Olivia Rodrigo shared her thoughts on the controversy surrounding her choice to wear babydoll dresses.
“That’s been making me so upset,” Rodrigo, 23, said during a Wednesday, May 27, episode of the “The New York Times Popcast” podcast. “What’s really disturbing is, I feel like I actually wear — I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage. I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts, which is my right. That’s fun [and] 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 childlike was inappropriate,” she continued, firing back at critics.
Rodrigo has donned the style during several performances, as well as in her recent music video for “Drop Dead” song. While taking the stage at the Spotify Billions Club on May 8, Rodrigo also rocked a pastel pink babydoll dress with floral details and puffy sleeves.
“I just think it shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture,” the Grammy winner added. “Also, it’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we were so little, which is, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is gonna sexualize your body, and it’s your fault.’”
Rodrigo thought the response to her look was “so weird” and didn’t even think she looked “sexy” in the outfit. “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.”
She added, “I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some freak to think that I like am sexy like a baby or some crazy thing like that, it’s losing the plot a little.’”
Rodrigo concluded her message by saying she feels “protective” of younger girls and doesn’t want them to be “fed that rhetoric.”
“You shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention,” she said.
Fans were quick to agree with Rodrigo via Instagram, writing, “Just an excellent, well-thought-out answer.” Another added, “holy s*** I didn’t expect her to call it out for what it really is but f*** yeah.” A third commented, “This was an incredible response to the silly online discord 👏👏👏 she’s so eloquent and is 100 percent correct, people being upset with the baby doll dress are so weird.”
