“Your new song makes me pretty angry + sad,” Diviney tweeted. Disability advocate Hannah Diviney, who has a form of cerebral palsy classified as spastic diplegia, was among those who took to social media to tag Lizzo and criticize the initial lyric. In the original track, released June 10, she sang, “I’m a spaz / I’m about to knock somebody out.” In the updated version of “GRRRLS,” the lyrics are now “Hold me back / I’m about to knock somebody out.” Spasticity is a medical condition in which people lose control over muscle movement, sometimes resulting in severely painful muscle spasms. As a fat black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case, unintentionally).”
“Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language. “It’s been brought to my attention that there is a harmful word in my new song ‘GRRRLs,’” Lizzo wrote in a June 13 statement posted to Instagram and Twitter. Lizzo has released another version of “GRRRLS” that removes a lyric that was criticized by members of the disability community as an ableist slur.
