In a new interview with British Vogue, singer Billie Eilish discussed sexual misconduct and the treatment of women in the entertainment industry regarding body image.
Eilish has been known for her signature green and black hair and baggy clothing, but recently changed her look in a new cover for the magazine. The 19-year-old singer can be seen wearing a corset in a feminine outfit and sporting curled, dyed blonde hair.
In the interview, she said that the corset was intriguing to her because of its look, but also due to the fact that it is restrictive. “If I’m honest with you, I hate my stomach, and that’s why,” Eilish said, adding that she thinks that is “shallow.” She said that her body “was the initial reason for my depression when I was younger.”
As The Daily Wire reported last year, Eilish pushed back against people who called her “fat” after a photo of her wearing a tank top circulated on the internet.
“There’s this picture of me, like, running from my car to my brother’s front door on like a 110-degree day in a tank top. And people were like, ‘Damn, Billie got fat!’ And I’m like, ‘Nope, this is how I look, you’ve just never seen it before!’ So that’s the most current one, but whatever,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Eilish added that her fans are often appreciative of the fact that she helps them feel comfortable with their body image.
“I love having kids relate to me and tell me that I make them feel comfortable in their bodies,” she said at the time. “If I can do anything, I want to do that.”
Eilish recently told British Vogue that some people might respond to the photoshoot by questioning her choices, asking, “‘If you’re about body positivity, why would you wear a corset? Why wouldn’t you show your actual body?’ …My thing is that I can do whatever I want.”
She said, “It’s all about what makes you feel good. If you want to get surgery, go get surgery. If you want to wear a dress that somebody thinks that you look too big wearing, f**k it – if you feel like you look good, you look good.”
Eilish described how she has been affected by people celebrating her choice to wear baggy clothing over less revealing outfits.
“Because of the way that I feel that the world sees me, I haven’t felt really desired,” she said. “But that’s really my whole life, though, so I don’t know if it’s anything to do with fame.”
She described a TV trope where as soon as a “classic hot girl” gets into a relationship, she goes through a personality change. “She’s this completely different character of wifey,” Eilish said. “It really f**ked me up. Everybody’s like, ‘You can’t make a wife out of a hoe’ – and it’s like, you’re attracted to that person, though. You created that person.”
Eilish added, “Suddenly you’re a hypocrite if you want to show your skin, and you’re easy and you’re a slut and you’re a whore. If I am, then I’m proud. Me and all the girls are hoes, and f**k it, y’know? Let’s turn it around and be empowered in that. Showing your body and showing your skin – or not – should not take any respect away from you.”
“I really think the bottom line is, men are very weak,” she said. “I think it’s just so easy for them to lose it. ‘You expect a dude not to grab you if you’re wearing that dress?’ Seriously, you’re that weak? Come on!”
Eilish discussed her new single, “Your Power,” which focuses on people who abuse power to take advantage of others.
She said that she thinks about a line in her 2019 single “When I Was Older:” “I’m still a victim in my own right/But I’m the villain in my own eyes.”
“I wanted to say that it doesn’t matter who you are, what your life is, your situation, who you surround yourself with, how strong you are, how smart you are,” she said. “You can always be taken advantage of. That’s a big problem in the world of domestic abuse or statutory rape – girls that were very confident and strong-willed finding themselves in situations where they’re like, ‘Oh my god, I’m the victim here?’ And it’s so embarrassing and humiliating and demoralizing to be in that position of thinking you know so much and then you realize, I’m being abused right now.”
She added that she knows complaining about fame is not relatable, but with fame, she said, and especially for men, “There’s all these people who are incredibly vulnerable and would honestly do anything you say. That’s a crazy feeling. Nobody should be given the power that we’re given.”