We’re well past the antiquated notion that a person can’t love all things beauty and simultaneously be tuned into political and cultural current events. Needless to say, two things can be true: You can be really good at applying makeup and also be a critical thinker. Lizzo is a perfect example. The superstar has always shared her both her penchant beauty and her passion for speaking up about social issues. So it should come as no surprise that she’s taken the opportunity to turn a “get ready with me” video into an inspiring message about what’s currently going on in the U.S.
On Monday, April 10, Lizzo posted a nearly three-minute video. “Get ready with me and let’s talk social justice,” she starts out, dabbing her face with a makeup sponge and making it immediately clear that this won’t necessarily include the usual GRWM content. “Full disclosure: I’ve already added some brow gel and concealer, so let’s get into it.”
Lizzo begins by shading in her brows with a brow pencil. “Living in this country can be extremely emotionally traumatizing because it feels like we’re always being pulled from one extreme to the next. On one end, you know, I love where I live, you know, I love where I’m from, and for the most part I love my country,” she says, looking into the camera. “But then we see what this country is built on and how its policies don’t reflect the freedom or the rights for every citizen. AKA, living in America is realizing that this country is filled with racism, xenophobia, homophobia, classism — all the isms you can think of that marginalize most people. And there’s a lot of white supremacy.”
She moves on to contouring under cheeks. “But this is a country built on protest. Yeah, not just peaceful protest. Protest — talking about riots. Because there was taxation without representation — talking, dumping tea into the Boston Harbor because they was mad and they was over it,” she says, switching to the other side of her face. “So protest is quite literally written in our amendments. We have the right to do it.”
The contouring continues along her jawline. “If you’re from an older generation or a marginalized group, you have seen how protest goes down in this country, whether it be the suffragettes or the civil rights movement, or Stonewall, protest has been at the heart of every social change.”