Billie Eilish was taken to task on social media this week over her latest public remarks on body image issues.
When talking about men’s bodies, she attracted some furious responses from users who lambasted her as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘out of touch.’
‘Nobody ever says a thing about men’s bodies,’ Billie fumed to Variety.
‘If you’re muscular, cool. If you’re not, cool. If you’re rail thin, cool. If you have a dad bod, cool. If you’re pudgy, love it! Everybody’s happy with it.’
She then added, ‘You know why? Because girls are nice. They don’t give a f*** because we see people for who they are!’
‘Nobody ever says a thing about men’s bodies’: Billie Eilish was taken to task on social media this week over her latest public remarks on body image issues
Signature style: Early in her career as a pop star, Billie made a habit of wearing ostentatiously baggy clothes in order to divert attention away from her figure; pictured 2021
Social media users were quick to respond, with one person issuing the exasperated tweet: ‘Celebrities are so out of touch from reality its actually hilarious.’
‘This generations obsession with not only being a victim, but making sure no one else is more of a victim then them is unprecedented,’ raged someone else on X, formerly known as Twitter. ‘How tone deaf can someone be?’
‘We got a whole generation of men with serious body issues in the gym constantly,’ wrote yet another X user: ‘So saying this is kinda bull.’
Many others expressed their differences with Billie in milder terms, such as one who argued: ‘I totally disagree because Short guys face a lot of it.’
Another tweet about Billie’s broadside read: ‘This is false and a little tone deaf, a lot ofppl go through criticism both as men and female and every experience is valid’.
‘I love Billie,’ wrote one fan, ‘but men receive criticism all the time for their bodies. If a guy is too fat, too short, or whatever, they are criticized by both men and women.’
The tweet continued: ‘I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s as bad as what women have experienced for decades because that would be an obvious LIE and a false equivalence, but men develop body insecurities all the time because of unrealistic attractiveness standards made by society.’
In conclusion, the fan opined: ‘It’s just not as socially acceptable for men to speak up about it compared to when women speak up about it.’
Whoops: Her latest comments attracted some furious responses from social media users who lambasted her as ‘tone deaf’ and ‘out of touch’
Yet another social media bon mot was the incredulous reaction: ‘Girls are nice…? I did not get that memo in high school,’ with a crying emoji.
Elsewhere in her controversial Variety interview, Billie shed some light on why she adopted her baggy-clothes look when she was a rising teen pop act.
Early in her career as an underage pop star, Billie made a habit of wearing ostentatiously loose attire in order to divert attention away from her figure.
Now, aged 21, she occasionally opts for tighter outfits – but she remains outspoken about her insecurities about her looks.
‘I wasn’t trying to have people not 𝑠e𝑥ualize me. But I didn’t want people to have access to my body, even visually,’ she said.
‘I wasn’t strong enough and secure enough to show it. If I had shown it at that time, I would have been completely devastated if people had said anything.’
Billie reflected: ‘Maybe my not really caring about being 𝑠e𝑥ualized is because I’ve never felt desired or desirable. I’ve never felt like a woman, to be honest with you.’
‘I didn’t want people to have access to my body’: Elsewhere in her Variety interview, Billie shed some light on why she adopted her baggy-clothes look; pictured at this year’s Oscars
‘I’ve never felt like a woman’: Billie reflected: ‘Maybe my not really caring about being 𝑠e𝑥ualized is because I’ve never felt desired or desirable’
The Bad Guy singer went on: ‘I’ve never felt desirable. I’ve never felt feminine. I have to convince myself that I’m, like, a pretty girl. I identify as “she/her” and things like that, but I’ve never really felt like a girl.’
She did bristle when she was trolled online for wearing a tank top at age 16, and in her new interview she looked back on the fracas.
‘I have big boobs,’ she said. ‘I’ve had big boobs since I was nine years old, and that’s just the way I am. That’s how I look. You wear something that’s at all revealing, and everyone’s like: “Oh, but you didn’t want people to 𝑠e𝑥ualize you?” You can suck my a**! I’m literally a being that is 𝑠e𝑥ual sometimes. F** you!’
Billie has, however, retained a sense of humor about her appearance, and was unbothered by a recent song that featured a joke about her breasts.
Lil Yachty, featuring on the new Drake track Another Late Night, rapped about someone else: ‘She had big t**s like Billie Eilish, but she couldn’t sing.’
Billie took the crack lightly, saying: ‘I think it’s fun! I’m flattered! Yachty is my friend. Drake is my friend. It’s a joke. I do have big t**s. I love it.’