Three former touring dancers for Lizzo have filed a lawsuit towards the singer, alleging sexual harassment and a hostile work setting.
The lawsuit additionally accuses Lizzo of weight-shaming these dancers. Lizzo, whose actual title is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, has embraced the body-positivity motion so these allegations are particularly stunning. Shirlene Quigley and Lizzo’s manufacturing firm had been additionally named as defendants within the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed within the Los Angeles Superior Courtroom.
The go well with alleges along with a hostile work setting and sexual harassment that Lizzo created an setting of non secular and racial harassment, false imprisonment, interference with potential financial benefit and different allegation. Not each defendant within the declare faces every of those allegations, nevertheless.
One allegation within the lawsuit alleges that Lizzo referred to as consideration to a dancer’s weight after a SXSW present. The dancer remembers that Lizzo informed her she was “much less dedicated” than the others to her position, which the lawsuit alleges is a thinly-veiled remark to concern police Davis’ weight.
One other allegation entails an afterparty at an Amsterdam strip membership, that are described as non-mandatory, however the lawsuit alleges those that attended had been favored by the singer and had larger job safety than those that didn’t attend. Throughout this explicit celebration, allegations arose that Lizzo “invited forged members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from performers’ vaginas, and consuming bananas from performers’ vaginas.”
“Lizzo then turned her consideration to Ms. Davis and commenced pressuring Ms. Davis to the touch the breasts of one of many nude girls,” the lawsuit obtained by NBC Information reads. Davis declined, which allegedly prompted Lizzo to steer a chant into goading Davis into performing the motion.
“Plaintiffs had been aghast with how little regard Lizzo confirmed for the bodily autonomy of her workers and people round her, particularly within the presence of many individuals whom she employed,” the lawsuit continues.
Dancers had been requested to be compensated for his or her downtime at a price of fifty% of their weekly pay. However one accountant countered by providing them 25% and scolded them for being “disrespectful” of their request. “Solely the dance forged—comprised of full-figured girls of colour—had been ever spoken to on this method,” the lawsuit alleges.
The non secular harassment facet of the lawsuit is directed at Quigley, who’s described as preaching her Christian beliefs to anybody and everybody. The go well with says she “took each alternative to proselytize to any and all in her presence no matter protestations.”
Two of the dancers who filed the lawsuit had been filed in April and Could of 2023. They allege they had been fired after they spoke up about Lizzo’s conduct and feedback and had been informed their termination was attributable to funds cuts—however that nobody else was fired.