Cohen 1

Arielle Cohen

Mr. Acornley

H. Brit. Lit.

18 December 2018

Putting “Thank U, Next” to the Feminist Test

Introduction to “Thank U, Next” by Ariana Grande

With her astonishing vocal range, relatable lyrics, and two-foot-long ponytail trailing

behind her at all times, Ariana Grande has become one of the biggest celebrities in the world

today and a role model for young girls everywhere. It’s not surprising that her new song, “Thank

U, Next” has been #1 on Billboard’s top 100 list for three weeks. And, the accompanying music

video has set the new record for most views in 24 hours at over 55 million views (Hughes). But,

does Ariana’s broad influence come at a price?

The video features four iconic movies, known as chick flicks, in which Ariana replaces

the original main characters. She plays Regina George in ​Mean Girls​, Torrance Shipman in

Bring it On,​ Jenna Rink in ​13 Going On 30,​ and Elle Woods in ​Legally Blonde​. At first glance,

the video appears harmless. However, in order to understand the true underlying messages, one

must understand Ariana’s intentions in re-creating each of the four movies. It could be that she is

mocking the anti-feminist trends, like traditional gender roles, that run through the movies by

purposely contradicting the scenes in the music video with the lyrics in her song. But, this claim

is not backed by any evidence in either the music video or the song. More likely, as stated in the

behind the scenes - Part 2 YouTube video released by Ariana’s team, the creators of the music

video chose each movie in order to “pay homage” to the movies’ importance in pop culture
 Cohen 2

(00:01:53-00:01:54). They also chose the movies because there is a running theme where each

main character becomes a better person because of a break up (00:02:05-00:02:29). This relates

to the song because the lyrics “Thank U, Next” represent how Ariana has grown from past

experiences with boyfriends, but has moved on seamlessly because she’s an independent woman.

The connection between the music video and the lyrics seems to make sense. But, while

Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” music video attempts to be empowering for women, Ariana

objectifies herself, reinforces the male gaze, and ignores the importance of female sisterhood in

the video, thus undermining the feminist message in her song. This reveals that Grande is a

recovering patriarchal woman and that she is sending her audience a conflicted message about

women’s empowerment.

The Male Gaze and Objectification

As Ariana plays different characters in each scene of her video, she is objectified through

sexually suggestive positions and camera angles, enforcing the universality of the male

perspective. The male gaze, as explained in Lois Tyson’s ​Critical Theory Today​, is the idea that

“the man looks” and therefore has the power to explain and rule the world, whereas “the woman

is looked at” (97). This concept is demonstrated during one of the ​Mean Girls​ scenes in which

Ariana lies on her bed, looking straight into the camera, with a pen placed in her mouth,

symbolic of a penis ...to be blunt (see Appendix A). This scene occurs nowhere in the original

movie, but is included in the video to sexualize Ariana, thus making her seem less like a human

and more like an object. She is eroticized for her viewers, who are automatically assumed to

have values that align with the stereotypical male perspective of women. Ariana’s actions in this

scene also have no relation to the lyrics playing over it, as she sings “wrote some songs about
 Cohen 3

Ricky,” and “wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm” (“Ariana Grande - Thank”). Even though

she’s portrayed as a woman who is able to move on from past relationships in the lyrics, she’s

still objectified in the video. The patriarchal society she lives in governs how she has to look and

how the camera has to angle towards her in order to gain popularity. Ultimately, even though she

is a powerful, successful woman, she is still less powerful than a man.

In this case, Ariana is also less powerful than the ​director​ who dictates how she is

portrayed. It’s worth noting here that the music video is directed by a man. Of course, not all

male directors buy into the idea of the male gaze when directing, but in this instance, the director

does, as he decides to include camera angles that subject Ariana to the male gaze and work to

objectify her. Again, in one of the ​Mean Girls​ sections of the video, the camera swipes across the

derrieres of Ariana and three of her girlfriends as they dance in sexy Santa costumes with short

skirts and six-inch heeled boots (see Appendix B). This gives off the message that Ariana is an

object, only valued for the sexual pleasure she may give to others. Ariana is supposed to be a role

model for other girls and she is singing about being a strong woman, but she doesn’t succeed in

breaking the male gaze.

Sisterhood

In the music video, the idea of sisterhood, defined by Tyson as the “psychological and

political bonding among women based on the recognition of common experiences and goals,” is

alarmingly excluded from the main message of the song and video (101). In the scene where

Ariana is cheerleading as ​Bring it On​’s Torrance Shipman, there is a quick shot of Ariana glaring

at another cheerleader (see Appendix C), who is African American. While there are other shots

in which the same cheerleader and Ariana are cheering side by side, the feuding shot is the most
 Cohen 4

important because, by including it, Ariana is promoting the separation of women. By

perpetuating this feud, they lose their power and prevent the progression of true gender equality.

This divide is seen in society through movies, magazines, and in sports like cheerleading and

dance. Also, women of color are most often left behind and are subjected to the worst end of

patriarchy because they are oppressed by both the patriarchy and racism. Thus by preventing the

sisterhood between these two cheerleaders, Ariana continues to promote patriarchal ideologies

and perpetuate already existing inequalities within society.

Furthermore, when Ariana is shown walking down the hall with a clique of girls around

her and excluding others in a ​Mean Girls​ scene, she is again propelling the patriarchal agenda of

separating women to prevent them from coming together to create social change. Ariana portrays

herself as the Queen Bee, as shown by the girl who punches herself in the face because Ariana

says, “honest to God, knock me out,” the girl who gets pregnant to be pregnant with Ariana, and

the girl who gets engaged just to break off her engagement like Ariana did (00:00:00-00:00:38).

By building herself up and separating herself from other women, she is ignoring the importance

of sisterhood. She is also damaging the psyches of other women by making them feel inferior to

her, and therefore insecure about their own attributes. Through her exclusion of others, Ariana is

convincing women that they have to buy into the patriarchy’s idea of a perfect woman in order to

gain status like her. In this way, she’s acting like a dominant, oppressive figure by taking up

other women’s time, which they could be spending bonding instead of idolizing Ariana. Because

she perpetuates insecurities in other women and occupies their time with useless activities, she

repeats the cycle of repressive ideologies in women.

 Cohen 5

Contradictory Scenes

There are many instances in the video where the scenes contradict the lyrics in the song

that are playing over it, which creates a subversion for the empowering message in “Thank U,

​ here she is
Next.” For example, Ariana appears in a scene from the movie ​13 Going on 30 w

walking away from a group of women at the altar (see Appendix D), meant to represent a past

memory of the main character’s wedding day (00:02:42-00:02:52). Ariana is wearing a straight

brown wig and carries a large doll house to set down in front of a big, fancy mansion while a tear

streams down her face. This is meant to mirror the main character Jenna’s distress that she

missed her childhood. But, in doing so, Ariana is endorsing the idea that the best thing in a girl’s

life is marriage. Many feminists criticize marriage for appropriating a woman’s time, body

products such as breast milk and hair, sexual obligation, and caretaking, also known as sexage

(Tyson 94-95). And, while it’s not bad to want to get married, the fact that Ariana chooses to

re-create a movie that places such great importance on marriage shows that she is advocating that

marriage is the best day of a girl’s life.

While the video displays one concept, the lyrics Ariana is singing during this part of the

video completely contradict her message about marriage. Ariana sings about her wedding day in

the future and how she’ll be holding hands with her mom She states that she’ll be thanking her

dad only because his “drama” helped her mom to grow (“Ariana Grande - Thank”). These lyrics

are incredibly empowering because they break the stereotype that a dad has to walk his daughter

down the aisle and that dads are the dominant figure in the family. Ariana then sings about how,

even if her marriage doesn’t work out, she will still be successful because of her music career

(“Ariana Grande - Thank”), showing that she is independent, strong, and in control of her life.
 Cohen 6

But, because of the contradictory scene explained above, the effect of these lines fall flat of

feminist expectations.

Another scene from the same movie shows conflicting messages as well. When Ariana

goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth, an unidentified boy joins her. They are both eyeing

each other flirtatiously. Then, the video flips to a scene where Ariana is rolling around excitedly

on her bed with her pom poms, implying that she’s happy about her interaction with the boy

(00:01:46-00:02:17). Yet, the lyrics she is singing explain how, now that she doesn’t have a

boyfriend, she has “met someone else” and “her name is Ari,” meaning that she likes being

single (“Ariana Grande - Thank”). In this line, Ariana emphasizes the message that she doesn’t

need a man to be happy or prosperous. However, because of the scenes that occur while she’s

singing these lines, the audience is made to think that she would be happier with a boyfriend.

Ariana Grande’s Legacy

When a person is as famous as Ariana Grande, they almost always evoke controversy and

criticism. And, while “Thank U, Next” does fall short of many feminist expectations, it does

contribute some empowering ideas for Ariana’s followers to learn from, including the

attractiveness of female independence and financial success. Nonetheless, when analyzing the

song, there is a question of whether empowerment and gender equality were Ariana’s initial goal

in creating this video. Ariana not only gives in to patriarchal ideologies in “Thank U, Next,” but

she also does the same in some of her other works, including “Dangerous Woman.” Here, she

objectifies and dehumanizes herself as she dresses in a sexy costume with Playboy bunny ears

(see Appendix E). Another ideologically conflicted work of hers is “God is a Woman.” This

song initially seems to empower women but actually gives in to the male gaze. Ariana sexualizes
 Cohen 7

herself in the song and has to wait for confirmation from the male subject of the song in order to

legitimize her point. These works reaffirm that Ariana repeatedly fails to satisfy the desires of

feminists everywhere.

However, even though she doesn’t uplift other women in these videos, perhaps feminists

should embrace her. After all, the most effective repellent to the patriarchy is sisterhood, right?

While she attempts to create feminist content, she still has to maintain her success and platform,

and in order to do so, she has to work within the patriarchy, which means compromising some

feminist values. Maybe it’s true that Ariana doesn’t really care about gender equality. But, can

you really blame her for buying into the patriarchy when she’s been surrounded by it her entire

life? She is still ingrained with society’s patriarchal ideals simply because she lives in a

patriarchal society. Because of her widespread influence, many of Ariana’s followers may grow

up with the same oppressive patriarchal values that she depicts in her content. Hopefully in the

future she will realize that she is perpetuating oppressive ideologies and manage to create more

truly feminist content despite the fact that this may jeopardize some of her popularity. If she does

change, she may be able to use her influence to prevent a patriarchal psyche in her followers and

even create some social change.

 Cohen 8

Works Cited

“Ariana Grande - God Is A Woman Lyrics.” ​Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe Lyrics |

MetroLyrics,​ Warner Bros.,

www.metrolyrics.com/god-is-a-woman-lyrics-ariana-grande.html.

“Ariana Grande – ​Thank u, Next.” ​Genius,​ Genius Media Group Inc., 3 Nov. 2018,

genius.com/Ariana-grande-thank-u-next-lyrics.

Grande, Ariana. “Ariana Grande - Dangerous Woman .” ​YouTube,​ YouTube, 11 Mar. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFrMDGfW_Sg.

Grande, Ariana. “Ariana Grande - Thank u, Next.” ​YouTube​, YouTube, 30 Nov. 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl1aHhXnN1k.

Grande, Ariana. “Ariana Grande - Thank u, next (behind the Scenes - Part 2).” ​YouTube,​

YouTube, 7 Dec. 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQTATmS3_NQ&feature=youtu.be.

Hughes, Hilary. “Ariana Grande's 'Thank U, Next' Video Smashes YouTube and Vevo 24-Hour

Records.” ​Billboard,​ Billboard, 3 Dec. 2018,

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8487658/ariana-grande-thank-u-next-video-bre

aks-youtube-vevo-record-24-hour-views.

Tyson, Lois. ​Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide.​ Third ed., Routledge, 2015.
 Cohen 9

Appendices

Appendix​ ​A*

Appendix B*
 Cohen 10

Appendix C*

Appendix​ ​D*
 Cohen 11

Appendix E**

*Photos are screenshots from Ariana Grande’s music video, “Thank u, Next,” cited on the Works

Cited page.

**Photo is from the song “Dangerous Woman” by Ariana Grande