Why the Ariana Grande ‘thinspiration’ debate has intensified

For as long as Ariana Grande’s body has been the source of public scrutiny, the mainstream media has generally stayed away from the issue. That’s largely out of the belief that it’s not OK to comment on women’s physical appearance or to speculate on their private health issues — even as such commentary regularly occurs in “brutal and clinical” ways on social media, as celebrity journalist Dan Wakeford wrote Monday.

But it looks like the mainstream media and general culture can no longer avoid the discourse about the 33-year-old Grammy winner’s overall health and weight, including whether people out in the world have a right to talk about these issues, under the guise of genuine concern or not.

That’s because Grande helped amplify the issue herself, starting with the July 31 release of her video for “Petal,” the title track off her new album. The video is supposed to be a critique of the harmful way women are judged for their appearance. The video casts her as an aspiring actress trying on different looks — perky, buxom, vampish — as she submits to a series of auditions. Under the “male gaze” of a panel of male executives, she receives increasingly hurtful and enraging remarks about her attractiveness, likability and “authenticity.”

But there’s also a scene in the video where the “Wicked” star is wearing all black and is meant to look glamorous and alluring. She also looks especially thin, with protruding collar and breast bones on display, which has sparked a new round of discussion, outrage and unverified speculation that she has an eating disorder.

“This poor woman is possibly dying right in front of us,” declared actor and activist Jameela Jamil in a since-deleted social media post. Jamil has been public about her own past struggles with anorexia nervosa.

In response to what a Grande insider called the public “toxicity” around her, her team announced that she would be “taking a step back in visibility,” after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour on Sept. 1, People reported. It’s also been confirmed by People and other outlets that she is pulling out of a West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George,” with her “Wicked” co-star Jonathan Bailey set to star opposite her.

In Grande team’s statement to People, they said that she looked forward to “taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”

Grande has previously described her weight and health as her personal business, saying it’s “dangerous” to comment on someone’s else’s looks, health, or “what’s going on behind the scenes.”

But this attempt by Grande and her team to criticize the public for having an opinion about her appearance has led to accusations that she’s trying to “gaslight” her fans and have it “both ways,” especially after she made the intense examination of her appearance the focus of her video.

“She does this cat and mouse game,” said internet personality Link Lauren on X, who said he has long covered body image in Hollywood.

“Her song is called ‘petal’ and she paints herself as this thin delicate flower, showing off every bone and rib, then it’s ‘how dare you’ discuss her body. … I hope she does take some time off to reflect and get well. But she’s playing into things herself.”

Other celebrities, writers and experts on eating disorders also have come out to say they wish Grande well and that it’s uncomfortable when the discourse focuses on her personally. But they also say the pop star — as one of the biggest celebrities in the world “with millions of followers who idolize her every move” — should take accountability for the body imagery she’s pushing out into the culture, as Buzzfeed writer Stephanie Soteriou said. That imagery includes “her disappearing arms and increasingly gaunt face,” Soteriou added.

“When somebody has Ariana’s level of influence — so much so that she has inspired countless lookalikes — normalizing or glamorizing this kind of imagery becomes, to me, downright irresponsible,” said Soteriou.

She reported that Grande has become a fixture on pro-anorexia forums for years, “with those suffering from disordered eating using the star’s frame as their so-called ‘thinspiration’ to dangerously restrict their own diets and do serious damage to their bodies as a result.”

Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, Soteriou wrote, citing studies in the U.K. In the United States, the National Eating Disorders Association estimates that 9% of the population, or nearly 31 million Americans, will have an eating disorder in their lifetime, while some 10,200 people die each year as the result of disordered eating.

On Instagram Story, Jamil had acknowledged the challenge in commenting on Grande’s body, which “could harm her mental health … and nobody wants that,” BuzzFeed reported.

At the same time, Jamil pointed out that the styling in the “Petal” video was designed to draw attention to her thinness and to make it look normal and even glamorous. “If we don’t comment on her body, we run the risk of normalizing that image to hundreds of millions of teenage girls, kids and even impressionable adults, consuming her content,” Jamil continued. “Content which is pointedly accentuating her bones, and tiny frame with belts and corsets.”

“I think it’s vital we discuss imagery/videos/content like these and the damage they can and will have on women and girls,” Jamil also said. “WHAT YOU SEE HERE IS NOT NORMAL.”

“Silence is complicity when it gets this far. Look at Karen Carpenter,” Jamil also said, referring to the 1970s pop singer, who began to appear gaunt in the years before she died in 1983 due to heart failure caused by anorexia nervosa.

Meanwhile, writer Charli Howard, an advocate for people with eating disorders, had no qualms about talking directly about Grande — or about expressing concern about the imagery she’s advocating herself in the “Petal” video.

“I think it is absolutely appalling, from both a moral and capitalistic standpoint, to have released these videos and an album when this person needs psychiatric help and hospitalization,” Howard wrote on Instagram. Howard also took issue with the people around Grande, saying they appear to be “enabling” the singer.

“What’s disappointing is that it takes teams, often hundreds, of people to approve videos like these and get them over the line,” Howard said. “Each and every one of you, including her family and management, are enabling this person and encouraging her illness when she needs help.”