{"id":6266,"date":"2026-08-04T06:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6266"},"modified":"2026-08-04T06:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:06:14","slug":"why-the-ariana-grande-thinspiration-debate-has-intensified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6266","title":{"rendered":"Why the Ariana Grande ‘thinspiration’ debate has intensified"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For as long as Ariana Grande\u2019s body has been the source of public scrutiny, the mainstream media has generally stayed away from the issue. That\u2019s largely out of the belief that it\u2019s not OK to comment on women\u2019s physical appearance or to speculate on their private health issues \u2014 even as such commentary regularly occurs in \u201cbrutal and clinical\u201d ways on social media, as celebrity journalist Dan Wakeford wrote Monday.<\/p>\n

Read more Kurtenbach: SF Giants ownership is afraid of a full rebuild. Buster Posey just showed why they\u2019re wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

But it looks like the mainstream media and general culture can no longer avoid the discourse about the 33-year-old Grammy winner\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Grande helped amplify the issue herself, starting with the July 31 release of her video for \u201cPetal,\u201d 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 \u2014 perky, buxom, vampish \u2014 as she submits to a series of auditions. Under the \u201cmale gaze\u201d of a panel of male executives, she receives increasingly hurtful and enraging remarks about her attractiveness, likability and \u201cauthenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also a scene in the video where the \u201cWicked\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis poor woman is possibly dying right in front of us,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

In response to what a Grande insider called the public \u201ctoxicity\u201d around her, her team announced that she would be \u201ctaking a step back in visibility,\u201d after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour on Sept. 1, People reported. It\u2019s also been confirmed by People and other outlets that she is pulling out of a West End revival of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s \u201cSunday in the Park with George,\u201d with her \u201cWicked\u201d co-star Jonathan Bailey set to star opposite her.<\/p>\n

In Grande team\u2019s statement to People, they said that she looked forward to \u201ctaking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grande has previously described her weight and health as her personal business, saying it\u2019s \u201cdangerous\u201d to comment on someone\u2019s else\u2019s looks, health, or \u201cwhat\u2019s going on behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s trying to \u201cgaslight\u201d her fans and have it \u201cboth ways,\u201d especially after she made the intense examination of her appearance the focus of her video.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does this cat and mouse game,\u201d said internet personality Link Lauren on X, who said he has long covered body image in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer song is called \u2018petal\u2019 and she paints herself as this thin delicate flower, showing off every bone and rib, then it\u2019s \u2018how dare you\u2019 discuss her body. \u2026 I hope she does take some time off to reflect and get well. But she\u2019s playing into things herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other celebrities, writers and experts on eating disorders also have come out to say they wish Grande well and that it\u2019s uncomfortable when the discourse focuses on her personally. But they also say the pop star \u2014 as one of the biggest celebrities in the world \u201cwith millions of followers who idolize her every move\u201d \u2014 should take accountability for the body imagery she\u2019s pushing out into the culture, as Buzzfeed writer Stephanie Soteriou said. That imagery includes \u201cher disappearing arms and increasingly gaunt face,\u201d Soteriou added.<\/p>\n

Read more Lee\u2019s two homers, Webb\u2019s six scoreless cap SF Giants\u2019 hectic deadline day with win<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen somebody has Ariana\u2019s level of influence \u2014 so much so that she has inspired countless lookalikes \u2014 normalizing or glamorizing this kind of imagery becomes, to me, downright irresponsible,\u201d said Soteriou.<\/p>\n

She reported that Grande has become a fixture on pro-anorexia forums for years, \u201cwith those suffering from disordered eating using the star\u2019s frame as their so-called \u2018thinspiration\u2019 to dangerously restrict their own diets and do serious damage to their bodies as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On Instagram Story, Jamil had acknowledged the challenge in commenting on Grande\u2019s body, which \u201ccould harm her mental health \u2026 and nobody wants that,\u201d BuzzFeed reported.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Jamil pointed out that the styling in the \u201cPetal\u201d video was designed to draw attention to her thinness and to make it look normal and even glamorous. \u201cIf we don\u2019t 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,\u201d Jamil continued. \u201cContent which is pointedly accentuating her bones, and tiny frame with belts and corsets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s vital we discuss imagery\/videos\/content like these and the damage they can and will have on women and girls,\u201d Jamil also said. \u201cWHAT YOU SEE HERE IS NOT NORMAL.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSilence is complicity when it gets this far. Look at Karen Carpenter,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, writer Charli Howard, an advocate for people with eating disorders, had no qualms about talking directly about Grande \u2014 or about expressing concern about the imagery she\u2019s advocating herself in the \u201cPetal\u201d video.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Howard wrote on Instagram. Howard also took issue with the people around Grande, saying they appear to be \u201cenabling\u201d the singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s disappointing is that it takes teams, often hundreds, of people to approve videos like these and get them over the line,\u201d Howard said. \u201cEach and every one of you, including her family and management, are enabling this person and encouraging her illness when she needs help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018The blue is stupid\u2019: New Valkyries court design draws divided reaction from team, fans<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Grande pushes back against public scrutiny of her weight and health, observers say she she and her team need to be held accountable for the body imagery she’s promoting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy the Ariana Grande ‘thinspiration’ debate has intensified - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6266\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Ariana Grande ‘thinspiration’ debate has intensified - 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