Demi Lovato’s Ridiculously Privileged Crusade Against a Frozen Yogurt Shop
Despite the litany of social media controversies involving A-list celebrities targeting journalists, television writers, and non-celebrity users—and the corresponding discourse about these power dynamics—in recent years, celebrities are still wielding their influence in irresponsible ways for the most nonsensical complaints.
The latest is an incident involving Demi Lovato and a popular frozen yogurt shop in Los Angeles called The Bigg Chill. After calling out the business on her Instagram on Sunday for displaying and selling sugar-free cookies and other diet food items, the former Disney star is explaining her role in the dramatic saga after receiving backlash online.
“I walked into a situation that didn’t sit right with me,” Lovato said in an Instagram video on Monday. “My intuition said speak up about this, so I did. And I feel good about that. What I don’t feel good about is some of the way it’s been interpreted and how the message has gotten misconstrued.”
The incident, which unfolded rather quickly, started with a few paragraphs Lovato posted on her Instagram Stories calling out the company’s “harmful messaging” and enabling of “disordered eating.”
“Finding it extremely hard to order Froyo from @TheBiggChillOfficial when you have to walk past tons of sugar-free cookies/other diet foods before you get to the counter,” Lovato wrote along with the hashtag #dietculturevulture. “PLEASE DO BETTER.”
The “Dancing With The Dark” singer also posted a direct message exchange between her and The Bigg Chill’s Instagram account in which the store claims that they are “not diet culture vultures” and apologized for offending her. The store also defended themselves on their Instagram Stories, tagging Lovato and writing, “we carry items for diabetics, celiac disease, vegan and, of course have many indulgent items as well.”
Still, Lovato refused to relent to this line of reasoning, messaging the company that their service was “terrible” and explaining that eating disorders are the second deadliest mental illness “to opiod [sic] overdoses.” Later on, presumably after the singer received some pushback on social media, she suggested that the company label their snacks as designated for people with dietary restrictions and vegans as not to “exclude one demographic by catering to others.”
While the singer’s claims that seeing the store’s diet options triggered her highly publicized struggle with bulimia obviously can’t be disputed, Lovato received accusations on social media that her callout of the women-owned small business was not only impulsive and uninformed but irresponsible considering her aggressive online fanbase that have a history of sending death threats to individuals Lovato has taken issue with.
This phenomenon—that’s pervasive among most stan communities of major pop stars—is actually something Lovato has addressed and condemned multiple times, unlike many of her famous colleagues including Taylor Swift, who recently exposed Ginny & Georgia actress Antonia Gentry to online hate after publicly complaining about being the subject of a joke on the show, and Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, who called out Daily Pop host Morgan Stewart and “bloggers” in general on social media after she accused the former of lip-syncing in 2019. In 2014, Lovato penned a lengthy message instructing her “Lovatics” to stop sending death threats to comedian Kathy Griffin after replying to someone who asked her who the “biggest celebrity douche” was on social media with her name. (A year later, in an interview with Ryan Seacrest, Griffin claimed that law enforcement had to get involved.)
Most recently, Lovato insightfully addressed the issue in her YouTube documentary series Demi Lovato: Dancing With The Devil that premiered in March. In the third episode, her friend and former creative director Dani Vitale revealed that she received thousands of hateful messages and death threats on a daily basis after fans accused her of giving Lovato drugs before she suffered a near-fatal overdose in 2018. Lovato acknowledged that, although she has “amazing” fans, they can be “out of line” and “don’t always have all the information.”
“Lovato acknowledged that, although she has “amazing” fans, they can be “out of line” and “don’t always have all the information.””
Journalist Rachel Brodsky, who called on pop stars like Swift, Grande and Lana Del Rey to address the culture of harassment and doxxing among their online fan bases in an article for The Independent, called this moment in Lovato’s docuseries “frustratingly rare.” It’s disappointing then that this displayed awareness about the harm her fans are capable of inflicting with or without her behest didn’t extend to her own actions over the weekend, presumably because she was able to frame her callout to her 102 million Instagram followers as an act of service for people…
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