Ariana Grande Blasts Gender Double Standards, Slut-Shaming

Ariana Grande reminded the world that neither she, nor any woman, is the “property/possession” of a man in a smart, scathing note posted to Twitter. The singer addressed the way she has been treated and labeled in the wake of her split from ex-boyfriend Big Sean, as well as the double standards women continue to face in American society.

“I come from a long bloodline of female activists,” Grande wrote on Sunday. “My aunt Judy was the first Italian-American female president of the National Press Club in Washington D.C. I think she would have been proud of me for speaking up about something that has been bothering me personally for so long.”

Referencing Gloria Steinem’s seminal 1969 article, “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation,” Grande wrote that there’s still a vast disparity between how men and women are treated, specifically in regards to sex. “If a woman has a lot of sex (or any sex for that matter), she’s a ‘slut.’ If a man has sex, he’s a STUD, a BOSSSSSS, a KING,” Grande wrote. “If a woman is seen with a friend with a penis, there is an immediate assumption of romance or sex and she is labeled! If a man is seen with a woman, he is elevated/celebrated. AWW SHIIIT HE SMASHED!!!!1!!1!”

The singer went on to note the value of each person’s individual worth. “I can’t wait to live in a world where people are not valued by who they’re dating, married to, attached to, having sex with (or not), seen with… but by their value as an individual,” Grande wrote. “I want the people reading this to know that they are more than enough on their own.”

Grande added that for the last eight years, she’s felt that she’s needed to have a boyfriend. But in the wake of her breakup, the singer has realized that’s not true. “I have never felt more present, grounded and satisfied,” she wrote. “I’ve never laughed harder or had more fun or enjoyed my life more.”

Grande concluded her note with the Steinem quote, “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. She will need her sisterhood.” In a follow-up tweet, Grande wrote: “Y’all being the ‘sisterhood’ mentioned at the end… love u.”