So far, 2021 has been an eventful year for American singer, songwriter Ariana Grande as she got married this year and joined the coaching panel of the American singing reality competition, The Voice, in its 21st season.
However, yesterday on 5th December she stirred controversy by posting her photos on social media platforms like Instagram that irked netizens who accused her of Asian Fishing.
Let us get into more details as to what is this Asian Fishing of Ariana Grande all about and why it went viral on Twitter!
What is Ariana Grande’s Asian fishing on Twitter drama all about?
Asian-fishing is when a non-Asian imitates or dresses up to appear like an Asian. It is akin to blackfishing. This is an act of either applying makeup to get East-Asian features or through photoshop to resemble like East-Asian. This is often viewed as fetishizing, demeaning, and sexualizing Asian culture.
Usually, people try dressing up in stereotypical Asian girl attire like anime girl costumes and Asian schoolgirl uniforms. Asian fishing is deemed offensive and problematic.
Ariana Grande’s few pictures went viral on social media on the 5th of December. In those photos, she was seen wearing an oversized jacket while posing for the camera.
Ariana Grande’s Asian Fishing Drama on Social Media
Well, after this the whole Twitter drama started. While a few fans of hers lauded the singer, few others took the opportunity to offense her makeup as well as look.
The pictures were first posted by Ariana on Dec-1. However, she had to later delete a few posts as netizens started ta take a jab at her pictures.
As soon as her pics went viral on various social media platforms, commenting on her looks, one Reddit user wrote, “…The wаy she tаkes pictures from certаin аngles (low) or weаrs mаkeup to conceаl her eyelids, creаting а mono lid look, mаkes her eyes аppeаr less round аnd nаrrower. Her petite stаture, which is а stereotype of Eаst Asiаn women, аnd her cutesy submissive innocent’sex kitten’ personа, which is yet аnother fetishizаtion of Eаst Asiаn women.”
not non-asian people felt uncomfortable and offended by ariana grande "asian fishing" shit 💀 while us, Asians / SE Asians didn't even notice it and had nothing to say about it.
y'all just love to let successful woman down, don't you? pic.twitter.com/wwmiZX6DJQ
— Alfie 🏳️🌈🎀 (@AlfieVelasco) December 5, 2021
While another user said, “I аlso find it interesting thаt а few yeаrs аgo, Ari wаs аccused of blаckfishing becаuse of her use of certаin words, аccent, using rаp аnd hip hop in her music, аnd of course her overzeаlous tаnning (which her stаns clаimed wаs just down to her Itаliаn bаckground lol).” The user continued, “She’s looking pretty pаle these dаys, аnd she’s once аgаin the fаce of Eаst Asiа’s beаuty.”
literally wtf is this… bc i know Ariana grande is not trying to go from black fishing to asian fishing…. pic.twitter.com/OdW0pkxvZg
— Lily Liang (@lilyliang129) December 3, 2021
Another user jumped to defend her saying, “a lot of these “Ariana Grande is Asian fishing” comments just makes me think y’all have never seen Asian people IRL.”
a lot of these “ariana grande is asian fishing” comments just makes me think y’all have never seen asian people irl
— nikki 🧃 (@retrobabecalum) December 3, 2021
While another user in her support said, “Starting to think people on this app dont know what asian or black people look like. Like if you see ariana grande and think shes anything other than white that’s a massive you problem.”
Grаnde hаs not made any statement or clarification to these allegаtions аt the time of publishing this article.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Ariana Grande should not be criticized for “asian-fishing” because she did not put her makeup on that way with the intention of offending the asian culture and makeup should not be a way to define someone’s culture or ethnicity.
As the cancel culture is growing stronger and more influencing everyday, I feel like these days the public cancels anyone they see. Just because she put on more side-winged eye liner with red lips does not make her look Asian. It is true that it is similar to the makeup style of how some Asians do, but by looking at her image, we can clearly tell that she does not look Asian at all.
There are definitely extreme cases of asian fishing where people make it so obvious by stretching their eyes or distorting their face through photoshop to make them look asian. However, that is not what Ariana did. She did not forcefully change any part of her face to look more asian and all she has done is put on a more winged eye liner. If people are to get judged for how they wear makeup, then that goes against people freedom to put on what ever they want. As long as it is not offensive to that culture, I believe it is justifiable to put on make up in any way they want.