Lizzo’s Feminist Rhetorical Strategies in the “Truth Hurts” Music Video: 100% That Bitch, That Feminist, That Activist

This article analyzes the feminist rhetorical strategies in Lizzo’s music video “Truth Hurts” to illustrate that popular songs are just as important to the feminist cause as performances during public protest. Using a feminist rhetorical analytic—critical subjectivity, resistance to patriarchal gender norms, and subversion of sexual norms—I argue that Lizzo performs feminist activism by interrupting pernicious narratives often inscribed on Black women’s bodies and personalities while also revealing the messiness and contradictions of feminist performance in popular culture. Such complexity underscores the importance of examining not whether Lizzo is a feminist but how her work enacts feminist meaning making. This analysis positions music videos as critical sites for feminist rhetorical inquiry. In doing so, it shows how popular media can advance feminist critique and activism, making feminist discourse accessible outside academia.