The news last week was buzzing with the announcement by Ariana Grande, the Victorious alumna, that she was planning to take "a step back from visibility" after her Eternal Sunshine Tour concludes in early September.  What made the announcement even bigger news was that it came on the same day that she launched her eighth studio album, Petal, whose music video has heightened public scrutiny concerning her appearance.

In a post to Instagram. Grande shared a behind-the-scenes snap of herself and director Christian Breslauer observing a monitor showing the camera's angle while filming a scene in which she stands covered in fake blood.  In another picture, a friend laughs while groping one of the artificial breasts Grande sported during a different scene.

Surely, it is not coincidence that the title track's video takes aim at the critics who have spent years tearing into her looks and personal life.  Grande plays an aspiring entertainer named Pepper, who sits for a series of auditions.  Pepper receives feedback from executives on how she should change her appearance, from getting "work done" to offering more "sex appeal."  Eventually, she hacks away at the never-satisfied commentators with a chainsaw.

Of course, pop stars, especially women, get compared to each other all the time. Ariana Grande has often been juxtaposed to Karen Carpenter.  Although the two musicians have sonic and narrative differences, their similarities are striking.  Both became very famous when very young; both have been lauded for their vocal range; both married (and divorced) men in California real estate; and both spent their adolescence and early adulthood being scrutinised by audiences and the tabloids.

The sad thing about Carpenter is that in 1983, at just 32, she died from complications following years of anorexia.  She never admitted publicly to the illness; instead, she attributed her gauntness and frailty to being "just pooped" from working very hard.  In fact, though, Carpenter was being treated for anorexia.  After she died, her family established a foundation in her name to further aid in research of the disorder.

Grande has never publicly admitted to any kind of disordered eating or unhealthy weight loss. She has maintained that she's perfectly happy in the body she has now. "The body that you've been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of anti-depressants and drinking on them and eating poorly," she said in a 2023 TikTok.

"I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people's bodies," Grande has said.  Her songs have contended with this issue too; in the track "Yes, And?" (Eternal Sunshine, 2024), she sings, "Don't comment on my body, do not reply."  But, perhaps inevitably, some people have remarked about how fatigued Grande looks onstage.

Clips from her Eternal Sunshine concerts have been going viral for months: In these videos, her arms put her sinew on display, her sternum peeks through her skin, and her shoulders and elbows are especially sharp.  Perhaps one shouldn't blame her fans for wondering whether she might one day suffer the same fate as Carpenter.  Her detractors, however, saw an opportunity to rubbish her health and appearance in the storyline of Petal itself.

The fresh controversy surely was a factor in the announcement that Grande will be taking a break from public-facing work and appearances.  In the video, Pepper emerges from her audition to applause from the waiting room of female actresses, each of whom is empowered by her crime.  But in real life, Grande is walking off the set and away from her adoring fans, at least for a while.

Whether Grande has an eating disorder or is displaying anorexia is an unknown.  There is nothing wrong in being interested in somebody's appearance, but what is odious is when it slides into body shaming.  Why should we criticise, mock, or make negative comments about someone's physical appearance, size, shape, or weight?

The question had provoked chef Daniel Grech, who runs Burgers.Ink, Wagyu and Komaki in Malta, to put up a video about it on Instagram. In it, he first appears tapping his stomach, as he tells followers, "I need just a minute of your time. As you may have noticed, I've put on weight, it's something normal that happens to everybody, everyone has ups and downs in their life."  Grech even pointed at some pimples on his face as he appealed to people to think twice before passing comments on others' appearances.

"What's worrying me isn't my appearance.  Thank God I'm a positive person, but what's worrying me is how some people react.  People haven't seen me in months; instead of approaching me and asking how I was, they'll come and say: Madoffi, how fat you've become, how many burgers are you eating?"

Meanwhile, millions of people all over the world have been experiencing suicidal thoughts or emotions because of concerns about their body image.  According to a poll for the Mental Health Foundation in the UK, one in eight people aged 18 and above has been so distressed about his body image that he has thought about killing himself.  The British charity says that its research illustrates how people can be adversely affected, especially by body shaming on the social media.

In recent years, suicidal behaviour and non-suicidal self-injury have become significant public health issues for individuals under 25.  According to the World Health Organization, suicide is the third leading cause of death worldwide among those aged 15-29 years.

A UNICEF study conducted in Switzerland and Liechtenstein reported that 8.3% of adolescents with a mean age of 16.5 years surveyed had attempted suicide at least once.  Comparable rates were found in a large-scale American study of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

Adolescence is a period when substantial physical, emotional, and social transformations occur, making the people concerned highly vulnerable.  The challenges they face include feelings of inadequacy and confusion, often culminating in depression, hopelessness, or suicidal thoughts.   At the same time, people with poor emotional control are at a higher risk of suicidal behaviour due to stress.

There is plenty of evidence that body dissatisfaction or an internationalisation of the thin body ideal is associated with self-hatred and eating psychopathology. Am extensive review by Sinead Day of Macquarie University Sydney and others reported that suicidal ideation occurs in 51% of adolescent individuals with eating disorders, and suicide attempts occur in 21% of these individuals.  

Davide Klonsky, a Professor at the University of British Columbia, has also presented studies indicating that trauma involving the body's experiences can trigger self-injurious behaviours. The same conclusion was reached by Marianne Rizk-Hildbrand of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital of Psychiatry in Switzerland.

These and other findings underscore that the body can become "a battleground for suicidal behaviour." Body dissatisfaction appears to trigger an unhealthy lifestyle and maladaptive coping strategies, such as self-harm, substance use, and eating disorders, often intensified by problematic media use and exposure to harmful online content.

There is also some evidence from Malta.  A paper on "The Impact of Body Image on Advanced Female Dancers," by Dorianne Caruana Bonnici and Amy Emily Galea, published in the MCAST Journal of Applied Research & Practice, explored issues relating to body image in the world of dance, as based on the personal experiences of dancers themselves.

The authors noted how. from the inception of their careers, dancers are generally expected to achieve the standard body image and engage in a constant struggle for leanness. They presented findings of a study which confirmed that all the participants encountered or witnessed some form of pressure to achieve and maintain an ideal body image. Experiences of body shaming from both mentors and fellow classmates were reported, which had the effect of compromising self-esteem, increasing the risk of developing drastic or otherwise unhealthy dietary habits, as well as leading to the temptation to quit dancing altogether.

Cognitive scientist Marianne Rizk-Hildbrand refers to "the battlefield of adolescents in crisis," when the body becomes what she says is a shield, a weapon, and a site of self-destruction.  She writes of a complex interplay between the narratives of those affected by body shaming and the tangible reality of emotional pain.  These nuances and details may hold the most important clues to suicide prevention, leading to the development of life-saving interventions.

One notable example of this was Sulli (Choi Jin-ri), a 25-year-old South Korean singer and former member of the K-pop girl group f(x), who died by suicide in October 2019. Sulli was a rare, outspoken voice for body positivity and feminism in a highly conservative society. Because she openly advocated for women's rights and frequently posted pictures choosing not to wear a bra, internet trolls targeted her for years with severe sexual harassment, character defamation, and relentless body shaming. The overwhelming cyberbullying she faced ultimately triggered severe depression, panic disorders, and her untimely death.

Others have survived the ordeal.  One was the Grammy-winning singer Sam Smith. He has been vocal about the agonising toll that the music industry and media took on his mental health.  Smith shared that even after significant weight loss, the constant public evaluation of his body remains an active internal battle against low self-esteem and depression.

Former Prison Break star (and for many a TV heartthrob) Wentworth Miller has talked about how body shaming can have unthinkable effects on people.  In a Facebook post, he shed light on his former mental health issues, raising awareness for others.  Miller had the displeasure of experiencing first-hand the effect of Internet trolling or body shaming sparked by a meme that went viral. 

Whether you've been the victim of this before or you weren't quite aware of the impact it can have, Miller's words will strike a chord.  So, the next time you find yourself chuckling at a nasty internet meme in which some kind of body shaming is involved, take a moment to remember that behind that meme is a real person, with real feelings and they're no more equipped to brush off body shaming than you or I.