The pop star has responded to criticism she received over her recent on-stage outfits
Olivia Rodrigo responded to recent criticism over her on-stage outfits during an appearance on The New York Times’ Popcast, calling the online discourse “disturbing” and asserting that women “shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention.”
“What’s really, like, disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage,” Rodrigo noted. “I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra, little shorts, which is my right. That’s fun. I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t ‘inappropriate,’ but me, fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be, like, childlike was ‘inappropriate.’ And I just it just like shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”
She continued: “And also it’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we”e so little, which is, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault.’ Like it’s so weird. And I didn’t think I looked sexy in that at all. I was like, ‘This is so cool. I feel like I look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love’ … all these people who are my heroes. And I felt cool and comfortable in it. I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some freak to think that I am sexy like a baby,’ or some crazy thing like that… I just, I just think it’s like losing the plot a little bit.”
Ultimately, Rodrigo concluded, “I’m just very protective of like younger women and girls and, I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric, I guess. You shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention.”
Rodrigo will drop her new album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, on June 12th. She’ll support the release by embarking on an expansive world tour.
