It’s hard to even articulate how messed up the attacks on 18-year-old Billie Eilish’s body were earlier this month, after paparazzi photos revealed her figure beneath her usual baggy shirts and pants. Eilish has said before in interviews that she deliberately disguises her body to keep the conversation away from it—she’s here to make music, and doesn’t want to fall into the same trap so many women musicians get pushed into around their looks.
Not only were the photos invasive, the response to them was a real kick in the teeth to women everywhere. Because Eilish looks… totally normal. She has a human woman’s body, one that is considered very attractive to many people in the real world.
But everyone has gotten so used to how the highly Photoshopped celebrities look on Instagram, they don’t even know what that looks like anymore. And some of the responses were so ugly:
in 10 months Billie Eilish has developed a mid-30's wine mom body. pic.twitter.com/pMRFdZZ7mE
— GamesNosh (@GamesNosh) October 13, 2020
Eilish also had many defenders, who were totally disgusted by the way people were discussing a literal teen:
offending and mocking billie eilish's body won't make your life any less pathetic and lonely. pic.twitter.com/uMY5dkjIlN
— REST (@ririhyejin) October 14, 2020
Eilish didn’t respond to the photos, the criticism and the backlash to the criticism right away. Happy.tv reports that she did repost a TikTok made by blogger Chizi Duru, in which she says, “Y’all gotta start normalizing real bodies OK? Not everybody has a wagon behind them. Guts are normal, they’re normal! Boobs sag, especially after breastfeeding. Instagram isn’t real.”
Then a few days ago during a Q&A with fans, Eilish responded to a few questions about the images from fans. One asked, “do the new paparazzi pics bother u.”
She replied with “girl what pics no idea what pics ur talking about” over herself making a weird cross-eyed face.
She replied to another question on the theme. Someone asked, “How do u remain so confident & positive through all the judgement & opinions of others.””
https://twitter.com/catonxcrack/status/1317722821905195009
“To be honest with you — and I’m not even joking at all — I just think about the fact that I’m gonna die eventually,” she replied. “It just brings me peace. It puts my mind at ease, know what I’m saying?” Too real. And so will all the trolls. We’ll see who is remembered.