Lizzo sued by backup dancers who allege she forced them to eat bananas out of stripper's vagina

Lizzo, the overweight performer at the forefront of the body positivity movement, has been accused of weight-shaming, sexual harassment, and creating a hostile work environment by three of her former back-up dancers who have brought forth a lawsuit against the singer.

Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams, and Nicole Rodriguez have all brought forth a lawsuit against controversial singer Lizzo, and per NBC News, the lawsuit claims “religious and racial harassment, false imprisonment, interference with prospective economic advantage and other allegations."

During a trip to the Red Light District in Amsterdam, the dancers claim, per the lawsuit, that “… things quickly got out of hand. Lizzo began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers’ vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” It further states that Lizzo “pressured” and “goaded” Davis into touching one of the naked dancer's breasts.

The suit, which also names Lizzo’s production company, Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. (BGBT), and her dance captain Shirlene Quigley, accuses Quigley of sexually harassing fellow dancers by “deriding those who had premarital sex while sharing lewd sexual fantasies, simulating oral sex and publicly discussing the virginity of one of the plaintiffs,” per NBC News.

The suit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court also accuses Lizzo for calling out the weight gain of one backup dancer, Arianna Davis, leading to alleged berating and ultimately Davis’s firing after she recorded a meeting with Lizzo, which Davis details was for the purpose of “taking notes."

“Ms. Quigley and Lizzo then took turns berating Ms. Davis,” the suit says, according to NBC News. “After castigating Ms. Davis, Lizzo fire Ms. Davis on the spot.”

However, per the lawsuit, no mention of Davis' weight is ever mentioned. Instead, comments made by Lizzo and her choreographer surrounded concern that Davis was “less committed” to her role as a dancer. A comment the suit detailed as a “thinly veiled” concern regarding Davis’ weight.

Lizzo is also accused of sexual harassment in the suit after she took her dancers to the red light district in Amsterdam. She invited dancers to come out after their show, where she allegedly pressured Davis into engaging with a nude performer.

In another instance, Lizzo is accused of inviting dancers to a club in Paris so “they would be able to learn something or be inspired by the performance,” the suit states. However, the singer never informed her dancers that the club was a “nude cabaret." While the suit described the performance as “artful,” the plaintiffs shared that they were “shocked that Lizzo would conceal the nature of the event from them, robbing them of the choice not to participate.”

A decision the plaintiffs shared showed the “little regard Lizzo showed for the bodily autonomy of her employees,” the suit says.

The suit details claims of racial harassment as comments, “charged with racial and fat-phobic animus," that were made toward dancers. And the claims of religious harassment stem from Quigley, the dance captain, trying to “proselytize to any and all in her presence regardless of protestations,” per the suit.

All three dancers named in the suit were fired for various reasons, with Williams sharing her firing came after speaking out against Lizzo’s accusations that dancers were drinking on the job.

Davis was fired after recording a meeting due to an “an eye condition that sometimes left her disoriented in stressful situations,” per the suit. When confronted, Davis acknowledged that she made the recording for the purpose of “performance notes” and that she had deleted the video, however, this led to her firing after allegedly being berated by Lizzo and team captain Quigley.

During this same meeting Rodriguez resigned due to feeling disrespected, and as she left, the suit states that Lizzo raised her middle fingers and yelled a slur at Rodriguez as she left.

In a statement released by the plaintiffs lawyer, Ron Zambrano, he stated that, “The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing."