Lizzo Gets The Last Laugh At VMAs After Being Body-Shamed: 'I'm Winning, Ho!'
Booked, busy and thoroughly unbothered, Lizzo had absolutely no time for a comedian who body-shamed her days before an appearance at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.
Ahead of the ceremony on Sunday night, Aries Spears made degrading remarks about the singer’s appearance, including that he can’t “get past the fact that she looks like the shit emoji” among other insults.
But Lizzo didn’t give Spears even a second of her attention at the award show, where she walked away with an award in the Video For Good category for her song “About Damn Time.”
While she didn’t specifically comment on Spears’ attacks, she did manage to subtly drag him in her acceptance speech.
“I want to say thank you so much for supporting me and loving me. And now, to the bitches that got somethin’ to say about me in the press,” she said, evoking how Nicki Minaj called out Miley Cyrus at the ceremony in 2015.
“You know what? I’m not gonna say nothin’. They be like, ‘Lizzo, why don’t you clap back? Why don’t you clap back?’ Because, bitch, I’m winning, ho!”
“Best revenge is your paper, bitch!” she added before leaving the stage.
Congratulations, @Lizzo 💌
"About Damn Time" by Lizzo just won Video for Good at the 2022 #VMAs!" pic.twitter.com/CUvwWineyn— Video Music Awards (@vmas) August 29, 2022
Lizzo also took the time to share a message about the power of voting with viewers, adding, “I don’t know what ‘music videos for good’ means, but I do know what your vote means, and that’s a fucking lot.”
“Your vote means everything to me,” she continued. “It means everything to make a change in this country. So, remember when you’re voting for your favorite artists, vote to change some of these laws that are oppressing us.”
The music superstar was up for five awards at the ceremony, including Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop, Video for Good and Song of Summer.
Spears dissed Lizzo during an appearance on “The Art of Dialogue,” which premiered on YouTube earlier this week, when he was asked whether he thought the she was a good songwriter. “She’s got a very pretty face, but she keeps showing her body off like, come on, man,” he said in response. “Come on, yo.” A clip from the interview has since racked up over 3 million views on Twitter.
While Lizzo stayed mostly mum on Spears, her fans came out in full force to support the singer online, questioning why people are once again giving unsolicited opinions about her body.
Aries Spears is a fragile child who is throwing a tantrum because Lizzo is living in her authentic truth and his ugly rant is a failed disguise for the hurt he feels for the lack of support in his career as a fat Black entertainer. THIS is what you call projectionism. Really sad. https://t.co/xxHWa8hpuV
— Tenille. (@tenilleclarke1) August 27, 2022
I’m really blown away that Aries Spears had the big mouthed audacity to attack Lizzo for being fat. He’s a fat Black man encouraging us to weaponize fatphobia against Lizzo, the math just ain’t mathing pic.twitter.com/NCEdaEIfwn
— Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) August 27, 2022
#AriesSpears is one bitter azz dude. Instead of fat-shaming Lizzo, he should take a deeper look within himself, and learn to STFU. His statement was completely unnecessary and uncalled for.
— J- 🖤👑 WOKE AF. ✊🏾 (@MajorFactor2) August 28, 2022
It’s not even that Aries Spears being overweight and hideous makes him ineligible to speak on Lizzo. Nobody should be speaking on her body, idc how they look.
— OkSoBlonde 👱🏾♀️ (@OkSoMik) August 27, 2022
The way the world hates fat women is astounding.
Fat women are literally just living their lives and someone will publicly claim disgust.
Aries Spears fat himself yet has the balls to act like he's disgusted by a fat woman simply because she’s fat.
Lizzo bothers no one..— Former Kleva Black🇿🇦 🇿🇦 (@SneKhumaloSA) August 28, 2022
Earlier in the evening, Lizzo stunned in a billowing Jean Paul Gaultier gown on the red carpet and performed a show-stopping rendition of “About Damn Time” and new single “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready).”
Watch her performance below.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.