Five-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish just “can’t win,” as she said the last time she was criticized for daring to wear something comfortable.
The 19-year-old singer is known for wearing baggy clothes to hide her body and avoid the judgment women often face for their appearance, yet every once in a while, she wears something slightly more revealing and gets shamed for it. This time, she responded to comments to a Daily Mail story featuring a picture of her “WITHOUT her trademark baggy clothes as she steps out in uncharacteristically casual attire.”
The photos show Eilish wearing a spaghetti-strap tank top and shorts. While the criticism appears to come from no-name trolls, many others defended the singer. Still, Eilish herself took to her Instagram account to react.
Eilish reposted a video from Chizi Duru that said we should normalize real women’s bodies. Duru captioned the video: “Instagram has warped a lot of y’all into thinking NORMAL bodies are abnormal. NO.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Eilish responded to body shaming critics in April after she posted photos of herself in a bikini while on vacation:
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 went on to say that part of the reason she wears baggy clothes is that she is self-conscious about 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.”
“If I wore a dress to something, I would be hated for it,” she 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.”