During the summer of 2022, two of the biggest pop artists, Lizzo and Beyoncé, were lambasted on Twitter by Australian activists for using the word "spaz" in their songs. "Spaz" is shorthand for "spastic" and it has a very different connotation overseas than it does in the United States.
"The 'spaz' that I grew up with as a teenager in the '90s meant that you were like maybe a little bit random. It could even be a term of endearment. It is not the same as the 'spaz' that's used in African American vernacular English, where it basically means that you're about to fight somebody," says novelist and cultural critic Kat Rosenfield.
