Even in the video, a nearly seven-minute indictment of the harsh process of assessment and judgement that leads to fame and celebrity, Grande hits on the subject of being constantly sized up. “I don’t need someone to save me,” she sings. “I’m not a victim.”<\/p>\n
The way we talk in situations about body image matters because the impact can transcend a one-off comment or snap judgement about celebrities we\u2019ll never meet, says Johanna Kandel, founder and CEO of the National Alliance for Eating Disorders.<\/p>\n
“I would just check our intentions behind it,” Kandel said. “What is the purpose of it? … What is the intent versus the impact of it?”<\/p>\n
Judging famous women by appearances is not new<\/p>\n
![\"Singer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ariana-grande-at-the-oscars-ZQZUWRDJMJE75DLGNSRHDZM6OI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Singer and actor Ariana Grande (file photo). (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n
Aggressive scrutiny of people in the spotlight is nothing new, nor is the reality that women\u2019s appearances are heavily judged \u2014 even though the past decade has brought concerted efforts to promote ideas of body acceptance at all sizes.<\/p>\n
These days, effective weight loss-inducing medications \u2014 their use driven by celebrities \u2014 have joined the larger cultural conversation. They\u2019re shifting the ground once again around ideas of thinness, beauty and health, with some concerned that a slew of images of noticeably skinnier famous faces could have a troubling impact on those struggling with body image issues or eating disorders.<\/p>\n
Judgement and criticism on one side, coupled with calls to stop saying anything about Grande\u2019s body on the other, can make nuanced conversations about beauty and health difficult, says Allison Butler, a senior lecturer in communication at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe limit both the complexity of the folks that we are directing our attention to, as well as our own complex understandings of ourselves,\u201d said Butler, author of The Judgement of Gender: How Women are Centred and Silenced in Pop Culture.<\/p>\n
Fundamentally, many experts say, it’s no one’s place to pass judgement on someone’s body, celebrity or otherwise.<\/p>\n
“With celebrities, I encourage people to resist the urge to speculate altogether. Public conversations about celebrity bodies often reinforce the idea that our bodies are open for public discussion, and that\u2019s a message young people are listening to,” Rachel Goldman, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine, said via email.<\/p>\n
“We also have to remember that comments about someone\u2019s appearance (whether they\u2019re meant as compliments or criticisms) can reinforce the idea that our value is tied to how we look,” she said.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean ignoring the reality that people struggle with disordered eating in varied ways. Kandel references her own experience.<\/p>\n
“When I was first approached about my eating disorder, it was [from] a place of concern, but it was like, ‘You look like Skeletor’,” she said, and not “‘Hey, what’s going on? I’m really worried about you’.”<\/p>\n
To Kandel, ignoring such issues is less effective than thinking hard about how we address them. “It can\u2019t be a conversation that we evade,” she said, “but it\u2019s more of bringing it to the curiosity and the compassion as opposed to the criticism.”<\/p>\n
It can be difficult to talk to children about these issues<\/p>\n
For parents talking with children, Goldman suggests shifting the conversation away from judging bodies to talking about the messages society is sending. Also crucial: reminding them that appearance isn’t an indicator of health and well-being.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately, we want young people to understand that their body is just one part of who they are. Their worth isn\u2019t determined by their size or shape, and neither is anyone else\u2019s,” she said.<\/p>\n
That’s what Jennifer Hill tries to do. The 56-year-old paediatric nurse from Broomall, Pennsylvania, says her 16-year-old daughter, a cheerleader and runner, hates when she gets comments on her body.<\/p>\n
“I will talk to her and if someone has mentioned something to her, I\u2019m like, ‘You know what? Everybody\u2019s different, everybody\u2019s born different, their bodies are created different’,” Hill said.<\/p>\n
Though she says things have improved since her youth in the 1980s, when she recalls people being unafraid to offer the harshest comments, she still sees it as a struggle. Plus, she said, social media has added pressure. She also sees it in her work life, where she has worked with young people with emotional struggles or eating disorders. Her advice: Listen.<\/p>\n
“You don\u2019t want to come out and say, ‘You know, you\u2019re really overweight’,” she said. “You have to tread lightly.”<\/p>\n
It’s about guiding them and their thinking, not just telling them what to do, Hill said. “Communication is key … I think having open conversation and letting them do a lot of the talking and not so much you.”<\/p>\n
As for Grande, she spoke to fans in recent days, making a statement from the stage Tuesday that she read from her phone. She said she knows fans are worried that “negativity was ruining things” for her, but said the opposite is true.<\/p>\n
“Multiple things can be true at the same time. Boundaries need to be set,” she said. “Human beings can need a break sometimes. And also, this can be and will continue to be the greatest experience of my professional and creative life.”<\/p>\n
Her fans \u2013 many of them young women \u2013 erupted in cheers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talking about beauty can get really ugly \u2013 particularly when it comes to public figures. In an increasingly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69,550],"class_list":["post-561108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-social-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}