The thing is, she most definitely doesn’t know better right now in the depths of anorexia. Anorexia warps your sense of reality and self, and it’s also a competitive disorder (hence, the “flaunting” many people suffering from it do). I mean, in the music video, there’s a note that says “couldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds” while she looks like that, so she’s obviously not in her right mind. I blame her management, executives, team, family, and friends for enabling her.
If you watch the full video though she’s obviously “opposed” to the critique she’s getting from the judges (the note), as she goes full Carrie on them in the end. The other girls celebrate her for it. My takeaway is that the pressure put on women is the men’s fault, and women want to be free of it.
And I’m guessing the contents of the notes are real comments she’s gotten over the years, not self-written notes to her current self. I don’t see how you can read it any other way than this video being about revenge and freedom.
That said, I agree she looks sick and needs to heal from all of the pressure put on her. Obviously it’s affected her a great deal. But I can’t help to read this video as a means to get there, like public therapy, sort of.
I watched it, and I just don’t buy this explanation when, in the same video, she’s purposely wearing stuff meant to accentuate her bones and figure. The “industry critique” aspect of the music video just falls flat. Someone on another platform said it better than I could: the fact that in a gore/horror-themed MV Ariana’s real-life body is the scariest part says it all. Ironically, I think the best “industry critique” is one she didn’t even mean, when she reads the innocuous note, “You bloom wherever you’re planted” (you become famous if, when, where, and how the ones at the top want you to).
So the video accentuates how thin she is, then shows her negative response to the group that told her to be thinner… that all sounds consistent with criticising that kind of commentary to me.
I’m not going to comment on how thin she is, but that explanation seems the most likely, else why would the note be in there at all?
No, it’s the fact that the video glamorizes how emaciated she is, which is incompatible with seeing “could lose a few pounds” as a negative, since she’s flaunting the end stage of being skinny. You can’t critique something you’re the personification of and trying to paint as normal. “Couldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds” is exactly the deadly lie anorexics tell themselves because of the delusional thinking fueled by their disorder.
But it’s clear to me by now that you’re not engaging in good faith.
The thing is, she most definitely doesn’t know better right now in the depths of anorexia. Anorexia warps your sense of reality and self, and it’s also a competitive disorder (hence, the “flaunting” many people suffering from it do). I mean, in the music video, there’s a note that says “couldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds” while she looks like that, so she’s obviously not in her right mind. I blame her management, executives, team, family, and friends for enabling her.
If you watch the full video though she’s obviously “opposed” to the critique she’s getting from the judges (the note), as she goes full Carrie on them in the end. The other girls celebrate her for it. My takeaway is that the pressure put on women is the men’s fault, and women want to be free of it.
And I’m guessing the contents of the notes are real comments she’s gotten over the years, not self-written notes to her current self. I don’t see how you can read it any other way than this video being about revenge and freedom.
That said, I agree she looks sick and needs to heal from all of the pressure put on her. Obviously it’s affected her a great deal. But I can’t help to read this video as a means to get there, like public therapy, sort of.
I watched it, and I just don’t buy this explanation when, in the same video, she’s purposely wearing stuff meant to accentuate her bones and figure. The “industry critique” aspect of the music video just falls flat. Someone on another platform said it better than I could: the fact that in a gore/horror-themed MV Ariana’s real-life body is the scariest part says it all. Ironically, I think the best “industry critique” is one she didn’t even mean, when she reads the innocuous note, “You bloom wherever you’re planted” (you become famous if, when, where, and how the ones at the top want you to).
So the video accentuates how thin she is, then shows her negative response to the group that told her to be thinner… that all sounds consistent with criticising that kind of commentary to me.
I’m not going to comment on how thin she is, but that explanation seems the most likely, else why would the note be in there at all?
Doesn’t the note sound like the agent from Jeanette’s book?
No, it’s the fact that the video glamorizes how emaciated she is, which is incompatible with seeing “could lose a few pounds” as a negative, since she’s flaunting the end stage of being skinny. You can’t critique something you’re the personification of and trying to paint as normal. “Couldn’t hurt to lose a few pounds” is exactly the deadly lie anorexics tell themselves because of the delusional thinking fueled by their disorder.
But it’s clear to me by now that you’re not engaging in good faith.
I feel like women critique the physical appearance of their peers much more than men do.
Sure, men prop up this system of oppressive beauty standards but women ultimately sustain and engage with it.