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As the internet continues its tantrum over Olivia Rodrigo’s decision, The singer-songwriter has now spoken out about wearing babydoll dresses while promoting her third album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love”.
After she wore a playful pink dress for the album cover, appeared in a similar blue one for the music video for “Drop Dead” and appeared on stage at the Spotify Billions Club Live event at Barcelona’s Teatro Greco in a floral babydoll dress with matching bloomer bottoms, these looks caused a shitstorm. Numerous internet commentators accused the 23-year-old pop sensation of sexualizing himself and promoting “pedo core.”
On Wednesday, Rodrigo took the stand in an appearance on The New York Times’ Popcast – reminding everyone that “you shouldn’t be responsible if something happens sexually to some guy that was never meant to be.”
Rodrigo does the math
“What really bothers me is that I also wore provocative outfits on stage,” said Rodrigo. “I stood there in a sparkly bra and short shorts – that’s my right. That’s fun. It made me feel cool and comfortable. And that wasn’t ‘inappropriate’ – but me, completely covered in a dress that some people consider childlike, that was ‘inappropriate’. That just shows how much we normalize pedophilia in our culture.”
She also addressed the dangerous debate surrounding women’s clothing and sexual violence. “It’s this rhetoric that’s drilled into us as girls from a young age: ‘Don’t wear that, otherwise a man will sexualize you and it’s your own fault,'” Rodrigo said. “I didn’t feel sexy in it at all. I thought, ‘This is so cool. I look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love’ – all these people who are my heroines. I felt cool and comfortable in it.”
Rodrigo has previously stated that he was inspired by the punk tradition of artists such as Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love, who combined babydoll dresses with their music and wild performances in a conscious rejection of the expectation that women should behave as docile objects in the patriarchy.
“Lost the thread”
She said on Popcast: “I think when we start dressing like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some fucking freak to think I’m sexy as a baby’ or some crazy stuff like that… then we kind of lose the plot.”
Rodrigo added: “I just really care about younger women and girls and I never want that mindset to be instilled in them.”
