Billie Eilish had a subtle but powerful response to the online vitriol she’s been facing this week, sharing a video on “normalising real bodies” and a photo of herself.
The 18-year-old was body-shamed by a grown man earlier this week, who ridiculed a paparazzi photograph of her on Twitter. In the photo, she is wearing a form-fitting tank top and shorts, instead of her usual oversized looks. He wrote, “In 10 months Billie Eilish has developed a mid-30′s wine mom body.”
In response to the comment, many of Billie’s fans chimed in to defend her and push back on the troll’s remarks:
The Ocean Eyes singer didn’t engage directly with either her haters or her fans, instead taking a different route.
On Tuesday night, she shared a video of YouTuber Chizi Duru talking about how the need to “normalise real bodies” because “guts are normal” and “boobs sag.”
Eilish also shared a red-hued photograph of herself with the inquisitive caption “do you really wanna go back in time?”
The five-time Grammy Award winner has long been outspoken against body-shaming and has explained that it’s the very reason she wears the baggy clothes she’s most known for.
In an advertisement last year for Calvin Klein, Billie explained that she wears oversized outfits because then “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.’ No one can say any of that because they don’t know,” she explained.
Earlier this year, Billie debuted her short film, Not My Responsibility, in which she takes on body-shamers and trolls by asking them: “Do you know me? Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you?”
“We make assumptions about people based on their size. We decide who they are. We decide what they’re worth,” she says in the film. “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?”
