in the “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” music video, ariana chose to cast a woman who looks like her as the girlfriend to make it seem as though she is preaching self love, as she persuades the girlfriend to leave the boyfriend and kisses her at the end, superficially showing that she is loving herself and leaving boys behind. however, ariana could’ve easily digitally inserted herself as the girlfriend, instead casting a similar looking woman to tease the lesbian audience and gain views, which is pandering and artificial as ariana is straight as far as we know. in light of this, as well as “thank u, next” being nominated for “queer anthem,” ariana is indeed known as a queer icon but knowingly capitalizes off of it as well. in this essay i will
