By Gabrielle Milne @milne_gabrielle
Grammy winning singer Billie Eilish, performed a spoken word interlude at her ‘When we all fall asleep where do we go?’ Tour in Miami on March 9. She stripped to a bra on video in protest of body-shaming and slut shaming towards females in society, especially the ones under the Hollywood spotlight. Eilish is famous for her baggy streetwear style that hides her figure entirely with modest jumpers and loose pants. Fans at the concert were roaring at her bold statement as she posed questions about her worth in regard of her body as a female performer.
“… Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips? The body I was born with – is it not what you wanted? If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I’m a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why?”
– Billie Eilish in concert at American Airline Arena, Miami
Billie Eilish showed off her body in visuals during an interlude at her concert in Miami. #BillieEilish pic.twitter.com/FTJ6xK133W
— jonny tran 👑 (@JonnyLeTran6) March 10, 2020
Eilish made a similar statement in a campaign with Calvin Klein in 2019 revealing the motivation and message behind her style. The singer, who turned 18 in December, disclosed that her baggy clothing is a way to desexualise herself. Now that she is 18 it has welcomed more objectifying and sexual remarks on her figure than ever before.
“I never want the world to know everything about me,” she says in the video. “That’s why I wear big, baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath. Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she’s got a fat ass’.”
A photo of her meeting fans in a tank top went viral on Twitter on June 23rd 2019. She addressed the photo saying “My boobs were trending on Twitter at #1, what is that?” Eillish was 17 at the time and many fans came to her defence, however Twitter user Pogbaescobar made many claims in his own perverted reasoning. They claimed that she’s not a minor because she’s 17 and that because of the contents of her song lyrics, she can be sexualized. In their thread they tweeted “She just should wear an Abaya and Hijab from now on”, ignorantly missing the mark on Eilish’s message about her self-expression.
Man… pic.twitter.com/68TWMkgOkx
— griselda stan account (@PogbaEscobar) June 23, 2019
This girl literally said “bruises on both my knees for you” , “might seduce your dad”
BUT I’M ONE WHO’S SEXUALIZING HER???
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
— griselda stan account (@PogbaEscobar) June 23, 2019
Needless to say that she was a minor at the time, R*pe culture is not acceptable and it must be recognised that clothing or lyrics are not an invitation to comment or sexualise any one.
Featured image: Billie Eilish at 2019 Pukkelpop Music Festival which take place in Kiewit, Hasselt, Belgium. © Lars Crommelinck Photography, offered under a CC Licence at Wikimedia Commons
