have not publicly commented on the ongoing lawsuit.
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