As Lizzo’s presence in mainstream media has rapidly increased in recent years, so has the impact of her iconic messages of body positivity and self-love. Though many people know her for her 2019 album “Cuz I Love You” and her recent 2022 album “Special,” Lizzo has always been calling for reform in the way that society views women’s bodies. Her 2015 song “My Skin” and accompanying music video serves as a call to people everywhere to love and appreciate their bodies and skin.
Lizzo opens the music video with a brief monologue in which she states that learning to love yourself and your body is a journey that every person experiences—especially women. Her first verse paints a picture of why this is the case: society has created an impossible beauty standard that women feel that they must strive towards. Women are taught from birth to compare their bodies to what they see in media and to each others’, creating insecurity and self-hatred toward their own. This is an unspoken yet universal experience—one that Lizzo calls “the darkest, best kept secret.” As women compare their bodies to each others’, they are pitted against each other in competition for all the promises—love, respect, happiness—that society has convinced us we will receive if our bodies meet its standards. Lizzo articulates this in her lyrics “Let it bring us together, or it could tear us apart.” This comparison of bodies is currently tearing women apart. Lizzo is calling for women instead to unite against this harmful societal norm and revel in our universal beauty. She asserts that “the most beautiful thing that you have ever seen is even bigger than we think it means,” suggesting that the beauty of bodies and skin as well as self-love is much more significant and important than we give it credit for. She accompanies these lyrics with close-up images of diverse, seemingly unfiltered bodies painted in a beautiful light. These bodies are not perfect: they have fat, blemishes, stretch marks, hair, and other qualities that our societal standard would label as flaws. This representation of imperfect, diverse bodies in a popular music video tells women that their bodies are normal—and that their bodies are also beautiful, desirable, and worthy to be looked at.
Lizzo also applies this specifically to women of color. Societal beauty standards have created a very specific picture of what true beauty looks like: the “ideal body” is often portrayed as white and thin. Due to this association between whiteness and beauty, people of color are made to feel as if their skin inherently lacks beauty. The internalization of this belief takes away people’s ability to love and be proud of their skin, leaving shame in its wake. This can also be applied to fat women. Because thinness is seen as a requirement for beauty, fat women are made to feel as if they can’t be beautiful. In the chorus, Lizzo sings, “I woke up in this—in my skin. I can’t wash it away, so you can’t take it from me—my brown skin.” It is a call for women to reclaim the definition of beauty in their own skin. As Lizzo sings this in the music video, she runs her hands over her body with love and compassion and shows close-up images of her skin and hair, appreciating her body for its beauty.
As the music video nears its end, Lizzo, along with the other women in the music video, begin to pop the balloons that have been around them, sending glitter flying everywhere.
Throughout the video, it was not apparent that the balloons were filled with glitter—they seemed like regular balloons. As long as we believe the misconceptions that society has imposed on us, we cannot see the possibilities for ourselves that it hides. They initially appear unassuming, but when societal norms and standards of beauty are rejected, the result is magical. We can have full compassion for ourselves and unconditional love for our bodies and skin. Lizzo then runs her hands through the gold glitter and spreads it over her body, symbolizing an external layer of self-love and compassion.
This song and music video does a phenomenal job of encouraging women to reject societal standards of beauty and love their bodies as they are. Its inclusion of imperfect and diverse bodies adds representation to a historically image-conscious industry that has been plagued by photoshop, telling women everywhere that their bodies are normal and beautiful. Lizzo is an incredible role model for young women who face these standards—her unapologetic love for her body encourages others to do the same. Her popularity and presence in mainstream media gives hope that one day we can break free from societal standards and have universal unconditional love and respect for all bodies.
I have never heard this song before or seen the music video, but I love it! I have always loved Lizzo and her messages of self acceptance and self love. My favorite part of the video was the balloons when I looked at it like they were the women, I love how you made that connection. I think that it is just one of the ways in this video that Lizzo so beautifully portrays beauty is so much more than what is on the surface or what we appear to be, but that we do have so much glitter inside. I hope that Lizzo continues to make music and videos like this because I do think she makes a difference, she has for me.
Listened to this song after reading this. I really like how you analysed every part of the music video, especially the balloon and how it signifies self love. I love all of Lizzo’s songs. Her lyrics parallel her upbeat and joyous music- her words are always uplifting and inspiring! I also respect her because she lives by what she sings. It isn’t just a one-time thing for a song, but she genuinely lives by her message of slef-love and body-positivity, which is very inspiring.
I had not seen this music video before, but I love it! I think that Lizzo is such an important role model for young people today. People face constant and harsh beauty standards that glorify whiteness and thinness. Today, those beauty standards are even intensified because of social media and the internet, which can be harsh and critical of everyone, especially female celebrities. Artists like Lizzo, who are outspoken against fatphobia and eurocentric beauty standards, are doing important work and helping to make our society more accepting; it is so important for young people to grow up with role models such as Lizzo, who share messages of self-love. In this review, I like how you point out the symbolism of the popping of the balloons and what it represents.
I haven’t listened to a lot of Lizzo, but I do know what she is about, and I love her deeply because of that. I’m glad I got to read this reflection and watch this music video; it is definitely worthy of a watch, especially for women. I love that Lizzo has been preaching about this since before she got big, and has been preaching it to this day – it really shows how much she cares about the way we treat others, specifically women and the norm for women. While it may seem a long way ahead, Lizzo creating this kind of music and music videos will make that future closer as we dismantle these societal norms imposed by people who want the impossible
This is the first time that I have heard of this song, but I love the message behind it! I have heard some of Lizzo’s songs and I appreciate her work especially because of how much her work goes back to this idea of body positivity and being accepting of all people, regardless of their physical attributes. I think that Lizzo is using her platform to provide positive change in society and I love seeing this!