Ariana Grande and the weight of the public gaze Is “don’t comment on people’s bodies” Really enough?
The release of Petal was supposed to open a new chapter in Ariana Grande’s career. A more intimate project, a cinematic aesthetic meticulously crafted down to the smallest detail, a deeply personal exploration of the relationship between fame, identity, and vulnerability. Instead, it took just a few frames from the new video to completely shift the conversation. No longer the music, no longer the visual universe of the project. The focus of the debate became her increasingly thin body. Screenshots, comparisons with the past, theories, concerns, episodes of body shaming, and improvised diagnoses multiplied within hours. Shortly after, the singer announced that, once the Eternal Sunshine Tour comes to an end, she will take a break from public life, also because of the pressure of constant scrutiny over her appearance.
Ariana Grande is right
Back in 2023, through a TikTok video, Ariana Grande had already addressed the complicated relationship between body, health, and public perception. She explained that the body many people considered “healthier” actually belonged to one of the most difficult periods of her life, marked by antidepressants, alcohol, and unhealthy eating habits. She reminded people how impossible it is to determine someone’s health simply by looking at them and asked, quite simply, that people stop commenting on other people’s bodies. In the years that followed, the singer returned to the subject several times, describing how exhausting it can be to live under permanent observation. And it is difficult to disagree with her. The recent history of internet culture shows that these conversations rarely produce anything genuinely useful: diagnoses come from strangers, images are dissected like investigative evidence, and every opinion generates a new wave of comments. The line between concern and voyeurism often lasts no longer than a single scroll. What begins as empathy can quickly turn into concern trolling, a form of control that uses the language of care while still dissecting and judging a woman’s body.
A celebrity’s body never exists in isolation
If Ariana Grande were a colleague, a neighbor, or a distant acquaintance, most people would probably never feel entitled to analyze her body frame by frame. People gain or lose weight, go through difficult periods, change their lifestyles, take medication. It happens constantly and, in most cases, it concerns no one else. With celebrities, however, we always demand something more. They must be artists, but also role models. They must promote beauty products, while simultaneously representing body acceptance. They must be authentic, as long as they continue to embody a certain ideal. In other words, we transform famous people into symbols, only to criticize them when they remind us that they are simply people. It would be naïve to deny that celebrity images influence reality. Celebrities shape consumption, language, fashion, and even the way we imagine success. Beauty trends often begin with a single viral video, while cosmetic surgeons receive requests inspired by images of actresses and influencers. But acknowledging this influence does not mean demanding that every famous person becomes an educational project. A singer cannot be responsible for the relationship millions of people have with their own bodies. At the same time, we cannot pretend that images exist in a vacuum. Both things can be true.
The return of skinny culture
If this were only a matter of privacy, the conversation would probably end here. The solution would be simple: stop commenting on other people’s bodies and keep our fingers away from keyboards. The problem is that we are living through a moment in which skinny culture is becoming desirable again. The promise of body positivity, which in recent years attempted to expand the representation of different bodies, seems to have lost ground in favor of an aesthetic built around reduction and restraint. Fashion runways have once again started prioritizing extremely thin silhouettes, GLP-1 drugs have transformed the collective relationship with weight loss, and an image based on control, discipline, and perfection has returned to being associated with success, luxury, efficiency, and self-determination. In this context, the body of one of the most watched pop stars in the world inevitably becomes a symbol. Not only of itself, but of the cultural moment we are living through.
The question Jameela Jamil left open
The debate also involved Jameela Jamil, who shifted the focus from the individual person to the system that creates and amplifies certain images. Her question was broader: if millions of young people see certain bodies and interpret them as ideals to achieve, what cultural responsibility do dominant images have? The comment was later deleted, but the question remains open. For years, we have argued that representation matters. We have criticized fashion, advertising, and entertainment for helping create aesthetic standards and have asked creative industries to reflect on the impact of the images they produce. We cannot suddenly decide that images have no consequences. However, this does not mean turning every famous woman into a case study or transforming Instagram into a collective clinic. Cultural reflection and individual respect must be able to coexist.
The weight of the gaze is also ours
Ariana Grande’s body does not belong to us. It does not allow us to know her health, and it is not a surface onto which we can project assumptions. What concerns everyone, instead, is the culture that makes that body immediately readable as an ideal, a problem, or a symbol. A culture built on social media, constant comparison, and the pursuit of aesthetic perfection. That is why stopping comments about other people’s bodies is a necessary rule, but perhaps not a sufficient one. Respecting the boundary Ariana Grande has asked for does not mean stopping conversations about skinny culture, diet culture, beauty standards, or the relationship between social media and eating disorders. It means changing perspective. It means not searching for answers inside a woman’s body, but questioning the society that makes that body a public topic. Perhaps true respect does not mean never talking about it. It means understanding what we are actually talking about. Because every time a celebrity changes appearance, we think we are looking at them. Very often, instead, we are looking at ourselves: our desires, our fears, the beauty ideals we have internalized, and the era we have collectively built.