Olivia Rodrigo is “really disturbed” by some of the online criticism of her babydoll dresses.
The singer-songwriter wears a pink and white minidress for the cover of her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, and also sported a floral babydoll dress and matching bloomers for a recent Spotify event in Barcelona, Spain.
But during an appearance on The New York Times’ Popcast on Wednesday, Olivia addressed social media critics who had accused her of sexualising herself with her onstage outfits.
“What’s really disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing on stage,” she began. “I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra, 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 deem to be childlike was ‘inappropriate.’ And it just shows how we really normalise paedophilia in our culture.”
The Vampire star went on to insist that she felt “cool and comfortable” in her attire.
“It’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualise your body and it’s your fault,'” the 23-year-old continued. “I didn’t think I looked sexy in that at all. 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.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Olivia argued that anyone who studied her costumes was “losing the plot”.
“I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some f**king freak to think that I am sexy like a baby,’ or some crazy thing like that… I just think it’s like losing the plot a little bit,” she added. “I’m just very protective of younger women and girls, and I just don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric.”
Olivia will release You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, featuring lead single Drop Dead, on 12 June.
