Billie Eilish’s Baggy Clothes, And Body Shamers, Say A Lot About Our World

Yesterday, paparazzi photos of an 18-year-old wearing $55 Yeezy sandals, a nude tank top and a pair of shorts were shared across the internet as ‘news’.

No, really, they were. And the keyboard warriors rushed to critique the woman’s ‘mom body’, as they so often seem obliged to do.

The fact that the woman photographed was Billie Eilish played a significant and ridiculous part in the onslaught, too. As a global superstar and a young woman, Eilish has no choice but to find herself in two of our body shaming society’s most targeted groups.

She’s known it for years, too.

Billie Eilish has made no secret of her preference for loose-fitting clothes, saying she feels they prevent people from sexualizing and shaming her body. In an interview with Vogue Australia, she says she found them freeing:”It kind of gives nobody the opportunity to judge what your body looks like.

“I want layers and layers and layers and I want to be mysterious. You don’t know what’s underneath and you don’t know what’s on top.”

Given Eilish started her career in 2016, aged just 14, it says a lot. And still, it only does so much.

Last year Nylon Germany posted a photo of the teenager, as a bald and topless robot, without her consent and, a month later, a photo of Eilish wearing a form-fitting tank top went viral on Twitter.

“My boobs were trending on Twitter! At number one! What is that?! Every outlet wrote about my boobs!” Eilish told Elle magazine. “I was born with f*cking boobs, bro.”

Throughout much of her meteoric rise, Eilish was also a minor, and she’s expressed worries about how her fans might react if she decides to show off more of her body as an adult.

“I’m gonna be a woman. I wanna show my body,” Eilish continued. “What if I wanna make a video where I wanna look desirable? I know it would be a huge thing. I know people will say, ‘I’ve lost all respect for her.'”

To the paparazzi, this sort of thing is currency. They are paid to snap normal people, with special talents, looking as much like a normal person as possible, but hit the proverbial jackpot when skin is on show for people to judge.

Billie Eilish is the first female and youngest artist to sweep all four general field categories at the Grammys and the youngest solo act to win the prestigious Album of the Year award. Not a body. And not her clothes.

To the very point of the issue, we can’t allow this to continue. Not to any woman, and especially not to a young woman so vocal about fearing contempt for this very thing. T