Editor’s Note: sexualizing young artists isn’t acceptable

Billie Eilish is 17 years-old. She is also a chart-topping singer and performer who has become exceptionally popular in a relatively short amount of time.

Her age is not only noteworthy in relation to her talent and growing success over the past few years, but it’s also important to acknowledge for the men who make it their mission to sexualize her over social media.

Eilish notoriously wears oversized clothes that aren’t form fitting, an action that is purposefully done so that people aren’t given any excuses to make comments about her body.

She told Vogue Australia that she uses her signature clothing style as a “defense mechanism” and went on to say that, “What I like about just dressing like I’m 800 sizes bigger than I am is it kind of gives nobody the opportunity to judge what your body looks like.”

Recently, a photo surfaced on Twitter of Eilish posing with a fan for a photo. In it, she is wearing a tank top, something which was pointed out and discussed almost instantly after the picture was posted.

One Twitter user shared the image with the comment, “Billie Eilish is THICK.” While the term “thick” or more commonly spelled “thicc,” has become synonymous with curvy women, it is used in a sexual context and should not be applied to a 17-year-old girl by an adult man.

Dozens of users jumped into this debate to say that the age of consent in their state was, in fact, 17.

No matter how anyone wants to spin it, Eilish is a minor.

If you have to justify your verbal declaration of sexual attraction towards a 17-year-old girl, a teenager who would still be in high school, then I think you have other issues that you need to evaluate.

Using legal loopholes as a way to validate inappropriate comments towards a minor and someone who has explicitly stated that she does not want to be viewed or treated that way is nothing but gross.

I also don’t give a fuck if she has sexual song lyrics like some people have pointed out as a way to excuse their disgusting behaviour.

Regardless of what she includes in her music, those lyrics are not directed at men 10, 20 or 30 years older than her. She chose to write what she wanted to as a form of artistic expression, and that doesn’t give anyone the right to be creepy and predatory about what they think that implies about her body.

Billie Eilish is a young artist who shouldn’t have to hide under her clothes for fear of being harassed or objectified for simply having a body.

Just because you think it, doesn’t mean you should share it.