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Summary

Fans Called Out Beyoncé For An 'Ableist' Lyric & The Same Slur Also Got Lizzo In Trouble

She quickly responded to the criticism.

Beyonce's visual for her new album "Renaissance."

Beyonce's visual for her new album "Renaissance."

Global Staff Writer

Although a lot of people were blown away by Beyoncé's most recent album, some have accused her of using ableist language in one particular song — and the drama has prompted her to make some changes.

This article contains content that may be upsetting to some of our readers.

Beyoncé released her long-awaited album, Renaissance, right in time for the long weekend, but it wasn't long before critics started calling her out for using an "ableist" slur in the song Heated, reported Glamour.

Activists and members of disabled communities were particularly upset by the line: "sp*zzing on that ass, sp*z on that ass."

The word “spaz” is derived from the word “spastic” and is often used derogatorily to describe people with cerebral palsy and others who experience seizures and muscle spasms.

Not too long ago, Lizzo faced similar backlash for using the word "sp*z" in her single Grrrls.

Lizzo reacted to the criticism by changing the song's lyrics and eliminating the offensive term completely. Instead, the new version of the song only repeats "hold my bag."

Beyonce is taking similar precautions and will be re-recording the single with new lyrics, although the new lyrics have not yet been announced.

Her publicist told the BBC that the lyrics were "not used intentionally in a harmful way" and that the offending words "will be replaced in the lyrics."

However, that doesn't mean people aren't upset that the mistake happened in the first place, especially after what happened with Lizzo.

One critic on Twitter described the lyric as a "slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo."

"Guess I'll just keep telling the whole industry to 'do better' until ableist slurs disappear from music," continued the tweet.

Others came to Beyoncé's defence and argued that the word has an entirely different meaning in "black America," where it's coined as a term for being overexcited or hyper.

One Twitter user wrote: "Neither Beyoncé nor Lizzo should have changed it, Sp*z is NOT a slur in Black America, and we simply can not let folks across the pond dictate how we talk."

"Sp*z is not a slur, not in the way Beyoncé and Lizzo used it. It's a slang that is referring to a type of jumpiness or general hyper activeness," wrote another.

Another person tweeted that they "never knew it was a slur till June when Lizzo received backlash for it."

Beyonce's Renaissance is her first studio album since 2016 and her seventh solo album overall.

It's unclear when she will re-record the lyric but Lizzo dealt with the same issue in less than a day.

So now we wait and see!

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    • Sameen Chaudhry (she/her) was a Toronto-based Staff Writer for Narcity's Global Desk. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Science from the University of Toronto, where she majored in political science and philosophy. Before joining Narcity, she wrote for 6ixBuzzTV, covering topics like Toronto's music scene, local real estate stories, and breaking news.

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