Ariana Grande just dropped her highly-anticipated third album, Dangerous Woman—which is a reflection of her own feminist ideals. Inspired by an Egyptian feminist, the pop singer chose the title based on a quote she once read. As someone who has been in the entertainment industry since she was a child, Ariana has learned a thing or two about how female stars are treated, and she has quite a few comments on the topic. Ariana’s recent interview with Billboard magazine proves that she is in fact a dangerous woman, who you really don’t want to mess with—especially if you refer to her as some guy’s ex.
During the interview, Ariana got fired up about the double standards in Hollywood, and the fact that people like her and Selena Gomez find themselves defined by their exes (or even current boyfriends).
“I’ll never be able to swallow the fact that people feel the need to attach a successful woman to a man when they say her name,” Ariana said. “I saw a headline—draw your own conclusions [on the subjects] because it’ll be so much drama that I don’t want—they called someone another someone’s ex, and that pissed me off. This person has had so many great records in the last year, and she hasn’t been dating him forever. Call her by her name!”
“I hate that. Like, I’m fuming. Sorry. You opened up…I need to take a sip of water and breathe. Don’t get me started on this shit,” Ariana added. Although Ariana didn’t blatantly call out the overly-publicized Selena and Justin relationship, it is pretty clear that’s the one she’s referring to. Regardless, Ariana makes an excellent point here because singers like her and Selena are talented in their own right, yet more people seem to be talking about their relationship status than their music.
For people who might be skeptical and think that Ariana’s self-proclaimed feminist attitude is just for show, she’s here to prove that it’s simply not the case. Pulling out her phone, she showed a bunch of tweets from a radio station that really bothered her—not because they were attacking her, but because they were being sexist. The tweets praised Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik for looking great in their shirtless photos, but when Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian stripped down, they were heavily criticized. “If you’re going to rave about how sexy a male artist looks with his shirt off, 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.”
So if we learned anything from Ariana’s recent words, it’s that the focus should remain on her career, not on her rumored or confirmed relationships. The singer is okay with comparisons to successful women like Selena, but if she’s defined by her connection to any male star, you can expect her to speak out about it. “I’ve said this a million times: I hate drama. I love women in the industry. I’m a big fan of all my peers, and I try to keep it a hundred.”