Billie Eilish has become a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. At just 18 years old, she swept the 2020 Grammy Awards, taking home best album, song, record, and new artist of the year. She has done it all without allowing herself to become sexualized by an industry that almost demands female artists parade around half naked.
Eilish has refused to play along, wearing baggy clothes and speaking out in favor of body positivity. In May 2019, she explained that she dresses as she does so no one can have an opinion about her body.
“Nobody can have an opinion [on my body] because they haven’t seen what’s underneath,” Eilish said in an ad for Calvin Klein. “Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat a–,’ ‘she’s got a fat a–.’ No one can say any of that because they don’t know.”
Unfortunately for Eilish, her attempts to wear whatever she feels like and be comfortable gain criticism if she step out of the baggy clothes for even a second. Earlier this year, Eilish went to Hawaii with her family and posted several photos to Instagram. In almost every photo she’s wearing her usual baggy clothes, but in a couple she is wearing a swimsuit – because it’s Hawaii.
Some people were critical that she didn’t cover herself more because of her stance on showing her body.
Eilish told alternative magazine Dazed & Confused that she suddenly found herself trending because of the photos.
“I saw comments like, ‘How dare she talk about not wanting to be sexualised and wear this?!’” she told the outlet. “It was trending. There were comments like, ‘I don’t like her any more because as soon as she turns 18 she’s a wh***.’ Like, dude. I can’t win. I can-not win.”
Eilish also admits that she wears baggy clothes because she, like most women and teenage girls, has issues with her body.
“There was a point last year where I was naked and I didn’t recognize my body [because] I hadn’t seen it in a while,” she told the outlet. “I would see it sometimes and be like, ‘Whose body is that?'” she added. “It’s not that I like [my body] now, I just think I’m a bit more OK with it.”
But she added that it was a rare moment for her.
“It’s not that I like [my body] now, I just think I’m a bit more OK with it,” she told the outlet.
“If I wore a dress to something, I would be hated for it,” added. “People would be like, ‘You’ve changed, how dare you do what you’ve always rebelled against?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not rebelling against anything, really.’ I can’t stress it enough. I’m just wearing what I wanna wear. If there’s a day when I’m like, ‘You know what, I feel comfortable with my belly right now, and I wanna show my belly,’ I should be allowed to do that.”
It doesn’t matter what a famous person does, there will always be someone to criticize.