This weekend heaps of fans gathered behind Billie Eilish, after an internet perv began sexualising the 17-year-old pop star.
Eilish has been avoiding this kind of attention her whole career, which makes sense because she’s a literal teenager. Last month she did a Calvin Klein campaign alongside other celebs like Troye Sivan and Kendall Jenner. And in the campaign video, Eilish explains why she is always dresses in loose clothing.
“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,” said Eilish.
So what did the internet go and do just one month later? Tweet images of her the first time she’s seen wearing something somewhat fitted saying she’s “thick”.
Billie Eilish is THICK pic.twitter.com/aNSGvJJYOA
— k (@PogbaEscobar) June 22, 2019
The tweet received a lot of attention, gaining thousands of likes and retweets. However, for the most part people were quick to clap back at the tweet because 1.) Eilish is a minor, and 2.) she dresses in baggy clothing all the time to avoid this kind of attention.
Billie Eilish *wears baggy clothes so that she doesn’t get objectified and harassed*
Y’all when she wears tight clothes for once *bIlLiE EiLisH iS tHiCk* https://t.co/6WxNwxvINH
— M Paixão (@martha_my_dear) June 23, 2019
Billie Eilish is T̶H̶I̶C̶K̶ 17, and not here for the purpose of sexualization. She wears baggy clothing to avoid being targeted like this. Enjoy her for her fucking talent and personality instead of reducing her to her body, as you should with every celebrity. https://t.co/BjznDUaVKS
— ☆joshua☆ (@turbulentjxsh) June 23, 2019
However, the guy who opened the flood gates didn’t stop his cringey commentary there. He responded to the backlash from fans saying: “She just should wear an Abaya and Hijab from now on.” WTF. Not only is this offensive because he’s sexualising a teen, he also went off and said something super culturally insensitive. It’s just way too far.
A 17-year-old (or anyone for that matter), shouldn’t have to worry about being sexualised for what they wear. While we do live in an age where women can be more openly sexual and find expressing their bodies empowering, if someone doesn’t wish for that attention, then people should be respectful of that.
The account tweeting the initial images of Eilish has since been suspended.
Image Source: Billie Eilish Twitter
