lizzo responds
Houston's Lizzo changes tune after major fan outcry over lyric
Houston-born pop star Lizzo is letting her fans know she's listening to them after a word she used in her new song "Grrrls" sparked outrage, with fans saying that the word was an ableist slur in the disabled community.
Ableist is defined as the mistreatment of people unfairly based on a disability, according to the Cambridge Dictionary.
Lizzo recently released the song "Grrrls" on from her upcoming album Special. One of the lines used the word "spaz," derived from the term "spastic," defined as "relating to or denoting a form of "muscular weakness (spastic paralysis) typical of cerebral palsy, caused by damage to the brain or spinal cord and involving reflex resistance to passive movement of the limbs and difficulty in initiating and controlling muscular movement."
Lexico, part of the Dictionary.com and Oxford sites, also notes the word is dated and offensive to someone who has cerebral palsy.
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