Saying that Ariana Grande is a Prostitute is an Insult to Prostitutes

What would you think of a prostitute who recognized what she was doing was wrong, went to confession intermittently (assume that she was a baptized and semi-practicing Catholic), and tried (sort of) to get out of it, without a lot of initial success.

I would call her a human being and a Catholic, arguably not a "good" one, but no worse than some, and better than many.

Now, what would you call a prostitute who actively recruited children - say, eight-year-old girls - to imitate her and become involved in her lifestyle, including exposing them to pornography and explicitly teaching them about various sexual "permutations," all to make more money, and with no apologies or guilt whatsoever?

I would call her Ariana Grande.

One of the girls who died at Manchester was eight-years-old.

I was initially alerted to this by reading a post by the Catholic blogger Ann Barnhardt. I had never heard of Ariana Grande before the Manchester bombing. And even after, I simply assumed that she was a sort of vacuous "pop" singer, responsible at the most for wasting the time of girls and young women with silly music and dumb pop music idol stuff.

I was wrong. Ariana Grande is actually a sort of monster. I say that not because she's using sexuality to sell records (which wouldn't exactly be new) but because she's intentionally profiting from selling sex to young girls.

Here is an excerpt of lyrics from one of her hit songs, "Side to Side," performed at the Manchester concert. In the "official" recording and video, some of these words are actually sung by a collaborator, Nicki Minaj, but they're part of the song. Keep in mind that much of Grande's audience is pre-pubescent:

I've been here all night
I've been here all day
And boy, got me walkin' side to side
(Let them hoes know)

I'm talkin' to ya
See you standing over there with your body
Feeling like I wanna rock with your body
And we don't gotta think 'bout nothin' ('Bout nothin')
I'm comin' at ya
'Cause I know you got a bad reputation
Doesn't matter, 'cause you give me temptation
And we don't gotta think 'bout nothin' ('Bout nothin')...

'Cause tonight I'm making deals with the devil
And I know it's gonna get me in trouble
Just as long as you know you got me

This the new style with the fresh type of flow
Wrist icicle, ride d*ck bicycle
Come true yo, get you this type of blow
If you wanna menage I got a tricycle

All these bitches, flows is my mini-me
Body smoking, so they call me young Nicki chimney
Rappers in they feelings cause they feelin' me
Uh, I-I give zero f*cks and I got zero chill in me
Kissing me, copped the blue box that say Tiffany
Curry with the shot, just tell 'em to call me Stephanie
Gun pop and I make my gum pop
I'm the queen of rap, young Ariana run pop

Now, I'm sure that if anyone reading this doesn't understand what the lyrics mean, it's because you would never think that they would be sung by someone whose audience was composed largely of children. But here's a quick primer. All of it has been confirmed by Grande herself or is understood by every commenter:

Walking side to side (having so much sex that one cannot walk straight)
Wrist icicle (masturbatory sex)
Ride d*ck bicycle (self-explanatory)
Get you this type of blow (oral sex)
If you wanna menage I got a tricycle (self-explanatory)

In fairness, if you heard the song for the first time or in passing, you might miss half of the words. However, just in case you didn't get it, the central theme of the video for "Side to Side" features the dancers/models riding exercise bikes. 

Is this, in and of itself, the worst thing in the world? Of course not.

But when it's pushed on eight-year-old girls, it comes pretty close.

And, no, this is not an anomaly. Here are some lyrics from her "encore" song, "Dangerous Woman," at Manchester, sung only seconds before the bomb went off:

Oh yeah
Don't need permission
Made my decision to test my limits
'Cause it's my business
God as my witness
Start what I finished
Don't need no hold up
Taking control of this kind of moment
I'm locked and loaded
Completely focused my mind is open

All that you got, skin to skin, oh my God
Don't ya stop, boy...

All girls wanna be like that
Bad girls underneath like that
You know how I'm feeling inside
Somethin' 'bout, somethin' 'bout
All girls wanna be like that
Bad girls underneath like that...

God as my witness.

Okay: people, sex, rock music. Nothing new. Even some traditionalist Catholics that I know might have something like this on their iPod while they work out. It's a bit mischievous or whatever, but many of us laugh and wink at secular culture while still occasionally getting into the beat...

Except that:

Eight-year-old girls.

I simply cannot imagine any mother or father allowing or encouraging their daughter to listen to or embrace this stuff.

I don't believe that the parents who sent their children to die (it turned out) at that Ariana Grande concert were responsible for their child's physical deaths.

A Muslim did that.

But those parents were responsible for promoting the deaths of their children's souls.

There's something horrifically ironic about that most pornographic of all religions - Islam - which embraces the corruption of children (marrying them off to some middle-aged imam or whatever), warring against Ariana Grande, a pornographer profiting off of the corruption of children.

Saying that Ariana Grande is a prostitute is an insult to prostitutes.

What does that make the parents?