Ariana Grande’s Dishy Divorce Album
Divorce is the hot cultural topic of the year, judging by 2024’s most-discussed memoir, magazine column, and 50-part, eight-hour TikTok series titled “Who TF Did I Marry?” The specifics of each tale differ—unhappy families and all that—but they all share something: a pretense of public service. Lyz Lenz warns women that the institution of marriage is sexist; Emily Gould practices radical honesty about mental health; Reesa Teesa exposes a dating-app scammer. Having a larger point, a useful meaning, helps class up what could otherwise look like oversharing. We in the audience can tell ourselves we’re not voyeurs; we’re students. Uh-huh. Whatever else we’re getting from consuming relationship drama, we’re getting entertainment. Just look to the celebrity-gossip ecosystem, which is as robust as ever despite various reckonings—take Britney Spears’s saga—demonstrating it as immoral, bigoted, vapid, and fake. On her recent single “yes, and?” the ever-scrutinized pop star Ariana Grande asked, “Why do you care whose **** I ride? Why?” The answer is complicated—human behavior and misogyny are probably in the mix—but also simple. Judging other people’s …
