Pop star Ariana Grande embarked on a promotional tour for her new song “Focus” and faced off with the radio hosts at Power 106 FM as they asked sexist questions. Whether the station did this for attention or not, it’s still totally uncool. Feminism for the win!
The interview got off to fine start, but then took a disappointing turn. They started off the controversy by using a common stereotype about girls. You know, the one where just sit on our phones all day and apply makeup. They asked her to choose between her phone and makeup, for which Ariana called them out. “Is this what you think girls have trouble choosing between,” Grande replied.
The hosts laughed off their subtle sexism and seemed shocked when she dropped a bombshell that she actually CAN go hours without her phone (gasp!). To them, she was only an exception though. They went on to call out all women about their phones saying they could learn from her.
Again, Ariana wasn’t having it and said that boys, too, could learn. Last time we checked, girls weren’t the only ones who owned phones.
It only got worse when it came to the topic of the new unicorn emoji. When Grande pointed out that guys can also use the emoji, masculinity was questioned. “Boys versus men,” replied the host to which Ariana wisely hit back with, “who says the unicorn emoji isn’t for men? Come on!” She even noted that they need a lesson in equality. Touché.
After having enough of the sexism, Ariana ended her appearance. Sexism, no matter how subtle, is problematic and can be tiring to shut down when you deal with it so often. Who could blame her?
Ariana has been making headlines with her feminism. She tweeted her support for Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez’s new albums weeks ago and called for support among women. She also very recently took on body shaming when her body was compared with Modern Family’s Ariel Winter. The twitter user said they favored Ariel’s because “curves are sexy.” Grande denounced it by saying we should celebrate all body types.
Her headlines as of lately have greatly improved from this past Summer when she found herself caught up in “donut gate”.