Evening Standard - ES Magazine
Laura Craik is UPFRONT about Billie Eilish’s surprise new look
Laura Craik on Billie and the body-shamers, why it’s high time we all got back on the dance floor and her hopes for a stiff drink
“That Billie EILISH is ACCUSED of flaunting her BODY to BOOST record sales is pure and simple SLUT-SHAMING”
The other morning, the newsreader Susanna Reid ‘put on a busty display’ in a bright yellow dress. This anthropologically fascinating event occurred shortly after Chrissy Teigen stepped out of her car in a ‘busty blue top’, a shade before Daisy Lowe ate lunch in ‘a busty low-cut vest’ and 24 hours after Lizzo ‘put on a busty display’ in a dress while celebrating her birthday.
So normalised is this off-hand commentary about women’s breasts and other body parts that we’re inured to it. Imagine if every time a man went out, his dick was remarked upon. ‘Ant wore tight black jeans that clung to his manhood, while Dec’s fitted beige chinos showed off his penis.’ Sorry, Ant and Dec. I feel gross even writing this in jest.
‘Showing your body and showing your skin — or not — should not take away any respect from you,’ said Billie Eilish in an interview with Vogue, for which she also stars on June’s cover. If only this were true. From the moment they need to start wearing a bra, girls are relentlessly slutshamed for their breasts. That so many teenage girls wear oversized sweatpants and hoodies is as much to escape the attention of predators as it is because they worship at the altar of Nike.
Eilish has drawn criticism for choosing to wear a Gucci corset and Agent Provocateur bra for her Vogue cover, on the basis that she previously avowed to wear baggy clothes to avoid the very attention her critics claim she’s now courting. If our prime minister can change his mind about the level of NHS funding he promised voters, then a 19-year-old girl can change her mind about her look. I hope the backlash doesn’t have her scuttling off into her hoodies again. That Eilish is accused of flaunting her body to boost record sales is pure and simple slut-shaming. It sends out a terrible message to her young fans, already grappling with the complexities of transitioning from child to adult. Nobody should be made to choose between baggy or sexy, Madonna or whore. Your body is yours. Wear it however you want to. Everyone else: keep your comments to yourself.