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Saige Boddy

Professor Granillo

English 103

21 October 2018

God Forbid He’s a She

Pop culture is no stranger to controversial stances and statements about almost any

subject you can think of. Politics, history, freedom of speech, and human rights have been some

of the hugest topics covered by pop influencers a with huge fanbase. Many people let artists slide

past with their opinions because publicity stunts are relatively common in the music industry

alone. People have become afraid of these rising stars and their opinions on controversial issues

and have even began a whole other argument in order to avoid the real message at hand. In

Ariana Grande's song "God is a Woman", she utilizes the foundation of Simone de Beauvoir's

other and Colette Guillaumin’s sexage to make a bold statement about female sexuality; In

exchange for providing a source of female empowerment, the song quickly fell victim to male

criticism and became a scapegoat for religious controversy, allowing many people to be

discouraged to listening to the song and understanding the pro-woman message that it provides.

Ironically, all the criticism sounding off on social media about the absurdness of this

message has nothing to do with the intended message, despite how crystal clear it is. Political

commentator Ben Shapiro took to Twitter saying "God is neither man nor woman. But let's

examine the argument. If you say that sex shows God is a woman, what does disproportionate

female osteoporosis show?" (@benshapiro). Similar comments were made in response to

Grande's tweet containing some of the lyrics to “God is a Woman”, such as how God is the

"King of Kings" and "The Father and the Son" (@jasonhpeace). Instead of educated responses
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on the artistic use of such a bold and dangerous statement to make, the public has decided that

Ariana Grande is a theologist instead of someone trying to make a point through a metaphor.

This past summer, pop idol Ariana Grande released a song titled "God is a Woman"

which was written as an anthem for women to embrace their sexuality and feel more empowered

about themselves. The chorus of the anthem states "You love it when 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" (“God is a

Woman” 00:01). This song is considered hybrid pop and hip-hop song, having obvious reggae

influence and trap production. Compared to her other songs, it doesn't boast her epic vocal range

and instead is on the breathy and mild side, which is an unusual thing for Ariana as she’s known

for her whistle notes. The lyrics heavily represents sexual liberation and other themes where the

music video contains many references to historical religious and political art pieces such as “The

Thinker” by Auguste Rodin and “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo. Every scene is

deliberately colored and styled in a way to present Grande's stance alongside women and female

empowerment, especially when it comes to sexuality and sexual freedom. Although the music

video is very political and has strong religious aspects, the lyrics don't really match and take

more of a sexual stance, creating an even powerful set of messages when the two are linked.

Simone De Beauvoir was a French feminist and social theorist who is well known for

publishing Le Deuxième Sexe, which translated into The Second Sex. It became a very

controversial publication that was banned and criticised by many influential people including the

Pope. Her theory is the concept of other, where "she is determined and differentiated in relation

to man, while he is not in relation to her, she is the inessential in front of the essential" (Simone

de Beauvoir 6). That being said, she also often refers to men as the 'subject' and women as the
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'Other'. It's one of the most simple rules of life: if you have one, you have the other. In any art or

photography class, they'll tell you about positive and negative space or the present of darkness or

light. All of these things cannot exist without the other, but one was meant to be created and the

other is a sort of negative side-effect and nothing more. Looking at this concept from a religious

standpoint, the Christian God from the Bible is referred to as Father and He. People say that God

isn't a man or a woman but that we use words that we're familiar with to represent him. It's

surprising, due to the fact that women have always been punished and limited due to our more

emotional and nurturing side, and yet God who is a nurturer and a creator is so noble and all

powerful. The moment a woman replaces a figure that we as humans recognize as “God” for the

sake of an artistic gesture, hell breaks loose and clouds the judgement of those who are not

willing to look past the obvious. If Ariana Grande had intended to try and make a statement

about the omnipotent Christian god, she would not have included a made up bible passage from

Pulp Fiction that Madonna’s character recited. The lack of consistency in religion as she

replicates various historical art pieces that are derived from different religions are a big hint as to

her message. Despite being looked down upon as this "other" entity altogether, women over the

years have managed to learn the rules of the game and have instead discovered how to fight back

using their own defect against them.

The backlash that followed the release of this song was due to this mentality that women

cannot try to change the world. For whatever reason, we have no voice and we can be silenced if

we happen to find it. Lois Tyson, author of Critical Theory Today perfectly states that "A woman

is not a person in her own right. She is man’s Other: she is less than a man; she is a kind of alien

in a man’s world" (Tyson 96). One of the first few scenes in the music video has Ariana is sitting
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in the same position as "The Thinker, looking down at men who are much smaller than her and

shouting random hurtful words such as "fake" and "hoe" at her but she deflects and ignores them.

The scene is portrayed like a pop-up book, the men picking their words from the pages and

throwing them as if they were stoning her ("God is a Woman" 00:43). She replaces a man in a

very popular historic sculpture and represents women as individuals and people in our own right.

There are many women who have posted comments on social media or even directly on the

video on youtube with a message saying that their God isn't a woman and anyone who says so is

damned. Empowered women for a while have referred to themselves as 'goddesses' and focusing

on a straw man argument that has remotely nothing to do with the themes presented in the song

is doing more damage than good. The women foolish enough to fall into this trap that men have

set up lets the true message get buried beneath enough negativity and therefore removes the

threat. (Insert transition).

A phrase was coined by Colette Guillaumin, a French materialist feminist who studied

under and with some of the most popular feminists of their day, and it was the idea that women

are oppressed by "direct physical appropriation" (Guillaumin). There are four stages, all of them

having to do with the use of a woman's body to work freely without payment because it is her

duty and expected of her to do such. One of the four forms is women's sexual obligation, which

is something Ariana Grande seems to tackle pretty well in her lyrics. On top of sexualized lyrics,

there are scenes such as the opening where Ariana is laying in a pool with soft blues and purples

are painted around her looking very much like female genitals. Or how about a scene in the

middle where she's straddling the globe and quite literally fingering our lovely planet Earth

(“God is a Woman” 00:00-00:20). In both lyrics and visuals, Ariana puts some power behind
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female sexuality to enlighten those who are ignorant enough to pretend things are otherwise.

Women have always been oppressed, yes, and we will probably continue to be long after my

lifetime, but one thing I've noticed is how women have began taking control of relationships and

their bodies. Ariana's statement is assertive, making it well known that she is the one in control

and not any man she's with, which is an empowering message for all women to hear throughout

the day

“God is a Woman” by Ariana Grande doesn’t deserve the criticism it received upon

release but because of the world we live in today, no empowering message for “minorities” will

ever not have any backlash due to the people keeping them at bay. At this point in time, I think

the religious persecution of the artist and everything about the song has blown over and is now

an inspiring tune played on every radio and streaming station no matter the platform. The

concept of other allowed us to learn how we could potentially overthrow the way the world

currently works with the patriarchy at the top, and although it’s something that could very well

happen, it’s more likely that we’ll always be playing the game and instead just be one step ahead.

We’re coming to a point in time where we’re ahead of the game and we as females are beginning

to manipulate situations so that the men in our lives think they’re winning and still in control.

Grande was bold to use a metaphor to compare God and women but it’s something that caught

the attention of people all over the world and is now spreading the message of female sexuality

not being a negative and almost predatory aspect but a thing of creation and love and power.
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Works Cited

Beauvoir, Simone de, 1908-1986. The Second Sex. London :Jonathan Cape, 2009. Print.

@benshapiro (Ben Shapiro). "God is neither man nor woman. But let's examine the argument. If

you say that sex shows God is a woman, what does disproportionate female osteoporosis

show?" Twitter. 3 Jul. 2018, 1:59 p.m. https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/10175

13767062499328?s=20

Grande, Ariana. “God is a Woman.” Sweetener, Republic Records, 2018, track 5. Spotify,

https://open.spotify.com/track/5OCJzvD7sykQEKHH7qAC3C

Guillaumin, Colette (1995). Racism, sexism, power, and ideology. London: Routledge.

@jasonhpeace (Jason Peace). "I see alot of tweets that are disrespecting God and its really sad.

God is not a woman He is the King of Kings and The Lord of Lords. He is God The

Father God The Son and God The Holy Spirit and his name is LORD Jesus." Twitter. 12

Jul. 2018, 4:55 p.m. https://twitter.com/jasonhpeace/status/1017558048636882944?s=20

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.