Ariana Grande, the tiny, demon-smelling, doughnut-licking human with a stupendous voice, is a polarizing woman. One minute she’s in the middle of a terrible PR situation after surveillance footage reveals her pressing her tongue on display doughnuts (that people will ostensibly buy later) and then blaming it on the obesity epidemic in America. The next, she’s belting out the notes to Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” She has her fair share of both critics and fans.
Watch: Ariana Grande takes down 2 radio DJs who ask her stupid, sexist questions
“If you could use makeup or your phone one last time, what would you pick?”
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
But love her or hate her, Grande has endured things like body shaming and sexism that no one, not even someone who ruins perfectly good doughnuts, should have to endure. And this week, she took down a couple of sexist radio personalities in a deeply satisfying way.
In an interview with Los Angeles’s Power 106, Grande was asked a series of idiotic questions. DJs Justin Credible and Eric D-Lux could have asked her anything, but they settled on asking the multi-platinum recording artist about makeup and her phone.
“If you could use makeup or your phone one last time, what would you pick?” one of them asked.
“Is this men assuming that that’s what girls would have to choose between?” Grande asked without skipping a beat. As the interview continued, she was also asked about what she wants to change in the world, a question she answered with a pretty sly and perfect response:
I have a long list of things I’d like to change …I think, judgement in general. Intolerance, meanness, double standards, misogyny, racism, sexism. You know, all that shit. There’s lots we’ve got to get started on. That’s what we need to focus on. We have got work to do … We’ll start with you, though.
Here’s the video:
That wasn’t Grande’s only experience with the ignorant and clueless this week. On Monday, she was harassed on social media for her figure. A commenter compared her with Modern Family’s Ariel Winters, and shamed Grande for her lack of curves.
“[W]e live in a day and age where it is IMPOSSIBLE for women, men, anyone to embrace themselves exactly how they are. ... talking about people’s body’s [sic] as if they’re on display ASKING for your approval / opinion. THEY ARE NOT!!!! CELEBRATE YOURSELF. CELEBRATE OTHERS,” Grande wrote, setting a heartening example while putting those who’ve unfairly judged her in their place.
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