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Singer Grimes launched into a lengthy defense of Selena Gomez after a few “weird” stills from her new music video went viral, prompting “high school level bullying” of the newlywed’s looks.
A commenter claimed Gomez, 33, had plastic surgery and had “come out looking like an X Files monster of the week” — based on some blurry captures from her new “In the Dark” video. In response, Grimes, 37, said the comments made her think she “might have to leave” the Internet.
“Besides a few weird derp shots that ppl were able to clip and super misrepresent how she looks she looks extremely beautiful, is prob one of the most beautiful girls. Imagine what it wud feel like if people talked about you this way,” Grimes (real name: Claire Boucher) wrote in an Oct. 25 post on X.
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“Try to imagine the mental fortitude she presumably has,” Grimes wrote about Gomez, asking how do we not “utterly morally castigate someone” who keeps a negative, viral post up for “clout at the expense of everybodies mental health.”
“How do u think little girls feel reading stuff like this about another woman?” Grimes asked.
Gomez, who has lupus, has previously explained that her condition causes “weight fluctuations” and talked about body shaming in the past: “I have lupus and deal with kidney issues and high blood pressure, so I deal with a lot of health issues, and for me, that’s when I really started noticing more of the body image stuff,” she said in a November 2019 interview with friend Raquelle Stevens on her video podcast Giving Back Generation.
Grimes continued her defense of the Wizards of Waverly Place alum, writing, “It shud not be ok to do high school level bullying. Accounts shud be suspended for body shaming en masse.”
Grimes — who shares three children with X owner and chairman Elon Musk — then reiterated that the stills were taken out of context: “This is disturbing – in part because it’s not even true if u actually watch this video.”
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“In the Dark,” which is featured on Nobody Wants This Season 2: The Soundtrack, is Gomez’s first release since March’s collaborative album I Said I Loved You First with now-husband Benny Blanco.
Grimes concluded her post by acknowledging that she’s not really in the business of “even knowing what celebrities do,” but called the Internet “unhealthy as f———,” sharing that for body shaming to be “socially acceptable behavior is culture death – not just for the Selena or the writer but everyone who sees this and engages with this level of dehumanization.”
