FEATURE:
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IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish/PHOTO CREDIT: Arielle Bobb-Willis for The New York Times
A Shot Against Those Who Body-Shame Billie Eilish and Women in the Music Industry
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EARLIER this week…
PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation
a photo surfaced in the news of Billie Eilish walking near her home, dressed in casual clothes. She was just walking around and was dressed how a normal teen would dress (she is eighteen). Metro report further:
“Billie Eilish traded in her trademark baggy clothes for a more casual vibe, and we’re loving the versatility. The Bad Guy singer – who is usually seen draped in large layers of designer clothes as part of her signature look – was spotted wearing a figure-hugging vest and shorts as she ran errands in LA. The 18-year-old tied her neon green hair, which is usually loose around her face, into a sleek bun. She might have gone for a new look, but the five-time Grammy award winner kept to her usual theme of making sure her vest, baggy shorts, and Yeezy Adidas slides matched”.
Most people either didn’t comment on the tabloid shot, but there were many people online celebrating a natural-looking Eilish and the fact that she was being herself. A lot of well-known figures do not dress out on the street and home how they would at award shows, but Eilish has always dressed in a more refreshing and low-key manner – not the usual parade of very skinny and elegantly dressed celebrities who one feels are told how to dress and there is a lot of pressure to get their photos in the paper. Unfortunately, because newspapers like The Daily Mail published the photo, there were a lot of people commenting and body-shaming Billie Eilish. This continued on social media, and many (mostly men) were criticising Eilish – either calling her overweight or slobbish.
It is, sadly, no surprise that women like Eilish find themselves on the receiving end of body-shaming. I think that there is this expectation that women are supposed to be desirable and made up in a certain way and, if they are being themselves and not wearing make-up and dresses, then that is weird. Eilish has spoken out against body-shaming and how she has been affected. It is brave for a popular young star to stand up like this – many Pop artists remain silent or are directed to use their body to sell music. As Laura Snapes wrote in The Guardian earlier this year, Eilish spoke out against body-shaming in a video, and that was a pretty bold and encouraging move:
“Billie Eilish has given the music industry everything it could possibly want. An authentic new voice that appeals to teenagers and their parents. A debut album that has sold more than 2m copies in the US alone. A decisive stylistic evolution from the preceding decade’s dominant pop mode. A clean sweep of the four key categories at the Grammys. A copper-bottomed streaming success model. A James Bond theme that rejuvenates a tired franchise and extends her commercial and creative clout.
Until she offers up her prime commodity as a young female pop star, it will never be enough.
While 18-year-old Eilish is a beguilingly physical performer, she has never shown her body in service of her art. She prefers loose clothing because she feels comfortable in it, and has denounced the use of her image to shame female pop stars who dress differently. Not that it’s stopped anyone. Denying spectators the traditional metric by which female stars are judged – sexiness, slimness; the body as weathervane that reveals how tormented or contented they must be when they lurch between the extremes of those states – has created an obsession with her body and what it must stand for”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Dan Regan
It’s hard to think of any previous generation of young female pop star getting away with making such a public admonishment at the height of their stardom. Motown’s girls were taught comportment by an in-house employee. The anorexia that killed Karen Carpenter was framed as an effective diet. To have her art taken seriously, Kate Bush had to endure the objectification of male journalists who typed with one hand. The Spice Girls had to wait until after the band’s demise to discuss their respective eating disorders, lest they disrupt the image of supportive female friendship. Britney, Christina and Beyoncé’s millennium-era abs were testament to their drilled work ethic; Katy Perry and Ariana Grande’s burgeoning images were dependent on marketing their sexuality, while Taylor Swift’s taut middle stoked her image as an American ideal. To acknowledge Amy Winehouse’s bulimia would have complicated a convenient media narrative of debauchery”.
Eilish is an idol to thousands of fans, and it is a shame that she faced the paparazzi and is snapped all the time and, when she is seen in her street clothes and just going about her life, she is often slagged off, the recipient of jibes and digs about her looks and body. I will not include some of the tweets here, but I read people being cruel because Eilish was not wearing make-up; others looked at her exposed stomach and there were comments about her weight, whereas others felt Eilish was badly dressed. There was a great reaction of love and support for Eilish; many feeling that the ongoing issue of body-shaming needs to stop.
Eilish is not the only female musician that has spoken out against body-shaming. Lizzo addressed body-shaming in an interview Brazilian T.V. earlier in the year:
“In an interview with Brazil's TV Fohla, the 'Truth Hurts' singer candidly discussed how she copes with the incessant remarks about her physical appearance.
In reference to the men who body shame her, Lizzo said, "What does that tell you about the oppressor? What does that tell you about men? Get it together, we don't talk about your d--- sizes, do we?."
The 32-year-old also called out the fact that women are continually held to unrealistic body standards.
"I think that women are always going to be criticised for existing in their bodies," Lizzo said. "I don't think I'm any different than any of the other great women who've come before me that had to literally be politicised just to be sexual… you know what I mean? Just to exist."
"Things that were beautiful on them were called flaws, and they persisted against that, fought against that, and now I'm able to do what I do because of those great women. And they all look completely different, they don't all look the same, and they all had to deal with the same kind of marginalisation and misogyny"
Many songs have been released by women in music that celebrate a fuller figure and looking natural and, as this 2014 feature outlines, some huge hits of the year put body confidence at the forefront.
I do think that, even in 2020, there is this ideal for women and what they should look like in public, photos, and video shoots. I know other women have spoken about body-shaming – including Kate Nash in 2017 - and it really does need to stop! The psychological effect that it will have on artists is immense, and it sends a terrible message to women and girls who want to enter the music industry. Looking natural and real should not be splashed in the papers and used as gossip. Eilish has distanced herself from social media because of the comments she had to face on a daily basis. This Cosmopolitan article from earlier this year reports what Eilish said to BBC Breakfast when she was asked about social media and her relationship with it:
"The internet is a bunch of trolls. A problem is that a lot of it is really funny. I think that's the issue, I think that's why nobody really stops.
"I've experienced that. Growing up, I'd say things that people would laugh at and then later I'd realise that wasn't cool to say."
Billie added, "It's way worse than it's ever been. It's insane that I've been reading comments up until this point. I should have stopped long ago.
"The problem is that I've wanted to stay in touch with the fans and keep talking to them, but people have ruined that for me. The internet is ruining my life so I stay off".
Seeing any artist body-shamed is unpleasant, but Eilish is someone who has faced it ever since she broke through and, though she can avoid a lot of the social media negativity and trolls, there are newspapers plastering her image on the page – her just minding her own business but being judged for dressing and looking different to other artists/celebrities. I think there should be repercussions for media outlets who body-shame and turn things like Billie Eilish walking around town into a grotesque and needless shot. The same goes for trolling on social media. Anyone found trolling or body-shaming should definitely be punished and…
BROUGHT to account.