Pop superstar Ariana Grande has joined the attacks on British TV host Piers Morgan, who this week criticized Little Mix for going nude in the video for their song “Strip.”
“I look forward to the day you realize there are other ways to go about making yourself relevant than to criticize young, beautiful, successful women for everything they do,” Grande tweeted. “I think that’ll be a beautiful thing for you and your career or what’s left of it.
“I use my talent AND my sexuality all the time because i choose to. women can be sexual AND talented. naked and dignified. it’s OUR choice. & we will keep fighting til people understand. i say this w all due respect but thank u, next.”
MORE: Piers Morgan Goes At Little Mix Over Nudity
Morgan, co-host of Good Morning Britain, elicited strong opinions after he took Little Mix to task for posing nude with common insults painted on their bodies in the “Strip” video.
“What is empowering about this? I mean, seriously,” Morgan fumed. “What’s the point of it, really, other than using nudity to sell their album? That’s all it is.
“It’s nonsense. It’s just stripping off to sell records. It’s actually just using sex and sexuality to sell records. That’s it. There’s nothing else to this.”
After Little Mix member Jesy Nelson called Morgan a “tw*t” in a radio interview, he challenged the group to come on his show to talk about their “cynical exploitation of nudity to sell records.”
Grande weighed in with a tweet to Little Mix that read: “Keep fighting the fight, divas. Your sisters have your back.” (Little Mix retweeted her message.)
Morgan jumped on social media to defend his opinion.
“Why's it 'misogynistic' to suggest female pop stars with millions of young fans shouldn't use nudity to sell records? Most women I've spoken to you about this agree with me - especially mothers of young girls,” he tweeted.
Later, Morgan added: “When everyone finally stops screaming at me about this @LittleMix @ArianaGrande furore, they will suddenly realise I'm right. There's no need for young female pop stars, with millions of young female fans, to use nudity to sell records.
“It's tacky & sends the wrong message.”
Morgan had more to say. “Cynical nudity/sexualising by massively influential female pop stars doesn’t = empowerent. It’s just about [money]. Girls need to be shown there’s a better route to success than stripping off."
Chrissy Teigen opined on social media that Morgan is probably loving the attention. She tweeted: “every time someone mentions piers, his d**k gets another power boil and his nips cry tears of joy.”
Morgan responded: “Unfortunately, coming from you it had the complete opposite effect.
“I laughed at this, because I find Ms Teigen comically ridiculous, but can you imagine the outrage if I tweeted something similar to a high profile woman?”