After facing criticism for using the same ableist slur as Lizzo on a Renaissance track, Beyoncé has confirmed that the term will be removed.
Beyoncé has confirmed that she will remove an ableist slur from ‘Heated’, a track on her new album, Renaissance.
On Monday, August 1st, disability advocate and writer Hannah Diviney called out Beyoncé for including the term ‘spaz’ in her song ‘Heated’ in a column published in The Guardian. The term is often used as an ableist slur for people with cerebral palsy.
Almost six weeks, Diviney had called out Lizzo for using the term in her song ‘GRRRLS’. The tweets went viral and led to Lizzo removing the term and releasing a different version of the song. Diviney expressed disappointment with Bey’s recent release, claiming that she only found out about Beyoncé’s use of the term when a Twitter user asked her whether she would urge the singer to ‘do better’.
“I thought we’d changed the music industry and started a global conversation about why ableist language – intentional or not – has no place in music. But I guess I was wrong, because now Beyoncé has gone and done exactly the same thing. In fact, she’s used the word “spaz” twice in a new song Heated, a co-write with Canadian rapper Drake off her new album, Renaissance, which dropped on Friday.” Diviney wrote.
Given mounting criticism against the song, Beyoncé has confirmed to Insider that the lyric will be removed from the song.
“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” said a statement to Insider.
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In her article, Diviney called out Beyoncé and her team for ‘missing’ the noise from six weeks ago when Lizzo removed the term from her song.
“Whenever Beyoncé so much as breathes it becomes a cultural moment. She’s often the blueprint for the music industry – with artists and entertainers following her lead.” she said.
“But that doesn’t excuse her use of ableist language – language that gets used and ignored all too often.” Diviney continued.
“It doesn’t excuse the fact that the teams of people involved in making this album somehow missed all the noise the disabled community made only six weeks ago when Lizzo did the same thing.” she added. “I’m so tired. Disabled people deserve better. I don’t want to have this conversation again.”
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Check out Lizzo’s statement on ‘GRRRLS’:
