We haven’t written about Ariana Grande since she and Big Sean broke up in April. I was actually pretty happy with that arrangement – Ariana annoys the hell out of me, but she’s been less “extra” this year after her bratty explosion last year. And yes, she did behave like a brat. It was well-documented. In any case, Ariana was getting some criticism…?? Or something. Somebody, somewhere, said something about Ariana having a bad attitude, being a diva or a bitch or whatever, and she decided to write a Grande Thesis on feminism. From her Twitter (minor NSFW warning for language).
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) June 7, 2015
Okay. I’ll say something positive: I would much rather see a pop star engage in this kind of conversation about feminism, being objectified, sexual agency and society’s double standards as opposed to “OMG, I don’t know anything about feminism, gosh!” Love her or hate her, Ariana is furthering the discussion in the right direction.
Now, all that being said… I still think Ariana needs an attitude adjustment in general.
PS… I think Ariana was being attacked by crazy 1Ders and that’s why she’s specifically talking about friendship-versus-romance after being seen out with Niall Horan. Ah, I think the same thing happened to Betty Friedan. All of the great feminist manifestos begin with crazy 1Ders.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I love it. I was fist pumping from start to finish.
Me too!!
I mean girlfriend makes some good points. She’s a diva, she’s a pain in the ass, but I cannot fault her for this one. And so, with that, I say…
Yaaaaas.
Yaaaaaaasssss!!
Why does she insist on wearing those stupid cat ears? She looks 11.
Which is probably how she wants to look like.
She can wear whatever she wants, especially if she’s going to keep saying righteous things like this! Compare and contrast with Iggy Azalea and her dumb bs. Not that I listen to either of their music, but this is a great rant, right on and surprisingly well stated.
good for her.
don’t know her songs, she seems annoying generally, but i love that she talks about how women are seen and see themselves as a mans past present or future, not as a person standing on her own.
I remember, pathetically, thinking “if i’m not ____ girlfriend, who am I?’ when I was young and confused. very confused, and infatuated in love with a boy.
I hope this message gets to girls her age and younger and reminds them they are not dolls on a shelf and they don’t have to be ‘somebodys somebody’ to be somebody at all.
ugh, this brat needs to STFU
Why?
What she said it so right.
I don’t have to like her, but it doesn’t make what she says less true.
Oh yes. I can’t stand her, but I agree with her. On everything.
Slow clap. I think she’s annoying, talented but annoying but she is sooo on point here.
I’m surprised by this – I had assumed she was a brainless poppette with a bad attitude, but she quotes Gloria Steinem?! Not bad.
still not a fan of pop stars using feminism to shield themselves from valid questions. her relationship was shady. the 1D is a completly diffrent matter, those are jealous teeny girls. thats hardly a political issue. they dont want any woman around “their” man.
as a celeb who is in the tabloids you relationship will always matter, ask Kevin Federline what people know about him.
I think she contextualized her post well, though.
Have no idea about the Sean business or the 1 Direction stuff, but I think she explained her points well enough that her point of view sounds valid to me.
The 1D fans probably don’t want anybody around “their” men, but I don’t think it’s wrong to point out to them to stop calling the women seen with them certain names, even if the 1D fans are simply loony-tunes. Maybe pointing this out to them will bring them back to reality and make them realize they can focus on other things besides imaginary boyfriends.
On other sites she has been getting some really misogynistic comments- sometimes about her clothing, sometimes about the fact that she’s a grown female singer who, gasp- DARES to sing a few songs that are sexual, and some about her alleged dating life- for quite a while now. So that could be part of the reason why she’s bringing that up. Criticism of her attitude based on things she actually said/did is valid, but the rest isn’t.
She’s definitely right about the double standards though, in a lot of ways. Male artists get criticism if people find their lyrics sexist in a way mainstream society disapproves of (when a man’s lyrics are sexist in a way that a lot of people are okay with, he might not even get criticized). They definitely don’t get labelled as ‘trashy sl*ts’ or ‘classless skanks’ or anything like that just for singing about consensual adult sex. But popular female artists do- I’ve seen it with just about every one of the popular ones. And people- mostly either teen types who haven’t been with more than one or two people or adults who are more traditional in their attitudes about dating- sometimes have a problem with it when a female artist has dated 3 or more guys.
I don’t plan on listening to any of her songs but I like her now. I’m glad a young person with such a big fanbase said something so accurate and intelligent in favor of women’s rights.
Well, that was….surprisingly awesome. Good for her. It’s refreshing for a celeb to a) actually know what feminism is about and b) speak about it passionately.
I see nothing wrong in what she has written. In fact, everything is pretty spot-on and she does seem to know what she’s talking about, unlike other popstars/starlettes. That doesn’t change the fact that she may need to reconsider some aspects of her attitude.
At last she can cite Gloria Steinem and has some idea about the history of feminism. And I think that’s amazing that she is learning that she doesn’t need a partner to feel complete, I know women who struggle with this in their 40s…
I rather think it was in response to people calling her a diva over this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gg6oeBnNVA
Diva or not, she’s on point.
All I knew of Ariana Grande was Diva who gets carried and had a Mariah Carey attitude towards her profile, but thanks to recent CB posts I now know also that:
She can really sing, seriously girl’s got a voice
and
she can actually think for herself–not sure how old she is but I LOVE this rant and what it says about her possible future development.
Yay for Arianna. I know everybody hates on her and her kitty ears, but I’ve always had a soft spot and considering she grew up as a Nicholodean kid, she is by average standards, a refreshingly mentally healthy and strong young lady. Applause, applause, applause!
This isn’t the first time she’s shown any sort of feminist perspective toward things- calling out people who were fat-shaming Nicki Minaj, refusing to slut-shame other female artists when given a golden opportunity to do so in order to make herself look better than them- but I’m glad she did this. My only hope is that she doesn’t take a page out of Christina’s book and decide that being an empowered and assertive woman means that it’s okay to be a totally rude, demanding diva on a frequent basis. I don’t think she’s reached that point yet, but still. Of course most of us have moments in life where we’re demanding, impatient, moody, or rude, or even a little entitled, even as adults, but you don’t want to let yourself become a regular a$$hole. You can be an empowered, assertive, opinionated woman and still try to be considerate as a person.