Ariana Grande is "problematic", apparently

Oh [Music] hey guys and welcome back to my channel so as you can see there is a deep amount of despair in my eyes because I just read something that genuinely just you know it's Monday and you wake up and you're just like ah [ __ ] when I'm starting another week and I know that's probably not the healthiest mentality but hey at least I'm being honest I got sent this article that's titled Ariana Grande's Gran's I don't [ __ ] care it doesn't matter thank you next music video is surprisingly anti queer I'm gonna pause here now if you're somewhere where you can't scream into the void just yawn or pretend to yawn and pretend the sound is coming out like this let's get into this article now to be clear I think thank you next is the only song of Ariana's that I've listened in its entirety like I'm not a Stan I'm not a hater it's just not really my type of music so I only watch the video for the purpose of this video just to try and see if I could spot some anti queerness witch plot twists I didn't know some of you were probably to be like of course you didn't you don't think anything's anti queer which is not true but the whole premise of Ariana's video is that she is recreating scenes from typical nineties ish you know early 2000 movies so none of this is inherently anti queer it's recreating movies that weren't anti queer or racist as much as they were reflecting the mentality of the time if we have to make a movie today we probably wouldn't be able to say anything because someone would [ __ ] cry about it so whatever I'm gonna get started I'm already complaining so there's a little introductory paragraph that I'm not gonna read because this is already a long article so it says while this song is actually dedicated to Ariana's past boyfriends the music video makes a surprising ode to her queer followers unfortunately not all representation is good and our music video failed to support the basic dignity of queer and trans people laden with transmisogyny anti queer jokes and blackface the video allows Ariana's white feminist awakening through a celebrity Laden nod to several cult classics here's a breakdown of what happened the video takes place cool suburban see white / wealthy high school it begins with a confessional homage to Mean Girls detailing fictional queen bee Ariana's influence over her peers lives and the rumors they heard about her it is unclear if ariana is supposed to be the superficial antagonist of the video like Regina George and Mean Girls where she's attempting to portray underdog Katie Haren who resists the plastics normativity does sixteen seconds into the video trans viewers may be stunned to see a cisgender man Ariana's backup dancer Scott Nicholson in a bright pink cardigan in wig playing a trans questionmark woman were already supposed to laugh at him for his feminine mannerisms okay so first of all I'm offended that you claimed he was trans what do you know maybe he's I don't know gender non-binary maybe he's trans maybe he's not maybe he's just someone who likes to wear women's clothes and wigs how dare you assign a title to him when you don't know what he identifies as my interpretation that might be wrong feel free to drag me in the comments but my interpretation was that she was clearly Regina George because she was like the popular cool girl and we seek Katie here and wearing the big polo so it's clear she's not Cady heron am I missing something immediately after gay singer slash actor Troye Sivan never nada prance his name either repeats a rumor I heard she's a lesbian now and dating some chick called Aubrey it's [ __ ] sick lesbians hilarious right the reference comes from Apple music mistranslating a lyric cuz her name is Aubrey instead of Ari which led people to think she was referencing another woman some commentators accused her of queerbaiting with a potentially misleading lyrics others commended it for being empowering she was so offended at the very thought of having a woman as her lover she even addressed at the very beginning of her music video this is such a Rach like I think they're making fun of the meme that is that Apple music mistranslated it also hello do we remember what Mean Girls was like there was the whole thing why are you so obsessed with me so this kind of theme of is someone's straight are they not and the fact that it's a gay singer actor saying it to me it just indicates that it's satirical that it's sarcastic that it's not actually serious that's why they got a gay character to say it because it's like it's so ridiculous to say this then we're gonna get a gay guy to do it because that's even more ridiculous I can't believe we're dwelling on a music video I think that the most tragic thing here is that they're taking these small moments that are tongue-in-cheek and they're trying to act like they're entirely serious this is a video based on 90s 2000s types of young adult movies like it's not that deep this is not laden with serious messages so then it says Arianna doesn't enter until the music starts a smooth beat clearly influenced by Arby's juxtaposed with her opening her burn book simply titled thank you next then you finally see it the black face I this may not be the type of black face you see an old minstrel shows but a new form we frequently view in pop culture as New York University performance studies master's student on veau writes contemporary black face no longer involves minstrel seeing burnt cork or grease paint to black in the perform their skin but instead makeup foundation artificial tanning and digital coloring are employed to play with racial mythologies and to exploit what blackness signifies I would like to know what it is that blackness signifies just curious because this writers acting like we all know like I'm not in on the secret so what does blackness signify they literally take a picture of ariana from what was that show Victorious I think and a screenshot from her in a dimly lit room so her skin automatically looks darker of course she's darker than in that picture generally because she's tan and now I'd say but taking a picture from a dimly lit room like I'd look darker in a dimly lit room even if I'm a [ __ ] ghost aside from that I thought that the whole thing of being like spray tan goes with the whole Barbie image of Regina George so it's not inconsistent with the movie either I feel like this person watched the video looking for something wrong with pretty sure if they just watch this video without any preconceived ideas they probably wouldn't have found anything wrong with it as she reflects on her past boyfriends her skin buries in shade seem to scene in a horrifying transformation highlighting how little she cares about communities of color as the lyrics continue becomes clear she only cares about herself plus I met someone we having better discussions I know I can say I move on too fast but this one gonna last because her name is Ari and I'm so good with that the individualistic sentiment could be empowering for the white cisgender straight feminists who are represented in the video of course is at the expense of queer people trans women and people of color so you're saying that she only cares about herself because she says that she's the only person she needs which is a very healthy way to live your life because if you act like you need to have a boyfriend husband girlfriend wife whatever to live a complete life then you probably have some things you need to figure out she's saying that you don't need that [ __ ] you can have it if you want but you should feel complete on your own which i think is a completely healthy message and it also speaks to the fact that sometimes selfishness or what people label as selfishness is really self-preservation and taking care of yourself first which is an important thing to do because if you can't take care of yourself you can't take care of other people you know like I don't really understand the bearing here of whiteness because the whole message is you're enough for yourself and you don't need to necessarily have someone there to make you feel good about yourself I don't know how this is at the expense of queer people trans women and people of color it's it's a reach it's a reach Mariana walks through the halls as the queen beaver clique she rolls her eyes at Nicholson in drag who seems happy to just have her attention she then pushes Sivan into the lockers he clutches his books happy that she even touched him queer people are apparently glad to be disrespected so long as it's by someone as popular as Ariana her role in the movie is to be a bully she's gonna [ __ ] roll her eyes --as everyone she's gonna push everyone she's gonna tell everyone she thinks they're pretty to just be like oh so you think you're pretty that is the role that's the point that's the character I feel like I need to lie down okay then Ariana descends into a cheerleading sequence where we see her and her all-white team methodically cheering in patriotic red white and blue and tribute to the Toros from bring it on her rival cheerleading team which is all black dances in pan-african green gold and red in tribute to bring it on East Compton clovers they then join with Ariana's white team and the white version of cheering the two teams soon face-off attempting to intimidate one another while the outfits are identical to those used and bring it on them points of the cult film such as cultural appropriation and solidarity or lost Ariana and her team are not explicitly seen as villains or anti heroes but rather the protagonists now some of you are gonna kill me but I've never seen and bring it on so I'm gonna look at what the cast looks like as I guessed it's some real [ __ ] because ok so here I have a picture of bring it on the first one that comes up I'm assuming it's the cover or it's a picture from IMDB and there's literally white chicks on one side and black chicks on the other side so again completely in line with the movie so that allegation was some real [ __ ] I also want to know how do you know the white passing the video quickly cuts to several new sequences and references including the famous dollhouse scene from 13 going on 30 and the dog walking sequence from Legally Blonde finally it lands to a cut in the music in one of the more explicitly anti queer scenes Ariana tells her beautician she misses Pete Davidson he was really cute and it was really big Coolidge confirms that they were discussing teeth and not penises they were definitely discussing penises I've only gone out with one guy that had a big front tooth I liked it but have you ever gone out with someone with no teeth at all Erina quickly replies no with a smirk queerness in this case as used as nothing more as a dry comedic prop Ariana at this point not only responds to rumors about her sexuality just once but twice in the video she emphasizes her heterosexuality as a point of pride and empowerment there's a difference between saying heterosexuality is the only right thing and if you're something else you're in degenerate compared to just being okay with being heterosexual there's a difference in no place here did she say or imply I'm heterosexual if you're not well you're a piece of [ __ ] she literally is just okay with being heterosexual so she said she misses Pete Davidson what's the big deal I'm kind of surprised you didn't get mad at her for shaming people that don't have teeth at this point as Arianna backs away from Coolidge's beautycounter the music continues we see the beauty salon filmed with visibly queer beauticians and white cisgender clients they danced with her inflated styles influenced by black queer performers as the video cuts between the different past scenes of the video the queer men soon disappear from the beauty parlor only leaving the presumably straight woman the queer men are replaceable to the videos director they are not agents in the story which is that of white women reclaiming their individual self-esteem but seriously like I hate how people are always screaming about you don't know what someone identifies as blah blah and this whole article that is extremely extremely out of touch with reality is getting mad because they're assuming things about Ariana's intentions which they don't have any confirmation for it's a little bit strange and contradictory if you ask me but I digress so just because the queer men had disappeared from the parlor only leaving presumably straight women so what do you think that if she really was against queer people she wouldn't include any of them and if she really was racist which is kind of the implication with the blackface and all that why would she include black people I mean it just doesn't make sense to me you might say oh yeah she's including black people to look like she's not racist but really deep down she's racist to which I say I don't really think so however as the cuts speed up one of the mutations who reads as a queer man of color reappears in the video he all goes a muscular ups package delivery man from behind in a short frame reminiscent of the overuse queer predator trope the delivery man finally decides to dance with Coolidge a reference to her character and Legally Blonde dating a UPS delivery man okay so a queer man of color checks out another dude sound the alarms that's probably never ever happened like I don't get what the big deal is like so what you're saying that queer men can think other men are attractive where's the why I feel like my last brain cells just fighting for its life right now after the music ends it cuts to Kris Jenner who plays Ariana's mom she simply shouts out thank you next [ __ ] while holding a camera the final line of the music video as [ __ ] is generally directed at women and thank you next is in reference to relationships this is likely aimed at Caitlyn Jenner what what the [ __ ] Jeter works Katelyn in 2015 shortly after a transition perhaps this is a reference to Caitlyn's far-right politics perhaps it's a jab at her trans identity we can't be sure unless Kris Jenner speaks out about the line regardless something questionable about ending such a very lent li anti queer trans misogynistic video with a complaint about a trans woman okay so just because Kris Jenner said thank you next this writer interpreted as a [ __ ] you to trans women because she connected it to Caitlyn Jenner so do you really think that Kris Jenner came in being like hey Ariana you know I want to say a [ __ ] you to Caitlyn Jenner but I don't really know how to go about it you have any ideas and then Ariane it's like sure have the last closing line of my video and say thank you next [ __ ] everyone knows [ __ ] is about women and transgender women I mean really we need to stop labeling women as gay icons because they give us the bare minimum representation and visibility is not enough especially when we can have such a negative impact on our lives the video features queer trans and people of color characters as props while centering on one of the world's biggest pop stars in blackface we cannot fully blame ariana for these mishaps she likely had some agency over the work but the video was made through a large team someone had to notice these issues yet it wasn't enough to stop them breathe ins Hannah Lux directed the video alongside producer brandon bowen figlio there were an unknown number of other contributors only some of whom were featured on the videos IMDB page thank you next is entertaining the kind of entertainment we should be horrified about if nothing else we should gawk in horror at minstrel see anti queer sentiment and racism that are so prevalent in the video if people begin to speak out then we may be better equipped to hold entertainers who fail to have a basic respect for people of color trans women and queer people accountable in the future you know I really like giving credit where credit's due but this entire article is based on assumption there is no actual evidence to prove that these connections are concrete and should be listened to because this is an overly analytical writer looking for something wrong with the video like I said I have no vested interest in defending Arianna or hating on her because like I said neutral don't really care so it's just mind-boggling to me that someone go to this length and write this novel length article trying to discredit a video that's really not supposed to be that deep and that's supposed to reference the movies we listed so honestly I think that if we can really draw anything from this video it's the fact that this person is calling this minstrel see and racist and anti queer and trans is offensive and if you want it like I don't like saying that I'm offended but it's offensive because real racism happens every day and people are denied basic respect basic human rights because of their skin color that happens and that's very serious and the people who have experienced that type of [ __ ] I'm pretty sure they're not here on their keyboards be like oh my god I'm so offended this is so racist but no because people know that real racism happens real transmisogyny happens like all of these things are incredibly serious and the fact that people keep throwing these words around is diluting the meaning it's not important or viewed as important anymore because if you say that everything's racist than nothing's racist so we need to call out real racism when we see it not this [ __ ] thank you so much for listening to my little rant if you're still here thank you to my patrons as always let me know what you think in the comments I'm really curious to know if like we're all a same page or if you see it differently and I'll catch you guys next time [Music]

Channel: READY TO GLARE

Views: 548,337

Rating: 4.8822699 out of 5

Keywords: ariana grande, thank u next, kris jenner, caitlyn jenner, arianators, drama

Id: PKR4-SeWXmU

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 05 2018