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Grimes has fiercely defended fellow pop star Selena Gomez against “disturbing” online bullying aimed at the latter’s appearance in her new music video. Last week, Emmy-nominated Only Murders in the Building star Gomez, 33, released the music video for her song, “In the Dark,” featured in season two of Netflix’s hit romcom, Nobody Wants This. The clip shows the “Calm Down” hitmaker in three different all-black ensembles, dancing and singing. One scene sees Gomez on a daybed surrounded by sheer curtains, wearing her hair in a sleek bob with bangs. In a now-viral X post, a user reacted to screenshots of the Rare Beauty founder from the scene, claiming she looked like an “X Files monster.” Grimes, 37, has since responded to the critical message, writing that she “might have to leave” the internet as a result. “Watched this Selena Gomez video, 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,” the “Genesis” singer said. “Imagine what it wud [sic] feel like if people talked about you this way. Try to imagine the mental fortitude she presumably has,” the electronic pop singer-songwriter added. “How do we not utterly morally castigate someone who has a post like this blows up and chooses to keep the clout at the expense of everybodies [sic] mental health. How do u think little girls feel reading stuff like this about another woman? “This might be vaguely the second gen of women being allowed to be over 30 in entertainment if u can even count the first gen as anything besides a few outliers,” she continued. “It shud not be ok to do high school level bullying. Accounts shud be suspended for body shaming en masse. This is disturbing — in part because it’s not even true if u actually watch this video.” Addressing the original user’s allegations that Gomez looked like she had undergone cosmetic surgery, Grimes said: “Im not rly in the biz of even knowing what celebrities do, i have no context here, but this place is unhealthy as f*** and this being 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.” The Independent has contacted a representative for Gomez for comment. This is not the first time Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, has jumped on social media to criticize social media. In July, the musician issued a scathing takedown of X, owned by her former partner Elon Musk, branding the social media site “poison” and “a prison.” “The entire thing is a theatre. A s****y pale simulacra of a life,” she said. Months earlier, she also decried social media, arguing that it is “very unhealthy.” “It feels like a ghost town of depression, bitterness and pictures of beautiful women doing sext things,” she wrote in April. “I feel like this is a massive moral failure of all the apps. And it’s causing great harm to society.”
