The song God is a Woman by Ariana Grande, released in July of 2018, is a confusing disappointment to all who expected an empowering, inspiring message for women. As illustrated in the lyrics of the chorus, the single is referring not to the strength and life force of a woman, but her sexual prowess. As the chorus goes, “You, you love it how I move you. You love it how I touch you, my one. When all is said and done. You’ll believe God is a woman”(Genius). These words indicate that it is through sexual performance that women are believed godly. She straddles the world in a seductive manner and when she grows a baby belly it is coupled with the lyrics “and boy if you confess, you might get blessed.”
Another confusing moment in the music video was the screaming beavers. In an interview on the Zach Sang Show, Ariana Grande explained that the beavers were representing pussy and “it was supposed to represent the frustration of being a misunderstood woman…, to be seen also as not just a vessel for sex”(Ariana Grande Talks God Is A Woman 3:37-4:10). Her explanation of what this scene meant reveals that her true intent was to address the issue of women being objectified by the male gaze. However, her lyrics and other aspects of the music video collide with this rationale. Mulvey’s concept of looking pleasure is reflected in Grande’s video, more specifically, the scopophilic variety characterized by objectification of a person’s sexuality through watching. Though there is no man in the video, the audience is comprised of spectators, who see her “isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualized”(Mulvey 35).
Grande’s song does not do its title justice and is a failed attempt at increasing awareness around serious challenges women face in a misogynistic world. Whether Grande’s motive was to voice that woman are the independent vitality of the world or express the significance of sexual liberation for women empowerment is a blur. Without seeing the music video, this song sounds like a love song to a man rather than an appeal to women united.
“Ariana Grande – God Is a Woman.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 13 July 2018, genius.com/Ariana-grande-god-is-a-woman-lyrics.
Laura Mulvey; Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Screen, Volume 16, Issue 3, 1 October 1975, Pages 6–18, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
Show, Zach Sang, director. Ariana Grande Talks God Is A Woman. YouTube, YouTube, 19 Aug. 2018, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOTPgR9zYUI&feature=youtu.be.
Feminist Film Studies Fall 2018 