I would just like everyone to be more normal about Ariana Grande. I don't know how much more I can ask this of the general public.
In a recent interview looking over her various fashion eras since debuting on Nickelodeon's Victorious, pop's princess explained one particular fixation for the both the press and online naysayers in the last decade: those oversized hoodies. At the time, I remember writing of the pap shots of her oversized garments and knee high boots that they seemed a response to the turbulence and tragedy of her life at the time. Amid the horrors of the Manchester bombing and the highly publicized death of her ex, Mac Miller, her wardrobe read like a shell, or even armor.
Turns out I was, as always, right about everything.
“This was a very strange time in my life,” she tells Vogue. "I was processing a lot, and I always wanted to hide away in something really cozy. But I remember that the boots still made me feel cunt. I genuinely, at the time, did not have the mental energy to consider clothing. So, the easiest thing for me was to throw on a sweatshirt and a cunty boot and that was how it happened."
She's correct, both that she was going through a lot and also that the boots were cunt.
Having written through the time as a blogger, though, I am keenly aware of the perception towards her in the moment. Critics described the look as infantile and off-putting, pointing at her whirlwind romance with Pete Davidson as the sign of some deeper, undiagnosed disorder in Grande's reasoning skills. Online commenters were likewise still damaged by the mass-hysteria event following her infamous "donut licking scandal," in which she mildly put the health and safety of Los Angeles donut-shoppers at risk while decrying the state of America.
A few years later, the most hideous members of the British press would blame her for the horrors of the Manchester bombing, walking said criticisms back only after backlash from global audiences. Still, the weight of the tragedy took an obvious toll on Grande, with her breaking down in interviews and onstage, and moderately retreating from public life. Then, tragedy struck again when ex-boyfriend Mac Miller died the following year, another unspeakable horror she was blamed for by members of the press and online commenters, hiding behind the anonymity provided by social media.
Can anyone actually blame her for retreating into clothing that quite literally swallowed her whole? Besides, tall boots are cunt and large sweaters indeed serve as excellent shields against the bitter cold and unending horrors of daily life.
The quotes from this latest interview feel particularly relevant, seeing as similar levels of scrutiny have been leveled at her throughout the Wicked press cycles, with seemingly everyone online convinced that an outpouring of hate and criticism towards a person's appearance can somehow inspire positive change. I wish the lessons learned in the fallout, and ensuing cycle once the public discourse bends back around towards sympathy, would stick. I likewise wish that the promise of millennial pop feminism didn't feel like such a faraway dream, when even the average person considered the disparity between the way men and women's appearances are talked about online. The more things change, the more pop culture media remains firm in all the things I hated about tabloid culture, growing up in the Britney Spears mania of the aughts.
Ariana Grande remains unflinching and resilient too, despite all the reasons she shouldn't have to exhibit either trait near-daily.
Still, it fills me with dread to witness the endless cycle of public scrutiny pop stars like her are subjected to throughout their careers. No celebrity is blameless — nobody on this earth is blameless, really. But how many more go-rounds of the "Ariana Grande public scrutiny to sympathy to scrutiny" cycle can the media endure before the point is proven, the lesson learned, the last drop of blood drained from the stone?
The answer eludes me. Let me go put on sweetener, and keep looking.
Image via Getty
