Ariana Grande And The Women Of ‘SNL’ Dance Through Landmines On ‘This Is Not A Feminist Song’

Ariana Grande’s stint pulling double-duty on Saturday Night Live was excellent. The writers managed to take full advantage of her status as a musical chameleon and comedic actress, but only one took aim at the political pop music landscape that Grande inhabits. The singer and the women of Saturday Night Live danced through a minefield with their short “This Is Not A Feminist Song.”

The song decries how hard it is for pop stars to make a song that will accurately reflect the experiences of half the world’s population, especially knowing that minor slip-ups could spell disaster. Instead, the singer’s dodge a 4th-wave Twitter beatdown by giving up.

The song admits that feminism is “pretty nuanced stuff” and that being “scared we would do it wrong” ultimately led to them opting out of writing a feminist track.

“We know women need an anthem, a song to call their own/ but we didn’t write that anthem, we went home.”

After showcasing footage that they would have used had the song been a feminist anthem,the cast becomes confused as to whether or not the song is feminist by virtue of being sung entirely by women. The women give into the idea that it’s going to be an anthem and encouraging listeners to head to social media and “tell us if we handled it all wrong.”

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