Ariana Grande, connoisseur of trying on different ethnicities like they’re flavours of the week, has been dragged yet again for appearing to appropriate ethnic features. This time, she looks East Asian. What’s next?
There’s no shortage of ‘iconified’ white women in pop culture that lean into ethnic ambiguity for cultural clout. Kylie and Kendall Jenner are probably the more notorious culprits, but Ariana Grande comes in pretty close with her aggressive tans and general lean into that ~mixed~ look that gives her the exotic punch she craves.
But it seems our blackfishing queen has changed tune once again. And no, I’m not talking about how her skin tone reverted back to its Snow White sheen in strategic timing for her Time cover.
I mean a recent photoshoot that’s doing the rounds on TikTok because Ariana Grande, our white/mixed/Latina/Desi/? pop princess is now Asian too, it seems.
Yeah, that’s actually Ariana Grande. I didn’t recognise her, and neither did a bunch of TikTokers who have since dragged her for trying to appear Asian.
Niena (@kuzumi.n) shared a TikTok explaining why Ariana’s Asian-inspired look is problematic, comparing it to K-Pop beauty and the fetishisation of “innocent” Asian women.
@kuzumi.n Reply to @paige.mantaray this, coupled with the fact that she was black fishing before is why there’s a problem
Aside from the fact that it’ll always be frustrating seeing white celebrities try on and culturally appropriate features that ethnic people face racism over, there’s also issues around the objectification of Asian women.
Asian women are often sexualised and infantilised by white people, either through racism or pretending to be Asian or both, and contributing to these stereotypes has super harmful effects, intentional or not. A real life example is the Atlanta shooting and how it was born of the commodifying and sexualising of Asian women.
I know that’s a lot to absorb, but you can read more about the harms of ‘Asian-fishing’ here.
https://www.tiktok.com/@branflakes08/video/7037978275632729350?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailydot.com%2F&referer_video_id=7037978275632729350&refer=embed&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6963406901934949893
Others took less serious approaches to dragging Ariana, pointing out that the notoriously ‘transracial’ (read: white but pretending to be Korean) influencer Oli London himself praised Ari for her new ‘oriental’ look, and it’s… uh… not a good look. Are you not embarazzed?
https://twitter.com/intrsxtionl_abc/status/1467317405592473606?s=20
@min.aaaa1
The whole situation at this point feels just feels comedic, considering Ariana culturally appropriating has become the norm. One TikTok user commented saying: “she’s collecting the race infinity stones” while another commented saying “HELP I THOUGHT THIS WAS A K-POP IDOL AT FIRST”.
https://www.tiktok.com/@yoo_crank_dat_soulja_boy/video/7038786070317780230?lang=en&is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6963406901934949893
Others on Twitter also made fun of Ari and her trip around the world.
everyone’s laughing @ khloe kardashian for having a new face every week what about ariana grande? girl’s gone from white to black to asian 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
— a. (@afreeennn) November 29, 2021
Ariana Grande really said “ok fine I’m done pretending to be Hispanic, I’ll pretend to be Asian this time” https://t.co/IOaUx0x9u6
— Minerva P Kelley ( RWBY Spoilers ) (@doubleca5t) December 3, 2021
https://twitter.com/ReadTheBede/status/1466790271291699203?s=20
Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka describes the story of formerly-italian singer Ariana Grande suddenly waking up one morning as an asian-american, after previously having transformed into a red-haired celt, and an ambigously spraytanned american celebrity pic.twitter.com/Zxhi4dnqpk
— DokkDraws (@Dokk_Draws) December 6, 2021
I wonder what ethnicity is next on her little check list.
