Ariana Grande

Media has become the main source of mass communication between people all over the globe. Often, people use media to advertise or send messages to their target audience with ease; much more than they would have in the past. Sometimes the messages that capitalist corporations use to sell to an audience are manipulated or hidden to focus on the unconscious mind of the viewer. These messages and signals are very apparent in Ariana Grande’s music video, “Break Free”. In this music video, Ariana is fighting aliens and freeing prisoners in an alternate, intergalactic universe while singing about breaking free from a dying relationship. In her lyrics, she states, “I only wanna die alive/Never by the hands of a broken heart/I don't wanna hear you
Grande encompasses that of a young, virginal girl but flaunts her assets like an experienced, sexual woman. I think that it is because of females that attempt to accomplish both a virginal and whore-like paradigm that influence men to expect females to adhere to these expectations. These expectations are unrealistic as it is impossible for women to be saintly and a sexy, “bad girl” at the same time. This image that Grande portrays creates the Western obsession with virginity – or more so, how women are dirty if they are not virgins. I agree with Jessica Valenti that virginity is “this inextricable relationship between sexual purity and women - how we're either virgins or not virgins – that makes the very concept of virginity so dangerous and so necessary to do away with.” Throughout the video, Grande is touching her body suggestively, rubbing her hips and face, demonstrating her sexuality and promoting her promiscuity. I believe that the erotic movements of Ariana paired with her scantily clad outfits and innocent demeanor further the false notion that women must be both sexual and virginal to be