The cult of celebrity is a pretty gnarly thing at the best of times, and has a tendency to bring out some of people’s worse qualities. The global appetite for consumption breeds some full-on hero hero worship, and being in the public eye all-but guarantees the occasional nasty run-in with those who cannot contain their emotions and become over-zealous.
For women in the public sphere, that threat becomes far greater, with the ever lingering threat of sexism and misogyny providing a shitty coat of varnish to that pre-existing table of bullshit (dud metaphor, I know, but it’s really early).
Ariana Grande has lashed out on social media, after a run-in with an overly excited fan left her feeling “sick and objectified.”
In a long rant posted to Twitter late yesterday, 23-year-old Grande detailed the incident which involved a fan of her boyfriend, Mac Miller.
The couple, apparently out to get food, were confronted by the excited fan who followed the pair back to their car. The fan’s over-exuberance was, at first, seemingly quite harmless, until an off-handed quip about Miller “hitting that” turned things sour for Grande.
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
The post, in full, reads as follows:
“Went to pick up food with my boyfriend tonight and a young boy followed us to the car to tell Mac that he’s a big fan.He was loud and excited and by the time M was seated in the driver’s seat he was literally almost in the car with us.I thought all of this was cute and exciting until he said “Ariana is sexy as hell, man. I see you, I see you hitting that!”*pause*Hitting that? The fuck??This may not seem like a big deal to some of you but I felt sick and objectified. I was also sitting right there when he said it.I’ve felt really quiet and hurt since that moment. Things like [this] happen all the time and are the kinds of moments that contribute to women’s sense of fear and inadequacy. I am not a piece of meat that a man gets to utilise for his his pleasure. I’m an adult human being in a relationship with a man who treats me with love and respect.It hurts my heart that so many young people are so comfortable enough using these phrases and objectifying women with such ease.I felt like speaking out about this one experience tonight because I know very well that most women know the sensation of being spoken about in an uncomfortable way publicly or taken advantage of publicly by a man.We need to talk about these moments openly because they are harmful, and they live on inside of us as shame. We need to share and be vocal when something makes us feel uncomfortable because if we don’t, it will just continue.We are not objects or prizes. We are QUEENS.”
Hell. Fkn. Yes.
Casual, loose language like that used by the over-excited fan has immense, cumulative power, and in a time where it’s been (at least attempted to be) normalised and brushed off as little more than harmless “locker room talk,” its very real effects need to be brought up, and brought up, and brought up, until the message sinks in. Pointing out the fact that negative encounters like this one live on inside the recipient as internalised shame is so fucking vital.
Get ’em, Ariana.
Source: Twitter.
Photo: Paul Morigi/Getty.
