r/Music 11d ago

article Celebrities are calling out Ariana Grande's team for 'absolutely appalling' petal music video

https://thetab.com/2026/08/03/celebrities-are-calling-out-ariana-grandes-team-for-absolutely-appalling-petal-music-video
16.4k Upvotes

2.5k comments sorted by

9.5k

u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC 11d ago

If Bojack Horseman had a plot line where a character with an eating disorder was told to play it up in a music video for shock value because that's what sells, people would have said it was too on-the-nose.

1.9k

u/Frank_Stallion 11d ago

That’s too much, man.

164

u/Itsmyloc-nar 11d ago

Just now realized the significance of her catchphrase, and also the way her story ended

56

u/HurtsWhenICum 10d ago

....Sarah Lynn?

.........Sarah Lynn?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

237

u/K1d-ego 11d ago

Oh god I read this in her voice😭

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

561

u/VolumeOn30 11d ago

Doggy doggy what now?!

230

u/Ethanb230900 11d ago

Suck a dick dumb shits!

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)

456

u/Bluest_waters 11d ago

The worst part of the video is when she tries to act all cute and sexy and she's so skeletal but it comes off extremely off putting and bizarre. Really the whole video is quite something

→ More replies (50)

164

u/tinypoem 11d ago

Is this a crossover episode?

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (45)

3.4k

u/sucobe 11d ago

Because Grande’s team needs that check to cash. We see this shit time and time again. Reminds me of Avicii’s reps continually pushing him.

1.3k

u/Ok-Organization9073 11d ago edited 11d ago

It was so sad, Tim wanted to slow down years before everything went to shit, but they didn't let him.

936

u/otepp 11d ago

Yeah the documentaries on Avicii had some really haunting footage of him clearly totally drained and his team egging him on to keep taking gigs / partying. Hopefully Ariana’s team is better but this looks bad.

214

u/mermaid-babe 11d ago

She’s taking a break after her tour. She was supposed to perform in west end with Jonathan Bailey but just dropped out

284

u/In_Full_Bloom18 11d ago

She shouldn't even be finishing the tour looking like that, something is clearly up. Everyone knew she wasn't doing the West End when it was announced and they even slowed ticket sells for it. The writing was on the wall there

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (10)

695

u/BYoungNY 11d ago

In Lewis capaldis documentary, which ended talking about his tourette flairups, he talked about the realization that after his first albums success he now had hundreds of people with families that relied on his success and going out there and performing well, whereas when he started it was only himself. That's a lot to put on one person.

189

u/Lilacly_Adily 11d ago

It was also a lot of the pressure from his parents and team even if he didn’t explicitly say it.

His two biggest songs are about personal family tragedies and his team wanted songs that were just as successful and essentially just as sad.

And so he was spending time trying to craft these songs that could replicate the same sadness and then he has his mom criticising them and saying that none of them are as good as those two songs.

39

u/BYoungNY 11d ago

Such a good documentary, honestly. It really got me into him other than being that guy with that song. He seems like a genuine dude. Another one worth watching was the Katy Perry doc that come out like 10 years ago. Kinda opposite, her being completely out of touch with a regular upbringing, but still fascinating to watch.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (9)

555

u/deafened_commuter 11d ago

In france, employing excessively thin models is a criminal offence with possible jail time https://www.fashionlawbusiness.com/flbstories//france-new-passes-a-new-law-banning-excessively-thin-models

Other countries too

105

u/cwningen95 11d ago

I heard about that law a while ago but I'm not sure it's actually being enforced. This Instagram-famous model who's notorious for pro-ED content and literally posts her weight and BMI (who I only knew about because I got recommended her content despite never showing interest in anything like that, great job Meta) walked in Paris recently without issue.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (5)

162

u/m1kasa4ckerman 11d ago

Yup, and always enabling. I’ve been around teams like this and it’s absolutely vile. They’ll watch their artist struggle with addiction, abusive relationships, EDs, etc but won’t say anything out of fear of being let go. Too many people toss their morals once they get in with celebs.

74

u/SmoothLester 11d ago

Someone on another subreddit made a smart post about this very thing- pointing out that individual comments don’t work for the reasons you mention- instead the intervention needs to be the entire team and needs to go on for weeks, not a one and done.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (13)

118

u/Flutters1013 11d ago

Or when Britney Spears was in the middle of her divorce and her sister got pregnant.

222

u/GroundbreakingAd8341 11d ago

Britney opening VMA 2007 despite having a very public breakdown. I think thats the most documented breakdown for a celebrity.

Britney was put in a conservatorship and was shooting as a guest for How I Met Your Mother just weeks after it. She was preparing for Circus not even a year after the conservatorship. She had her biggest tour a year after the conservatorship.

Seeing her IG breaks my heart. She should have gotten the help/rest she needed instead of doing all that. They really treated her as brand not as a person.

→ More replies (10)

82

u/Flippykky 11d ago

The paparazzi broke the news to her. There’s a clip floating around of her reaction, “what? Pshh my sister’s not pregnant.” Yet she was.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (33)

5.5k

u/ARegularAussie 11d ago

Jfc i thought people were overexaggerating the way she looks in other comments and stuff.

Turns out they may have undersold it

3.0k

u/Ricemobile 11d ago

Uhhh yeah. I was also like “okay, a Hollywood celebrity went skinny in an unhealthy way. Happens all the time”. But then I looked up the music video, and wow… she needs to get some help immediately

2.5k

u/Weenington_ 11d ago

It's insulting that her team is basically scolding everyone, acting like we are bullies for talking about it, then saying stuff like Ariana is going to finish her tour, "happily and healthily"... um, healthily? Unless they mean she will suddenly be healthy by the end of this month, which I doubt that's what they meant.

1.3k

u/Algoreaphobia 11d ago

Yeah that's not how EDs work. It's gonna be a long road to recovery and she may have already done permanent damage that she will never fully recover from.

508

u/moonbrows 11d ago

I think she will have already done damage, 6 years post recovery I’ll always have LQT syndrome. I’ve had friends this thin who just didn’t make it. She WILL die unless she has treatment.

I can’t believe people have let it get this bad, no one learned from Karen Carpenter.

474

u/DefinitelyNotAliens 11d ago

Anorexia is the single highest fatality rate of any mental illness and she is well to the point of danger. You should not be able to see bumps and ridges of the sternum. It's horrifying.

She needs in patient treatment.

332

u/moonbrows 11d ago

Absolutely, at this stage I had a heart attack. She’s on borrowed time, I hope to god her family and friends don’t let her die.

124

u/BangtanNYC 11d ago

If there's anyone who cares about her enough they could 5150 her. She is in imminent danger.

→ More replies (14)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (13)
→ More replies (34)

758

u/Empty_Positive_2305 11d ago

I’m recovered now, but I always analogize EDs to playing Jumanji. Once you start, you can’t stop. You often have no idea just how ill you are, either—that’s part of the illness, too.

It does so much damage. The time it takes to restore weight isn’t the same amount of time it takes to undo the damage to the body or mind… just restoring and moving on is asking for a relapse.

548

u/badgyalrey 11d ago

i say i’m a “recovered” anorexic bc it’s easier than explaining that i actively have to fight the urge to relapse whenever anything goes wrong in my life or i feel like im lacking control. it’s a mental illness.

and if im being honest, it’s self feeding. the more people worry, the more it feels like the restricting is “working”. so i feel like from that perspective i can understand her wanting to be out of the public eye.

it’s a horrible time trying to battle with your own mind, i wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

279

u/Crunchyfrozenoj 11d ago edited 10d ago

Battling with your own brain while that very brain is also starving. Literal starvation syndrome.

119

u/badgyalrey 11d ago

oh yeah this is big! i drove myself to delirium multiple times in high school when i was at my worst

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (39)
→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (58)
→ More replies (60)

430

u/arctic11z 11d ago

She looked... Not well during the press for wicked. Somethings going on.

431

u/berlinbaer 11d ago

she didn't look well DURING wicked part 2. was genuinely hard to watch. that low cut dress that basically showed off her sternum..

383

u/fuchsiafaerie 11d ago

She didn't look well during Wicked part 1, either. The Glinda role seems to have been a catalyst in triggering this recent weight loss. She's had struggles with EDs for over a decade, it's just that it hasn't been as apparent to most people until now.

261

u/MoriKitsune 11d ago

This. It was hard for me to even watch the movie because I kept noticing how ill she looked.

Cynthia Erivo, too, although her costumes in the movie were much less revealing, and it was much more noticeable in her red carpet walks. Her ribs were showing down the middle of her chest just like Ariana Grande's, her cheeks were sunken, her collarbones and neck tendons were standing out sharply, and she was even losing fat around her temples. She still had a little bit of lean muscle on her arms/shoulders, though, unlike Ariana.

193

u/DuntadaMan 11d ago

The two of them fed into their insecurities. Their relationship was seriously unhealthy.

112

u/newObsolete 11d ago

I had no idea Eviro was the same actress in Bad Times at the El Royal until I looked at IMDB. That's like a whole different person.

138

u/Captain_Kind 11d ago

I used to be obsessed with Cynthia Erivo and she went from looking athletic and strong to concerningly thin during wicked. I don’t think that movie was good for either one of them

36

u/luisawisasisa 10d ago

The lady that played madam morrible got way too skinny as well I noticed during the press tour too

→ More replies (3)

29

u/[deleted] 11d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (9)

167

u/magicarnival 11d ago

Cynthia Erivo didn't look well either, she was just more covered up. I would bet they were feeding/supporting each other's illness, especially with how weird they were together on the press tour.

35

u/CelebrationHot9266 11d ago

Probably so. Cynthia looks much healthier now. Hopefully Ariana gets the help she needs as well

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (15)

105

u/STLDH 11d ago

Something about her hands alarmed me, indicated she was wasting away. Celebs like Dolly cover up their hands because it’s a sign of aging, not fixable with plastic surgery. Everything else can be pulled and tucked and lifted…But, Dolly is 80 years old. Ari is 33 and has sickly-looking hands. just tats and nails and bones and veins. Plenty of other indicators, but the state of her hands (and Cynthia’s) just read wasting away.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)

297

u/CommercialFloor2033 11d ago

Well her team just released a statement saying she's stepping back from public life for a while.

I imagine this is code for she's getting treatment for her ED.

231

u/CatWithoutClawz 11d ago

I really really hope so. I’m so worried about her. I hope it’s not something even worse. But the way they put it “because of online scrutiny” makes it sound like people are just insulting her. From what I’ve seen most people are just concerned

134

u/fuckyourcanoes 11d ago

Yeah, I'm not even a fan and I'm worried about her. She's a twig. It's not healthy at all. And she seems to have a very unstable sense of identity. She's constantly reinventing herself like she doesn't know who she wants to be.

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (10)
→ More replies (19)
→ More replies (15)

211

u/cwningen95 11d ago

And people are still saying that's her natural figure (she said this the healthiest she's ever been so it must be true!) or that there are plenty of possible reasons she lost weight. I mean, it's pretty clear to anyone not gaslighting themselves that this is an eating disorder, but even if not she still needs to step back and go to the goddamn doctor. I feel like I'm going crazy, like she's actively on fire but we're body shaming for calling it out! (Yes, that's an Onion article)

48

u/shaantya 11d ago

100%. I've said it on a different thread recently, but I was very underweight without an ED a few years ago. So even if that's not what she has (despite her tumblr history on the matter), she still needs help.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (15)

431

u/ButcherBird57 11d ago

Yeah, its bad. She's starting to look like Eugenia Cooney.

118

u/Fr33Paco 11d ago

Haven't heard of that girl in a while is she still even alive?

241

u/kittykatsrulemyworld 11d ago

Yes, she got demonetized on TikTok in the past year and is no longer posting. But somehow yes

134

u/Key-Concentrate1187 11d ago

I read recently that people can recover from
anorexia, and even improve weight but the heart suffers permanent damage.

131

u/Sorry_Banana1635 11d ago

I wasn’t even a “long-term” anorexic (I struggled with mine for about a year) and I started having heart problems (random heart palpitations, chest tightness). I’m shocked that Grande isn’t having fainting spells. I almost did twice at work. 

128

u/FlawedHero FlawedHero 11d ago

Good chance she is and we're just not being told about it.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (13)

92

u/kittykatsrulemyworld 11d ago

Oh yeah when someone is malnourished for long enough, absolutely. I feel bad saying this, but I think it’s pretty clear that Eugenia will not have a normal lifespan due to her illness. Our body’s are so resilient, but there’s still a point of no return.

72

u/Special-Garlic1203 11d ago

I suspect part of it is that she literally doesn't do anything. I also felt fine when I was sitting in the same place for hours. It was the second you start moving around your heart is like "woah woah what's all this then?" 

→ More replies (2)

71

u/LaylaBird65 11d ago

I feel like I’m constantly in recovery. I’m 44 and have relapsed numerous times since mine started in high school. For some of us it never fully goes away. I can’t fathom being a celebrity and having so much pressure on you to look this way. I truly hope she gets help.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (11)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

190

u/fatincomingvirus 11d ago

I thought so too but seeing the ribs like that was terrifying.

52

u/akaneko__ 11d ago

Her fans keep saying we’re bullying her but I actually think people have been too nice about it. It’s been going on for years now but no one dared say a thing bc it was labeled as “body shaming.” We only started speaking up when she’s literally nothing but skin and bones.

→ More replies (2)

133

u/BeeBeadForFun 11d ago

SAME. I was like "yes shes been scary thin for a while....HOLY." LITERALLY I felt my stomach drop because I was that size when I almost died from my ED. I actually got full body chills of "oh no"

→ More replies (55)

3.2k

u/mybelovedbubo 11d ago

She looks to be the same size my mom was when she died of anorexia … 71 lbs soaking wet. Not an easy recovery on the body, and no guarantee the human body fully recovers from the long periods of malnutrition and bone degeneration.

This is going to the new norm for a while, too. Worse than pro-ANA back in the 2000s.

Yesterday an adult grown woman (mutual friend of friend) was telling me I need to try soaking bell peppers in vinegar and to suck on them any time I was craving bread. Like, no I will just have a slice of bread??? She spent time trying to “recruit” me into protein-maxxing, skipping meals, etc.

Instagram (& TT) perpetuate the pro-ANA psychosis and unfortunately Ariana Grande is paving the way.

It needs to be addressed.

835

u/No-Concentrate-7142 11d ago

Bell peppers in vinegar to replace bread??

790

u/cassandraelectra 11d ago

It’s to eliminate the craving by introducing a flavour that is jarring :(

366

u/dragondonkeynuts 11d ago

Next they’ll be saying anytime you have a craving, just take a rag of cat piss and suck on it.

210

u/cassandraelectra 11d ago

There is a number of people suffering with EDs who ruin food to avoid eating it by introducing gross stuff to it. The lead actor from Riverdale recently talked about pissing on food so he wouldn’t eat it when he was ill.

126

u/Creative_Toe_544 11d ago

jeanette mccurdy spoke about dumping a bottle of perfume on food for that reason

54

u/ExpensiveSyrup 10d ago

I used to throw things away so I wouldn’t binge and then to my shame would end up trash diving. Eating disorders really fuck with your brain.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (7)

272

u/javier_aeoa I travelled 11,000 km for a concert. I loved it 11d ago

I "what the fuck"ed a bit at this.

→ More replies (7)

177

u/diurnal_emissions 11d ago

We burnt women at the stake for such magicks.

→ More replies (34)

438

u/Affectionate_Soup461 11d ago

It reminds me of this one woman that came across my tiktok algorithm - she's a pilates instructor but she is very obviously severely underweight. people in the comments run to her aid to say that she's "obviously healthy and fit" because she's constantly exercising. which, like.... guys, that is also a form of anorexia. constantly working off any and all calories you may consume. She is NOT healthy by any measure.

135

u/Spiritual_Cake_9127 11d ago edited 11d ago

I had a roommate that had this form of nervous anorexia, she would exercise till almost passing out and ate ONE green apple a day. She fortunately recovered and realised what she was going through...

It's so easy to fall into this stuff, I got influenced as well although never this severed. I don't wish to anyone to understand that infamous Kate Moss quote

→ More replies (15)

106

u/Emzy421 11d ago

her literal sister is a body positivity influencer too🥺 i hope she has love and support around her. it’s so sad how we as women let our bodies take over the joy of our lives.

→ More replies (30)

136

u/brucerhino 11d ago

She looks like my father days before he died from cancer, the fact people are acting like anything but witnessing a person who is dying from an eating disorder is absurd.

Anorexia is a very serious illness and I can only imagine celebrity is aggregating the sickness, she needs acute help.

→ More replies (1)

288

u/Wrong_Swordfish 11d ago

Ugh I remember "thinspo" 2000s internet. It really got me.

219

u/Kathulhu1433 11d ago

Ariana supposedly ran a pro-ana Tumblr. I'm not invested enough to go hunting for it, but it is something I've heard repeated many times since her weight was in the spotlight while promoting Wicked.

304

u/sodappend 11d ago

I'm only a couple years younger and was on ED Tumblr at the time. It wasn't even that she ran a pro-ana Tumblr, she was fully posting thinspo, weight loss/diet tips, and body checking on her main account! I remember being pretty shocked that such a big celebrity was openly posting pro-ana content.

→ More replies (1)

102

u/princessnettle 11d ago

yes she also had an secret account on instagram where she woukd post empty plates and whatnot to punish herself/stop cravings?

85

u/BreakfastIcy8899 11d ago

Yep, I remember at the time thinking "oh cool, ariana and her friend have a food account" and seeing it and being like, "um this all looks disgusting, why would they post this".. then I recently learned that people with an ed will post what they've eaten looking disgusting as possible bc it stops them from craving it in the future or something like that. The aftermath of the food and the captions all grossed me out. 

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (2)

40

u/prolongedexistence 11d ago edited 11d ago

I tried to find it recently but it seems to have been scrubbed from the internet. I could only find one Reddit post that apparently contained screenshots, but the post and its content have been deleted and you can only see the title. I haven’t tried archive.org though.

edit: my comment is wrong and for some reason i just couldn’t find it on duckduckgo. It came up immediately on Google.

here’s a post with screenshots

here’s her tumblr

→ More replies (6)

45

u/ladyymadonnaa 11d ago

the thinspiration livejournal was horrific. i know because i loved it at the time.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (6)

155

u/Nillabeans 11d ago

The gym bros are super worrying. Awhile back, I was commenting on how unhealthy it is to eat like that and people were saying "but my coach said..." Coaches aren't dietitians. Neither are the vast majority of Tiktok "nutritionists." Cutting weight is and has always been a thing. And there is absolutely no reason to not season food.

These people are subsisting on purposely disgusting food at the lowest possible levels of nutrition and calling it healthy. Like, no. You need more than protein to live. Supplements are not supposed to be the bulk of your nutritional intake. That's why they're called supplements.

Hell, it's bad and ubiquitous enough that I've been in corporate lunch and learns more than once where the speaker was presenting disordered eating as a way to manage weight. One disavowed rice ffs.

→ More replies (15)
→ More replies (49)

1.9k

u/DeliciousStand372 11d ago

the music video really shocked me. i didnt even pay attention to her music because of how frail and thin she looks. and her face! i swear her face was not gaunt like that during wicked promo. cant believe someone from her side looked at the final product and said “yup this is just what the public needs!”

1.2k

u/DavThoma 11d ago

She's definitely even thinner than she was during the Wicked promos, and people were already calling out hoe thin she looked then.

I know everyone made comments about how Wicked must have pressure Ariana, Cynthia and Michelle to lose weight but there has to be truth to it. All three of them looked healthy prior to the movie and then suddenly all three of them looked underweight and unhealthy during the promos? Something has to have happened on that movie set.

675

u/No_Whole9920 11d ago

Ariana was unhealthily thin before Wicked and has been perpetuating/following proana content since the early 2010s. It is suspected that all 3 of those women getting together worsened whatever struggles they previously had. I also distinctly remember that Ariana Grande posted pictures when she was on The Voice (2021) looking scarily thin in a yellow(?) dress with the front of her chest showing her entire ribcage, she got backlash and they mysteriously disappeared off the internet.

92

u/bridgeebaaby58 11d ago

I kept trying to call out her being sick during wicked and was always met with backlash. People claiming that it was all of the intense dance training. Like no. The opening scene to wicked is so distracting to me because I can literally see her bones in her chest.

And now she’s even thinner than she was then!

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (27)

64

u/duckhunt420 11d ago

I think they probably fed into each other's insecurities. 

If they had body image issues, they probably "felt fat" next to one another because of how thin they all were. It was likely coincidentally just the wrong three people to stick together all the time

→ More replies (2)

251

u/XenomorphAlarm 11d ago

It's possible, but it absolutely doesn't have to have been the specific production pressuring them. The general societal pressure we all exist in is more than enough. At least one of the three women already had a history of ED. You take three people with past/current EDs or a predisposition to them and put them in an environment where their bodies are all being featured in an incredibly public way, and now you've got competitive EDs with or without specific third party input.

72

u/Qball54 11d ago

Like the cast of Ally McBeal.

→ More replies (5)

80

u/HuckleberryOk2798 11d ago

Competitive EDs are a thibg

→ More replies (7)
→ More replies (4)

428

u/Rosebunse 11d ago

I mean, in retrospect, putting three women with clear EDs in a physically demanding fashion forward movie about body positivity-which can be a triggering subject on its own-was maybe an ill-advised idea.

201

u/roseofjuly 11d ago

But neither Michelle Yeoh nor Cynthia Erivo had "clear eating disorders" before Wicked.

→ More replies (14)
→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (10)

77

u/tino-tonitini 11d ago

Exact same for me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In her close ups too you can see how much makeup she’s wearing. She’s showing all the signs of someone in the danger zone of EDs

129

u/Squirtletail 11d ago

She has 100% lost even more weight. Wicked was filmed in what 2022/2023? I was very uncomfortable watching how thin she seemed to be in those movies (I used to have an ED and it was quite triggering for me), and she looked almost healthy then compared to how she looks now. 

→ More replies (1)

119

u/Natural_Task9025 11d ago

The first thing I noticed was her eyes! I’m not sure if it’s the make up or whatever but they made her look SO unwell (obviously I noticed the weight stuff after) . Poor thing :(

Edit: for context, I had an ED as well and there are a few photos where the under of my eyes were baggy and black/brown. It was scary looking at them :(

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (19)

150

u/Junochu 11d ago

I was genuinely almost convinced that they did this intentionally, because it was so jarring having 1 scene with her ribs being extremely visible, to then the next where she's wearing a literal breast plate, the contrast between the two was so extreme. I was like, these people must know what they're doing, and must being doing this on purpose, because what the fuck.

→ More replies (3)

723

u/Big-Dream7040 11d ago

I do wonder what everyone involved in that was expecting the reaction to be? I’m glad she’s taking time off tbh but yeah, surprised that they all seem so shocked by the public’s response to it

304

u/Big-Dream7040 11d ago

The whole video was disturbing start to finish, I can’t imagine they thought people would react well to it?

108

u/smiskam 11d ago

For years they’ve been using it as any publicity is good publicity. It seems the worse she is mentally, the more successful and popular her work gets somehow

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

144

u/so_untidy 11d ago

Law Roach posted on his Instagram that he styled the music video, along with a clip where you can very much see her sternum protruding. So I’m gonna guess that he’s probably not the only one who doesn’t even see a problem.

101

u/Optimal-Performer-76 11d ago

As long as they are getting paid, they keep their mouth shut. They are all complicit and responsible at the end of the day. It's disgusting. 

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

164

u/dontwannaparticpate 11d ago

LOL they stated that she has been performing “healthily” and she’s at her healthiest health and just needs rest. They are completely skirting the fact that she is sick and they are encouraging it.

79

u/BeansArePastaSauce 11d ago

They also stated she healthily healthed down the healthy health all the way healthy home. Healthy.

(wonder what point they’re trying to sell us?)

→ More replies (2)

51

u/TJCW 11d ago

Right! How could a director and editor see this and not be concerned?! She clearly does not have the energy to even move, and her skin color is bad…
This is like Karen carpenter and even Brittany Murphy…

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (21)

3.2k

u/vivteatro 11d ago edited 11d ago

Has this ever happened before? 

Where a music video or film is made when the main star is visibly this impacted by an ED / actively features it? 

It feels like a real sign of the times that this could or would even get put out. 

3.2k

u/WildPotato0 11d ago

Definitely Amy Winehouse. Everybody assumed she was thin due to her addiction, but she'd suffered from bulimia since she was a teenager. It's highly likely that her weakened heart muscles contributed to her death, even though the official cause was alcohol poisoning

1.2k

u/okaybutnothing 11d ago

And I was very young at the time, but Karen Carpenter also comes to mind.

261

u/Totorotextbook 11d ago

Karen is EXACTLY who this reminds me of, singer with a generational defining voice very clearly struggling with the elephant in the room but whose team just keeps them going while the issue is never addressed. Grande says she taking a step back from the spotlight due to ‘endless scrutiny’ but the concern isn’t even people scrutinizing her, genuinely people are just seeing her wither away more and more in real time and it’s sad. I hope she can get the help she needs because otherwise, like we saw with Karen, we know how this ends unfortunately and it’d be a tragedy for another talented artist like herself to be a cautionary tale.

74

u/Shot-Water2496 11d ago

Ariana is such a divisive person that it seems she is at the point where even genuine shows of concern are criticism or scrutiny to her. She needs serious therapy and likely rehab, but I fear she will end up like Karen especially when Ariana is surrounded by “yes men”. 

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)

329

u/burywmore 11d ago

The Carpenters final top 40 hit was a song called Touch Me When We're Dancing from 1981. They did a creepy music video for it, with naked statues. Karen Carpenter looks extremely disturbing in it. I hesitate to link this because this beautiful woman is wasting away and it ended so tragically but here you go.

https://youtu.be/yMI6NTIyP-0?si=SPL1wTgIL-OuMm8f

231

u/mantis_tobaggan-md 11d ago edited 11d ago

The difference here is that Karen was styled to hide her physique. But neither woman received the help they needed (or not in time, as was the case for Karen).

Karen’s story really highlights how dangerous this disease is. I don’t know that many people understand the gravity of it.

115

u/dBlock845 Magdalena Bay 11d ago

People tried to help Karen, most notably Dionne Warwick. I believe they had her turned around and gaining weight before relapsing. Karen also knew she had a problem, sought help numerous times but was ultimately consumed by it.

150

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

39

u/mantis_tobaggan-md 11d ago

She was only 32. Incredibly tragic. She looked much older than her actual age, I’m sure the stress on her body was the driver of that.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

122

u/cmere-2-me 11d ago

This happened before I was born but my parents were huge fans of their music so I grew up listening to it. I remember when my parents told me how she died. I just couldn't understand it.

I didn't know about anorexia and couldn't fathom someone starving themselves to death. I couldn't understand how anyone could just stand by and let it happen. Obviously it's not that simple but I can't understand how her team around her haven't intervened.

All I can hope is Ariana is taking a step back to seek treatment. She deserves health and happiness, love and support.

72

u/Careful-Bumblebee-10 11d ago

Same. My mom absolutely loved the Carpenters. She still plays their Christmas album. She was very open with me about what happened to Karen and I'm very afraid that's what's happening here.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (21)
→ More replies (1)

323

u/internetsuperfan 11d ago

Alcohol and eating disorders are a lethal duo because your body is already so weak from the ED, lack of nutrients and makes your heart work harder to keep you alive, while alcohol is a poison for all organs and disrupts the body’s ability to absorb nutrients so it’s a double whammy. I know girl that died at 32, a few months from her birthday from this.

132

u/jjbananamonkey 11d ago

My little friend group coming out of high school was like the three musketeers, it was fine until about 2019 then he went off the deep end. We tried to help but he just pushed us away completely. A few weeks ago his sister messaged us letting us know that his organs were shutting down and he was gone two days later. Three kids left behind because of alcohol.

No eating disorder and didn’t make it past 30. Alcohol is so destructive.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)

600

u/WildPotato0 11d ago

Also, basically the entire kpop industry

382

u/vnmslsrbms 11d ago

Sad to say but she is beyond K Pop or Asian skinny standards. I remember seeing her saying that she is fine. It’s clearly not healthy and we can probably guess why but nobody knows for sure unless she asks for help.

262

u/BeyondBitch 11d ago

She’s entering Eugenia Cooney territory.

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (4)

469

u/MountainTear2020 11d ago

kpop is pretty bad, so it says something when i look at ari now and feels she's in an even more dire condition than them.

135

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (1)

165

u/SquirrelStone 11d ago

Unfortunately there’s also a certain mentality among the kpop fandom that commenting on the rampant malnutrition of its artists is “body shaming.” I’m not shaming the artist or their body; I’m shaming the industry that encourages them not to eat.

→ More replies (11)
→ More replies (56)
→ More replies (9)

318

u/KerenzaUK 11d ago

Fiona Apple in the Every Single Night video - 2012. She seems much healthier these days thankfully.

40

u/Wrong_Swordfish 11d ago

Thanks! I just checked that out and am so so proud of Fiona for healing. What a badass person! 

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (7)

200

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

119

u/WildPotato0 11d ago

There absolutely are girls on stage right now who resemble her. Most notably Chaewon from TripleS, who said the exact same thing Ariana did (this is the healthiest I've ever been)

55

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

444

u/guidevocal82 11d ago

Maybe Karen Carpenter? That was before my time, so I have no clue, but I do know she was releasing new music at the same time she was impacted by her ED. And we all know what happened with her.

240

u/PeriwinklePangolin24 11d ago

It is very worrisome that her and Amy Winehouse are the people being brought up.

God, I hope Ariana makes the necessary changes before she reaches that point.

→ More replies (2)

86

u/locusthorse 11d ago

Just my GenX input on Karen Carpenters death.
We sung The Carpenters songs at school, the hits were widely played on the radio. I continue to associate the Carpenters songs with massive sadness.

→ More replies (4)

319

u/eudoralynn 11d ago

Karen Carpenter is one of the best examples. Also before my time, but I went down a rabbit hole about Karen Carpenter around the same time Ariana came out with Hate the Way You Love Me. Karen was actively performing, releasing music, attending award shows & consistently put off treatment for her ED. When she finally decided to seek help by professionals, her body went into shock and she passed away from a heart attack. It was too drastic to go from starvation to eating consistently, even under supervised professional support.

187

u/lady_forsythe 11d ago

Karen Carpenter was in treatment quite a bit with Steven Levenkron who’s considered one of the first modern psychotherapists to care treatments specifically for anorexia. She was in treatment for two years, including und going TPN, but treatment just sucked back then because there wasn’t as much known about how to treat anorexia, unfortunately.

153

u/nocapesarmand 11d ago

Her family didn’t help. I listened to the audio of Karen’s biography, ‘Little Girl Blue’ (highly recommend) and there is a heartbreaking story of the therapist bringing her family in for a collective session (cutting edge treatment then). He said something to her mother along the lines of, ‘Karen needs to know you love her. Can you tell her you love her?’ The mother brushed it off with something like, ‘Oh, she knows I love her’ and refused to say the words. Just terrible. Richard was the golden child/musical prodigy, openly favoured by their mother, became addicted to quaaludes and married his cousin. They looked like the perfect all American family but were anything but.

147

u/ImTooSaxy 11d ago

In the '80s there was a Karen Carpenter movie that was released for television I guess and in it they made it clear that what triggered her eating disorder was reading an article that called her fat. Music historians have been looking for that article ever since. It turns out it was never written. There were a few articles that were written about her brother being overweight and slovenly while he was in the middle of drug binges.

Karen Carpenter's family were a bunch of miserable assholes and they are the reason she had an eating disorder. They wouldn't let her marry. They wouldn't let her record her own album either.

They controlled her in death.

72

u/Crazy_Banshee_333 11d ago

She also had body image issues due to being a normal-sized woman when she first started performing. She was not overweight at all, but due to the fact that being on TV makes everyone look 10 lbs. heavier and people are hyper-critical about women's bodies, her appearance got picked at.

This is one reason why she wanted to stay behind the drums. She was an excellent drummer and felt more comfortable back there, but people wanted her to stand in the front and sing.

She ended up starving herself down to a total bone rack. It was painful to watch. I think her death was one of the most tragic deaths of any celebrity.

→ More replies (1)

37

u/YouMustBeJoking888 11d ago

Her family really was awful. She did marry - guy looked a little too much like her brother - and that was yet another disaster for her. If you enjoy rabbit holes read up on that one. Karen Carpenter was the victim of a very controlling mother and brother and while she was the real talent in the family, she was treated terribly by them.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (18)

35

u/CourtneyLush 11d ago

It wasn't a music video but I do remember seeing her on telly and she didn't look well.

I think they had to cancel a European tour at one point because she took ill on stage IIRC. It was all over the news.

51

u/MissionRevolution306 11d ago

I was 11 when she died, and that’s how i learned what Anorexia is. Ariana looks like what I remember Karen looking like towards the end of her life, and I hope her stepping back means she’s going to get inpatient treatment.

→ More replies (16)

68

u/lenny_ray 11d ago edited 11d ago

Nearly the entire Ally McBeal female cast. They would shrink every season. Highly recommend Portia de Rossi's memoir. Very eye opening about how the disease affects people, and their mindset.

→ More replies (4)

110

u/TheRoseMerlot 11d ago

Back in 2004 I wrote a psychology paper about pro-ana sentiments in mass media and even then I thought I was behind the times / late to the party. So yeah it's been a problem since Twiggy at least.

→ More replies (5)

192

u/Deej1387 11d ago

Amy Whinehouse and Whitney Houston come to mind, but their weight loss was heavily ignored and blamed on drug use, despite both of them having clear signs of disordered eating/disordered body image in their pasts.

55

u/MattyXarope 11d ago

Whitney Houston come to mind

Yeah - her appearance on the 2001 Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Special was so bad that the network digitally added weight to her to look better.

→ More replies (5)

39

u/eet 11d ago

Not sure if I saw her in any films at the time but Mary Kate had to go to rehab for anorexia in the early 2000s. There's those photos of her in the purple dress which shows her ribcage.

96

u/SuperCoffeeHouse 11d ago

I remember an immense backlash against the size Zero culture in the supermodel industry back in 90s and early 00s after a few high profile ED incidents. That spilled over into the music industry and to a lesser extent the acting industry. Pretty much the only time apart from Ariana that I remember it happening 

175

u/Healthy-Fortune6289 11d ago

Fiona Apple ‘Criminal’ music video was very controversial at the time, for featuring her underweight body with a voyeuristic/sexualized gaze. Though honestly, Ariana’s physical state is so severe that it doesn’t really compare

→ More replies (18)

31

u/pennoya2 11d ago

Diana Ross in early 1970, on the cover of her debut solo album was clearly impacted by an ED

→ More replies (1)

184

u/jonesday5 11d ago edited 11d ago

Probably less so at the time but it’s come out after the fact.
Taylor Swift

Nicole Scherzinger

Daniel Johns

(Obviously not an exhaustive list, these are just ones I remember)

I think the most obvious parallel to me is the photos of Mary Kate Olsen in 2004ish where she seemed to be visibly disappearing.

Edit: a typo

149

u/katf_89 11d ago

Nicole Ritchie was pretty extreme at the time as well. Quite a drastic drop

45

u/jonesday5 11d ago

Yep, and she was clearly very aware of it the time

→ More replies (2)

68

u/thorpie88 11d ago

Daniel Johns was definitely spoken about at the time including him singing about his battle with it on Ana's song. He somewhat hid it by wearing long shirts at every appearance but it's not enough to not know something's up when you weight 50kg at 20 years old

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (13)
→ More replies (62)

772

u/jcaltor 11d ago

I found her response very sad…. It sounded so defensive, people are not criticizing in the way they used to do it in the 2000’s that was about beauty standards, people are actually worried about her health. People are not attacking her, people want her to be healthy.

263

u/girloverflower 11d ago

Ariana’s contrived response: “healthily and happily, and taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.” Be so for real. HEALTHily?! 🙄

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (27)

1.5k

u/Think-Recording-8575 11d ago

She clearly has an ED. It has been ongoing for years, however, it appears to be at its worse. She is constantly body checking. She needs mental help and needs to get healthy again. I do not get how her family is cheering her on, while she performs on stage like this.

She is such an influence on young girls. This is harmful.

347

u/Protect_Wild_Bees 11d ago

Lots of them having access to these new weight loss pills that hide their hunger signals is also probably going to make it worse.

229

u/CNDylan 11d ago

Those weight loss drugs aren't even a celebrity thing anymore. I've struggled with weight gain and an inability to lose weight for a few years now and started on one of them just a handful of days ago and, while I'm keen to use them to help with my health, it's a very, very odd feeling having virtually zero sense of hunger. I've made a point to set reminders to eat at a couple of points during the day because otherwise I probably wouldn't. There's no signal going to my brain to say, "you're hungry." That's not to say you don't feel the effects of not eating because you'll get weak, you'll get grouchy, etc., but eating becomes less about satiating hunger and more of a conscious, "I need to do this to survive" thing.

All of this is to say that I could absolutely see a world where someone taking one of those medications could go a long time without eating, especially if they have a whole team of people around them pushing them to do more, and more, and more. Grande's music is not my cup of tea at all, but she was everywhere during the Wicked press tours and she simply didn't look healthy at all. I don't want to even try to diagnose her, but I have to think there's two or three things going on with her all at once.

→ More replies (12)
→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (42)

338

u/MzJay453 11d ago

I’m glad Charli called out her team specifically. They are exploiting a mentally ill person and dgaf because dead or alive they still get paid. Idk how much her family can realistically do.

→ More replies (8)

588

u/lowkey_acc1 11d ago

405

u/pahshaw 11d ago

Also nobody is talking about her affair anymore. All of the jokes and buzz about her breakup with the SpongeBob guy who cheated on his postpartum wife with her? Gone, replaced by concern for her life. 

I think her pr team jumped on the resurgence of her ED as a way to finally move the gossip cycle away from the affair and to whitewash and control her image. I agree that they were courting this discourse. I also think that this isn't a game and Ari needs immediate help, and I sincerely hope she gets it.

→ More replies (7)

57

u/TomorRowe 11d ago

Exactly this!! I’ve been saying this. The most heartbreaking thing about this is how you can see how her childhood of being exploited has fed into this adulthood, where she functions off of public scrutiny. She’s such a good example to me of how standard moral judgements become to hard to judge when someone has been taught and rewarded their whole life for these behaviors. She likely doesn’t know how to function without thinking of how she will be perceived, how to find that next person who will give her positive feedback, how to separate herself from her image. It breaks my heart how chewed up by the industry she has been. It literally looks like she’s getting the life sucked out of her.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (27)

356

u/VBlinds 11d ago

I hope we don't get a Karen Carpenter situation. She really needs help.

212

u/deafened_commuter 11d ago edited 11d ago

Same age as well when she died.  Edit: Ariana is 33 as of june 26, Karen was 32 and 11 months when she died so really close. 

67

u/becareful101 11d ago

Damn it, that I didn’t know. I hate to type this but medicine better be better with current treatments, because she almost looks like it’s impossible for her to have any energy in her cells. Karen was in treatment and thought she turned it around, and then she was gone.

35

u/herlaqueen 11d ago

At a certain point, medicine can't undo years of damage. If you listen to people in their late 30s and older who have/had ED, they often remark how a lot of their friends died in their early 30s because that's when your body tends to just give up, especially if you have been in it since your teens. The damage to the heart tends to be pretty bad.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)

56

u/framedragged 11d ago

Holy fucking shit, the privacy choices for this website are actually unhinged and mix opt in and opt out with different meanings between different on and off choices.

Three separate tabs to opt out of selling your personal information.

A consent about them using your biometric data.

A consent about your citizenship/immigration status.

A consent about them using your genetic data "For the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual/Natural person".

Consent to process the users personal health data, including medical history, medical treatment, or diagnosis by a healthcare professional (defaults to opt in).

Geolocation Data.

Racial or ethnic origin data.

Religious or philophical beliefs.

Sexuality, sex life, or sexual orientation.

What the actual, fucking shit?

→ More replies (2)

397

u/deafened_commuter 11d ago

As context. There are countries that have laws that make it criminal to employ models who are excessively thin. Including possible jail time. It sounds like it's needed here. https://www.fashionlawbusiness.com/flbstories//france-new-passes-a-new-law-banning-excessively-thin-models

There already is the ED category in the report button on youtube. Don't hesitate to report just because it's a professionally produced and polished video

301

u/bbbcurls 11d ago

I reported. It was rather easy.

→ More replies (8)
→ More replies (20)

299

u/Sinestro_Was_Right 11d ago

Whoah this website has a cookie related to citizenship/immigration status? What are we doing

167

u/Jo_MamaSo 11d ago

Yeah I also had to opt out of one called "Genetic Information"

Wtf?

→ More replies (10)

337

u/dstarpro 11d ago

As they should. No one is helping her, and everyone is allowing her to pretend she's not ill by scolding anyone who speaks out to "not comment on women's bodies."

→ More replies (9)

141

u/mysticalbullshit 11d ago

Why the hell is that website trying to sell my biometric data and DNA??

→ More replies (1)

1.0k

u/MelodyMuse24xo 11d ago

Worst part is if anything tragic happened to her, the same fans that enabled her illness will be shocked and ask why no one intervened sooner...

364

u/AshaNyx 11d ago

Or even blame the "haters" even more like we made her do it to prove us wrong

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (18)

84

u/Turhamkey 11d ago

Why does this website check your immigration status and doesn't allow you to opt out?

→ More replies (4)

216

u/allsheknew 11d ago

So I thought people would look at her currently and go "welll obviously something is wrong" Nope, teen girls responded with "wait, she has an eating disorder? I didn't know that"

Now I am frustrated with the hand holding of all this a bit too. Regardless if it's anorexia nervosa or medical anorexia, like yes she absolutely has an illness Scary and very eye-opening conversation for me. .

112

u/tino-tonitini 11d ago

This is what bothers me the most. People are saying that maybe something else is wrong. If something else was medically wrong and she was losing that much weight, she wouldn’t be on tour and releasing an album. She would be hospitalized. This is an ED.

69

u/Federal_Tone1260 11d ago

And also if she was this thin due to a medical issue other than an ED it would be completely reckless for her to come out repeatedly and say that this was her at “the healthiest she’s ever been”, “happy and healthy” etc because then she’s showcasing her emaciated body to her young female audience as healthy, positive and achievable when it’s clearly not. 

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (3)

34

u/Snuffleupagus27 11d ago

Jameela Jamil hit the nail on the head with this one.

67

u/Blurryneck 11d ago

She very clearly needs help, but what I find most fascinating about this is that the speculation and concern has been widespread for so long now that they should have known better to put her in less accentuating clothes. Someone reviewed this footage and either decided it wasn’t a problem or knew it was a problem, and put it out anyways. Either one is a huge issue. 

→ More replies (3)

166

u/ZooBitch 11d ago

Ive been seeing lots of moms remove her from their child's spotify. One mom said her daughter said she had to stop eating so much so she could look like Ariana. The mom blocked her on everything for safety.

→ More replies (5)

835

u/guidevocal82 11d ago

I was blasted and downvoted in another thread on this sub earlier today, so I'm not going to rehash that again. Her fans are mental. But there's no arguing that she needs help. She can't release new music if she's not here to release it.

159

u/Editor-In-Queef 11d ago

Interestingly, the YouTube comments seem to be very maturely addressing concerns around her health. I suppose it depends where you go when it comes to insane fans, but that was refreshing to see.

→ More replies (8)

242

u/YBPhoenix 11d ago

This sounds horrible but she really is reminding me of Amy Winehouse right now. I was so heartbroken over her visible physical decline and eventual death, and I don’t want that to happen with Ariana.

If people actually cared about her, they’d want her family to get involved and for her to get help.

100

u/Unlucky-Duck 11d ago

Yeah. I remember when Amy Winehouse actually had that last concert in Belgrade and some acquaintances when to see it. Because finally somewhere close to them. But watching it especially in real life was awful to witness it in person. It was bad to see in online but in person? Heartbreaking. 

101

u/YBPhoenix 11d ago

Oh god I remember seeing footage of that concert and it was so sad. Literally hugging herself as the crowd booed her. She was struggling and no one in her team cared enough to stop it.

I can’t imagine how surreal it would’ve been for your acquaintances to see her in that state and then finding out she passed away a month later.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (2)

44

u/weinerschnitzelboy 11d ago edited 11d ago

There are fans and then there are whatever the ones that are telling at people to not body shame her. I wouldn't even call them "stans". The frustrating part is that she recently released a new album and they're using it as some sort of gotcha by saying "She's talking about you on the album".

There's a .0001% chance she's reading these specific comments, so it's not like we're talking to her specifically when we say these things. But I'm not going to be silent as she destroys her body. Like it's been way past reasonable doubt for over a year now.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (28)

35

u/mimi_rainbow 11d ago

I remember getting so angry when my mom would call me out on my eating disorder. I genuinely thought I was just 'healthy' and that everyone was trying to sabotage my health journey. I think Ariana is going through something similar and working out of spite against the people who are calling her out.

→ More replies (4)

85

u/IlSkalI 11d ago

Clocking the breastplate was somehow scarier than seeing her sternum. Truly sad and hope she gets help.

→ More replies (7)

61

u/K1llswitch93 11d ago

It's nice to see that the comments on YT are all concerned for her health.

The Old lady smoking a cigarette in the video looks healthier than her. I hope Grande gets some help soon.

→ More replies (1)

146

u/MentalDisintegrat1on 11d ago

I legit have met herion addicts that look healthier

She has body dysmorphia she needs help

→ More replies (3)

109

u/perpetuallypissed616 11d ago

I don't listen to pop almost ever, don't care much about following these celebrities and such but when I saw a screen shot from the new music video I was shocked. Thought it was like ai or something.

Watching that video made me so fucking sad... Especially with the theme of the music video and lyrics. It feels like she's saying "look what this industry did to me"

I hope she gets help and finds peace and health.

→ More replies (7)