Ariana Grande is more of a refreshingly outspoken feminist than your average contemporary pop star. When she’s not “not” giving women an anthem on SNL, the “Dangerous Woman” singer is calling out the media for gender double standards and trolling the trolls. Grande, who comes from a family with a “long line of female activists,” doesn’t need to surround herself with a #squad to say what needs to be said. But she’ll talk about it with Billboard.
“Do you want to see something I saved to my phone because it upset me so much?” she asks me. It’s a collection of tweets from a U.K. radio station with a salacious streak — two praise Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik for showing skin, and two scold Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian for the same. “If you’re going to rave about how sexy a male artist looks with his shirt off,” says Grande, “and a woman decides to get in her panties or show her boobies for a photo shoot, she needs to be treated with the same awe and admiration.
“I will say it until I’m an old-ass lady with my t*ts out at Whole Foods. I’ll be in the produce aisle, naked at 95, with a sensible ponytail, one strand of hair left on my head and a Chanel bow. Mark my words. See you there with my 95 dogs.” (Via Billboard)
This goes back to something Grande touched on in a widely re-tweeted essay. “If a women has a lot of sex (or any sex for that matter),” she wrote, “she’s a ‘slut.’ If a man has sex… HE’S. A. STUD. a BOSSSSSS. a KING. If a woman even TALKS about sex openly… she is shamed! But if a man talks or RAPS freely about all the women (or more commonly used ‘bitches’/’hoes’… how lovely) he’s had… he is regaled.” If someone has sex, they should be celebrated, not criticized. Sex is great! And both men and women should be treated with “awe and admiration” for showing their “sexy” bodies. Sexy bodies are great!
Ariana Grande should be able to proudly walk around Whole Foods topless when she’s an “old-ass” 95-year-old. I’ll probably be doing the same thing, but at Walmart. I’m not a pop star — I can’t afford Whole Foods.
(Via Billboard)
