Pop-star Ariana Grande has absolutely no qualms with calling out bullshit when she hears it. In fact, right now she’s waging the good war against body shaming on Instagram.
Having recently dropped her new single Focus, she’s been doing the promo rounds in the States for a few days now. Last Thursday, she paid a visit to two radio DJs whose names are about as ridiculous as their questions. Justin Credible and Eric D-Lux premiered the new track following a near half-hour interview with Grande herself in the studio. The entire thing seems civil – friendly, even. That is until they start playing and either-or kind of game, of which the first nail-biting decision is one where Grande is asked to pick between her phone or make-up.
“Is this men assuming that that’s what girls would chose between?” She responds, clearly offended by the obvious gendering of their questions. The only thing is, it wasn’t exactly clear to the interviewers who continue with their mobile-phone game.
Next on their list were the new additions to the emojis, asking Grande which one was her favourite. She rattled off quite a long list of her favourites, which ended with the unicorn. That last emoji incited a condescending snort of “girls” from the worst offender during the entire interview, D-Lux. Maybe emojis seem a frivolous thing to get worked up about, but it all points to a wider picture, one that Grande is determined to see changing.
“I think judgment in general,” she said later when asked what she would like to change most in the world. “Intolerance, meanness, double standards, misogyny, racism, sexism. All that shit. That’s what we need to focus on. We’ve got work to do… We’ll start with you though!” She finishes, pointing directly at D-Lux, whose offences during the interview are not limited to the ones listed here.
Though Grande promises at the end of her interview to return to Power FM when the album is done, between this interview, during which she also said “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t wanna hang out at Power 106 anymore.” and her stance on gender equality (which she has made pretty clear in the past), smart money betting she won’t be back.