Olivia Wilde Vs Lizzo: The Double Standard In Harry Styles’ Dating Rumors
How come Lizzo and Harry holding hands never sparked dating rumors?
YouTube, Featureflash Photo Agency & lev radin / Shutterstock Olivia Wilde is the latest attractive white girl rumored to be dating Harry Styles — but how come when Harry Styles and Lizzo hung out the and held hands it never caused this much of a stir?
So we’ve all seen the photos. Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde holding hands at a friend’s wedding. We’ve seen the headlines, the dating rumors, the theories, the Twitter frenzy, the heartbroken fans.
Because holding hands equals a relationship, right?
But where was this energy when Lizzo and Harry held hands at the February 2020 BRIT Awards, as seen in the interview below? Or when they spent weeks covering each other’s music and performing together on stage?
Fans of the “Juice” singer have taken to Twitter to express frustration at the media for never entertaining the prospect that Styles’ and Lizzo’s relationship could have been more than a friendship — yet immediately jumping on Olivia Wildes and Harry Styles's coupledom.
Lizzo, a plus-size Black woman with enviable body confidence, doesn’t conform to conventional beauty standards which made Harry Styles fans and the media unwilling to see her as a possible match for the former One Direction singer.
A brief history of Harry and Lizzo’s “friendship”.
Our first glimpse of #Hizzo came in late 2019 when Harry covered Lizzo’s hit song “Juice” in a live radio performance. Lizzo returned the favor a few months later when she covered Styles’ “Adore You”.
She also spoke lovingly about the singer calling him her “favorite British import”.
The pair also performed together during Super Bowl weekend, laughing and dancing with one another on stage.
Then, at the BRITs, Lizzo and Harry sat at adjacent tables. They were seen talking and passing drinks to one another.
At one point, during an interview with host Jack Whitehall, Lizzo even held hands with Harry as he dotingly rested his head on her shoulder.
In a later interview, Lizzo also called herself and Styles “an old married couple”.
And yet any headlines or stories linking the two referred only to Lizzo and Harry as “friends," not a “new couple” or a “rumored love interest”.
In fact, Lizzo was even subjected to backlash from fans who accused her of sexualizing Harry by mimicking grabbing his butt during a live performance even though the moment looked rehearsed and Styles' did the same motion back to her.
Lizzo fans have been quick to call out the double-standard.
Sure, it’s possible that these two never shared anything more than a platonic love for one another.
Fans are not frustrated that Lizzo and Harry had a secret relationship that got overlooked. Instead, it is the refusal to even imagine or speculate that Harry would date Lizzo that is causing annoyance.
And it’s not like there isn’t plenty of evidence linking the pair. Especially considering it doesn’t take much for celebrity dating rumors to begin.
In 2012, Styles fans decided the singer was dating Taylor Swift after both were spotted wearing matching necklaces, weeks before the pair were ever photographed together.
Harry Styles and ex Camille Rowe never so much as held hands in public together before the media had romantically linked them.
It doesn’t take much for a skinny blonde to be declared Styles’ girlfriend but for Lizzo, not even a declaration of love and PDA at an award show could allow the media to release her from the “friendzone”.
This double-standard has prompted many fans to question whether fatphobia and body-shaming culture could be at play here.
Others have speculated that Lizzo’s race may have something to do with it since Styles is rarely linked to women of color.
It’s likely a combination of these two factors. As a Black woman who doesn’t fit into size zero clothing, Lizzo represents a body-type that is so often overlooked by the media. And because of this lack of representation, are not deemed "beautiful" enough to date men like Harry Styles.
This isn’t to imply that Styles himself would not date Lizzo. That is not relevant here. This is part of a much wider issue. An issue that is greater than Styles and Lizzo.
By never putting Lizzo in the same category as Olivia Wilde, Kendall Jenner, Taylor Swift, or any of Harry Styles’ other rumored love interests, the media puts forward a notion that Lizzo and women who look like her are somehow undateable.
Harry Styles fans who accused Lizzo of sexualizing Styles also reveal another layer to this double-standard. Because we're taught to believe that women who look like Lizzo are not beautiful, we also assume that any flirtatious advances from them are non-consensual and unwanted, even though Harry reciprocated Lizzo's actions.
Despite her obvious beauty, success, and confidence, conventional beauty standards condemn Lizzo to the role of “friend” while any white woman with a stick-like figure and chiseled cheekbones photographed with a famous man is automatically his girlfriend.
That said, Lizzo and anyone who looks like her doesn’t need a dating rumor or male validation to recognize their beauty.
In the words of Lizzo herself, “I was born like this, don’t even gotta try."
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. She has a passion for pop culture and social justice. Catch her covering trending topics, entertainment, and news.