It has been a rather turbulent year for Billie Eilish regarding her image.
When she wears baggy clothes to conceal her body, she gets criticized. When she shows a bit of skin, she gets criticized. There’s no winning!
But she recently fired back in a short at all of the trolls who have had something negative to say about her body.
Billie Eilish is one of the most popular artists in the world right now.
Her music is fire, her personality is charming, mature, and down-to-earth, and her image has always been just mysterious enough to lure people in!
One point of fixation from fans has been Billie’s body.
Up until recently, she has almost exclusively worn nothing but modest, oversized clothing. It was a huge part of her brand.
But more importantly, it was her way of making it impossible for trolls to body-shame her.
Back in September 2019, in an interview with ELLE Magazine, Billie revealed why she favored more conservative outfit choices.
“The point is not: Hey, let’s go slut-shame all these girls for not dressing like Billie Eilish,” she explained .
“It makes me mad. I have to wear a big shirt for you not to feel uncomfortable about my boobs!”
“My boobs were trending on Twitter!,” she said. “At number one! What is that?! Every outlet wrote about my boobs !”
“I look good in it,” she added. “I was born with [expletive] boobs, bro. I was born with DNA that was gonna give me big [expletive] boobs.”
She explained that she once offended one of her male friends by wearing a tank top, and that’s why she is so wary nowadays.
“I was recently FaceTiming a close friend of mine who’s a dude, and I was wearing a tank top,” she said.
He was like, ‘Ugh, put a shirt on!’ And I said , ‘I have a shirt on.’”
RELATED STORIES
“Someone with smaller boobs could wear a tank top, and I could put on that exact tank top and get slut-shamed because my boobs are big.”
“That is stupid. It’s the same shirt!,” she went on.
She did admit, however, that when she turned 18 she planned on loosening up a bit and expanding her style palette. Which she has followed through on!
“I’m gonna be a woman,” she said . “I wanna show my body.”
“What if I wanna make a video where I wanna look desirable?” she questioned. “Not a porno!,” she quickly clarified.
“But I know it would be a huge thing,” she said. “I know people will say, ‘I’ve lost all respect for her .’”
Just after turning 18 earlier this year, she shared a very brief and completely innocent clip of herself wearing a swimsuit in an outdoor shower while on vacation in Hawaii. Naturally, fans lost it.
“It was trending,” she said . “There were comments like, ‘I don’t like her anymore because as soon as she turns 18 she’s a whore.'”
In a later interview with Dazed, she fired back at the trolls who seemed to have a problem with her wearing something that MOST women wear on vacation.
“Like, dude. I can’t win. I cannot win,” she said.
She recalled the last time fans were up in arms because of the aforementioned tanktop she wore.
“Comments like, ‘How dare she talk about not wanting to be sexualized and wear this ?!'”
“If I wore a dress to something, I would be hated for it,” she continued. “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. I should be allowed to do that,” she concluded .
Anyway, in a recent short film, Billie has addressed this issue AGAIN. This time, in a more profound, impactful way.
“You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body. Some people hate what I wear, some people praise it, some people use it to shame others, some people use it to shame me — but I feel you watching,” she says in the video.
“Always, and nothing I do goes unseen, so while I feel your stares, your disapproval or your sigh of relief, if I lived by them, I’d never be able to move.”
“Always, and nothing I do goes unseen, so while I feel your stares, your disapproval or your sigh of relief, if I lived by them, I’d never be able to move.”
“Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips?”
“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?,” she continues.
“We decide who they are. We decide what they’re worth. If I wear more; if I wear less, who decides what that makes me? What that means?”
“Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?,” she concludes.
Watch the full clip here!
Let us know what you think of Billie Eilish’s short film in the comments below.
