As a card-carrying Arianator, I’ve been there to witness every one of Ariana Grande’s style evolutions. I mean, the woman practically invited the ponytail, how could I not stan? But over the years (separate from an ongoing discussion about celebrities and cultural appropriation) there has been a lot of public commentary on Ariana’s body. How small she is, how small she isn’t, and lots of other judgments that frankly aren’t anyone’s business but her own have been for some reason up for debate online. With Wicked coming in hot to make winter pink and green (instead of seasonal depression blue), Ariana is sitting pretty in the spotlight more than ever before. Unfortunately, that has encouraged the presumptions about her body and health to increase tenfold online and in the press. Now, Ariana Grande has responded to the body-shaming and I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Ariana Grande’s Comments About Body Shaming
What has Ariana Grande said about body shaming after Wicked?
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In an interview released on December 5, 2024, Ariana and Cynthia sat down with French internet personality Sally during their international press tour for Wicked. While teasing the chat on Instagram, Sally wrote that both stars “opened up beautifully about beauty standards, criticism, feeling different, and being yourself” in the caption, which caught the attention of fans who had been waiting for the moment Ariana would shut down the nonsense once and for all to arrive.
Halfway through the interview, Sally asks how Ariana deals with the pressure of society pushing “perfect” beauty standards on her, just like her character Galinda in Wicked. Ariana replies “My goodness, that’s a good question” while evidently trying to hold back tears before answering. Ariana told Sally that she’s felt like a “specimen in a Petri dish…since [she] was 16 or 17” who has “heard every version of what’s wrong” with her from her appearance to her career in general over the years.
Ariana has found it “hard to protect [herself] from that noise” about her body. She believes society has a “comfortability” with commenting on what they think “is going on behind the scenes” from “what [she’s] wearing, to [her] body, to [her] face, to [her] everything” that Ariana finds “dangerous for all parties involved.” Ariana wants the spectators who are overstepping in her personal health to know that this scrutiny is “not welcome” because she has “work to do” and “a life to live” and “so much love” to give to her friends and fans. Ari slam dunks the speech by advising her fans that “no one has the right to say shit” in their lives either, even if it’s just a nosey granny pinching their sides at Thanksgiving dinner. Preach, babe.
Ariana addressed body shaming in 2023
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Earlier in April of 2023 (in the midst of shooting for Wicked), Ariana Grande took to TikTok to share a three-minute message with fans. She starts by prefacing that this chat isn’t a comfy one. “I don’t do this often, I’m not good at it and I don’t like it,” Ariana warns viewers. Still, she wanted to address “the concerns about her body” and “what it means to be a person with a body,” which, valid, considering a lot of people forget just because she’s famous that she is a literal human being. Ariana thinks “we should be gentler and less comfortable” commenting on people’s bodies, whether the feedback is supposed to be perceived as good or bad. The singer advises there are other ways to give someone a compliment, or “ignore something you see that you don’t like” to “keep each other safer.” “There are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful” Ariana points out.
She then addresses unsolicited commentary about her size head-on. “I know personally for me the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my healthy. But that in fact wasn’t my healthy.” Even though I totally agree Ariana shouldn’t have to explain this, her “openness and some sort of vulnerability” is helpful to fans looking up to her.
She finishes with more solid advice. “You never know what someone is going through, so even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it. Or has a support system that they are working on it with.” Ariana signs off by encouraging fans to be “gentle” not only with others but with themselves. Ariana thinks they’re “beautiful no matter what” they’re going through, weight changes, makeup choices, and “cosmetic procedures” included.
