Beyoncé removes anti-disability word from song ‘Heated’
Disability rights activists have hit out at singer Beyoncé for a new song.
She uses the word “spaz” in it. Now she deletes this and apologizes. / Beyoncé removes anti-disability word from song ‘Heated’
After criticism, US pop star Beyoncé deleted a word considered anti-disabled from a song on her recently released album “Renaissance”. “The word that was not intentionally used in a hurtful manner will be substituted,” a rep for the singer said Monday.
Previously, criticism had been leveled at the song “Heated,” which Canadian singer Drake also co-wrote. In it, Beyoncé uses the word “spaz,” which colloquially means something like losing control, acting clumsily, or behaving oddly.
However, disability rights activists pointed out that the origin lies in the word “spastic”, a term that is often used derogatory. In June, the singer Lizzo had already re-recorded her song “Grrrls”, which contained the same word.
Australian activist Hannah Diviney explained that Beyoncé’s use of the word “feels like a slap in the face to me, the community of disabled people and the progress we wanted to make with Lizzo”. She will probably have to keep asking the music industry to improve “until anti-disabled comments disappear from the music”.
Beyoncé’s seventh studio album was released on Friday. It met with a mostly positive response from critics.
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