Ariana Grande is receiving unjustified flack for Mac Miller’s death

By: Abigail Frye
Twitter: @Abigail_EF
Email: fryea@findlay.edu 

As many of you know, Mac Miller, born Malcolm McCormick, recently passed away. He was a positive influence for many with his music that was known to reach even the most difficult people.

Truly, he was an icon, and his death is a tragedy that he did not deserve. But, on another note, there’s another tragedy that took place along with this, and it was also targeted upon someone else who did not deserve it: Ariana Grande.

Let me start with saying that this girl has been through an extremely emotional time already by losing someone she cared dearly for. Imagine losing someone that you shared your life with for years. Heartbreaking, right? Now also imagine thousands of people blaming and attacking you for the loss of someone you loved. If you think that sounds terrible, good, It should.

This case of victim blaming began way before the death of Mac Miller, though, with the incident of Mac Miller receiving two DUI’s and a twitter user saying that is was Grande’s fault for leaving him and causing the run in with the law. Grande fired back at the online accuser to stop blaming women for men’s mistakes.

Ariana Grande loved the man, but she was completely right in saying that she wasn’t his mother and there should have been no need for her to be responsible. As harsh as it sounds, Mac Miller was a fully grown adult, and therefore solely responsible for his own actions. Now, did Grande move on pretty quickly after their split? Yes. But that is still no reason to blame her for any of what happened. You can think what she did was unfair, or cruel, but that absolutely does not call for her to be attacked in one of the hardest moments of her life. I think we all need to remember that she lost someone too, and it was someone she knew personally, not us.

As for the actual death of Mac Miller, Grande received heavy fire for it. So much so that she had to disable the comments on her Instagram because many took to social media throw insults at her. This doesn’t shock me, but it makes me sick. Why is it her fault for not saving him? If we’re going to point fingers, what about his family? His friends? His fans? No one else saved him so why wouldn’t it be their fault, too? The answer is it’s no one’s fault.

Mac Miller suffered from a drug addiction which is not his family, friends, fans, or Ariana Grande’s fault. But for some reason, men and women alike, are fixated on the idea that it’s a woman’s job to always make sure that the man is well taken care of and that she never ever leaves him, even if it is a toxic relationship. There’s no doubt in my mind that Mac Miller and Ariana Grande shared a lot of love for each other, but if this relationship was not good for Grande’s mental health then she has every right to leave.

I find it interesting that many on social media do not acknowledge this fact, and instead go head first into blaming her for leaving Mac Miller and she is responsible for all of his problems. This whole mindset on blaming women for every little thing that goes wrong in a man’s life is absurd. How many times have we seen a male celebrity cheat on his wife/girlfriend and we just accept it? I have never heard of a man in the public eye being forced to disable communication between him and his audience because they were attacking him for leaving his significant other. Sounds a little like double standards, huh?

I will leave you guys with this. Maybe it’s time we analyze how we view women in relationships at both celebrity status and the locally. I think that we, as an entire society, are too harsh on females in many aspects, including our roles in relationships. Maybe it’s time women can just be themselves without fearing for their lives because they receive death threats through their social media.

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