At a recent concert, Billie Eilish protested about body shaming which consisted of a speech and removing her oversized t-shirt.
Eilish is known for wearing clothes that are baggy, and she has stated multiple times that her style has been a way for her to avoid being sexualized and to not give anyone an opportunity to be judged based off of her body.
During her speech, Eilish stated that no matter what she wears, people will judge her.
“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. 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.” Eilish stated at the concert.
As a girl, I constantly feel as though my body is being shamed and no matter what I do I am not the ideal form of beauty because I am not what the mass media has stated is the ‘ideal body.’
I remember first hearing about Billie Eilish wearing baggy clothing to stop people from seeing what she looked like, I remember feeling proud of her for doing so. But the more I looked at the situation, I realized how I shouldn’t feel proud of Eilish for hiding her body – I should feel angry that young women in the media are being sexualized.
In the concert, she also asked, “The body I was born with, is it not what you wanted? If what I wear is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why?”
Billie is not only speaking for herself in this speech but makes the comments for women everywhere. She is trying to say that women should be allowed to be comfortable in their bodies and that the sexualization of it is not something that should be normalized.
Women and their bodies are always being judged no matter what is done to them. I could change everything about myself, but then people would still judge me for something else they find, a lesson that I am still learning and still have difficulty believing every single day.
I also think that it sucks that an 18-year-old has to take on the responsibility of telling people not to judge who she is. She should not have to experience this kind of judgement even if she is in the public eye.
But I want to applaud her for having the courage to speak up against this and putting herself in a position where she might become more judged. I hope that one day, we can live in a world where people, in general, do not have to worry about being judged for things that they cannot control.
