Following the ending of her iconic and highly publicized engagement with Pete Davidson, Ariana Grande released “thank u, next,” the first single from her forthcoming album. The lyrics address her past relationships, and what she’s learned from them. The second verse explains that she’s chosen to focus on her relationship with herself. “Plus, I met someone else. We havin’ better discussions. I know they say I move on too fast. But this one gon’ last. ‘Cause her name is Ari. And I’m so good with that” (Grande). She also explains the things she’s learned from herself, like love, patience, and how to handle pain. This portion of the song can be applied to Mulvey’s concept of the symbolic, and women’s lack of phallus.
“…The female figure poses a deeper problem. She also connotes something that the look continually circles around but disavows: her lack of a penis, implying that a threat of castration and hence unpleasure. Ultimately, the meaning of woman is sexual difference, the absence of the penis is visually ascertainable, the material evidence on which is based the castration complex essential for the organization of entrance to the symbolic order and the law of the father. Thus the woman as icon, displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men, the active controllers of the look, always threatens to evoke anxiety it originally signified” (Mulvey, 35). Ariana choosing to partake in a relationship with herself, a woman, goes against societal norms, and comes back to the fear of women’s lack of a phallus.
Grande, Ariana. “Thank u, next.” Thank U, Next. Republic. 2018. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEhZAHZQyf4
Mulvey, Laura. (1975). “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16(3), 35.
Feminist Film Studies Fall 2018 