- Olivia Rodrigo faced online backlash after wearing babydoll dresses in performances, with critics claiming the outfit inappropriately sexualized “baby” clothing.
- The Grammy winner broke her silence on The New York Times Popcast, calling out how society normalizes pedophilia by blaming girls for their clothing choices instead of addressing predatory behavior.
- Rodrigo credited ’90s icons Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna as inspiration, emphasizing she felt cool and comfortable, not sexy, and expressed concern about the harmful rhetoric fed to young women.
Olivia Rodrigo’s name has been making its rounds online for many reasons, from her highly anticipated third album and Cosmopolitan cover story to her Billions Club performance with Spotify in Barcelona. Unfortunately, a certain side of the internet has lost the plot, sparking intense discourse over the Grammy winner wearing babydoll dresses during several performances.
Once her “drop dead” music video dropped last month, people claimed her outfit choice was sexualizing “baby” clothes. After facing some backlash, Liv officially broke her silence on all the discourse during an interview with The New York Times Popcast podcast on Thursday, May 28.
“That’s been making me so upset. Not even for me. People can say whatever they want,” she told host Joe Coscarelli. “What’s really disturbing is I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing on stage. I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and 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 deemed to be childlike was inappropriate.”
She continued, “It just really shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture. Also, it’s just this rhetoric we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is, don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault. It’s so weird.”
Fans praised her response in the comments section of the clip, with one person writing, “The perfect answer btw. Don’t think she could’ve said it any better. Preach it girl.” Others admitted they were shocked she bluntly called out pedophilic culture, with one saying, “holy shit i didn’t expect her call it out for what it really is but fuck yeah,” while another noted, “People will literally blame girls and women for how they dress instead of blaming the Trump Epstein class.”
Elsewhere during her chat on the pod, “the cure” singer also debunked that the look was intended to be “sexy,” and credited Hole’s Courtney Love and Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna for inspiring her take on the silhouette.
“I didn’t think that I looked sexy in that at all,” she said. “I was like, this is so cool. I feel 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, ‘I don’t want some fucking freak to think that I’m sexy like a baby’ or some crazy thing like that, I think it’s losing the plot a little bit. I’m just very protective of younger women, girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric.”
Couldn’t have said it better.
