There are many things that we ought to be discussing about Ariana Grande: her Oscar-tipped turn as the delightfully outré Glinda in the recent re-make of Wicked for one, the three recent Grammy nominations she received for her latest studio album, Eternal Sunshine, another. We should talk about her talent, her presence, and all of the traits that her fans adore in her. But what we should not be deliberating, dissecting or debating is Grande’s weight, which, perhaps inevitably given that hers is a female body, has found itself up for discussion.
Videos analysing and making stark declarations about the star’s appearance have proliferated through the Wicked tour. One of which has been viewed on TikTok almost 400,000 times. ‘Ariana needs help,’ the video says. ‘I’m not saying she isn’t pretty or anything like that but she is getting too skinny now. It’s getting too far.’ In the comments, users pass comments on her bones and her beauty and how concerned they are.
The R.E.M beauty founder has even pleaded with the public to quieten the criticisms of her physique. ‘I don’t do this often, I don’t like it, I’m not good at it,’ Grande began in a TikTok first shared in 2023. ‘I just wanted to address your concerns about my body and talk a little bit about what it means to be a person with a body and to be seen and to be paid such close attention to.’
She continued: ‘I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what. If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is: healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, not sexy.’
‘I just also wanted to say, one, there are many different kinds of beautiful. There are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful. I know personally, for me, the body you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body.’
What went unsaid in Grande’s TikTok was that, by the time she turned 31, the star had experienced a terrorist attack at her Manchester concert in 2017 and the death of her former partner and close collaborator Mac Miller in 2019. A former Nickelodeon star, when allegations surfaced about the channel’s treatment of its actors, Grande admitted that she was ‘reprocessing’ her experience. There’s a very real chance that this considerable emotional toll weighed heavily on Grande, in turn, impacting her health and appearance. There’s also a very real chance that the trauma Grande has experienced has nothing to do with her outwardly appearance, and that she’s merely grown up and, as she has openly admitted, is healthier and happier than ever before. Happiness isn’t monolithic, nor is it one-size-fits-all.
Grande is a best-selling musician, with two Grammys to her name, yet so much of the wider commentary around the Wicked press tour has been levied at her appearance. What an indictment this is on our cultural criticism of women’s bodies. When will we learn? Whether they’re bigger, smaller, softer or harder, they are the property of the women who inhabit them — and any opinions on how they might appear to you are harmful not only to the subject but to women-kind as a whole. As Grande so eloquently put it herself, there are many different kinds of beautiful — but the one that shines the brightest is that which allows and understands that fluctuations in weight aren’t always an indicator of a wider issue, nor are they a signal to ever pass judgment or comment.
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Read the original article in ELLE UK.
