Olivia Rodrigo Addresses The Babydoll Dress Controversy
“I just think it shows how we just really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”
Olivia Rodrigo has no time for the fashion police. After her performance at Spotify Billions Club Live concert in early May, Rodrigo’s outfit choice — a babydoll dress paired with bloomers — garnered a lot of criticism online. Now, the “Drop Dead” singer is addressing the controversy.
During a May 28 interview on the New York Times’ Popcast, Rodrigo explained why the conversation surrounding her babydoll dress is so “disturbing.” When asked about the controversy, Rodrigo told the podcast hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, “That's been making me so upset, not even for me. I don't care. People can say what they want.”
According to Rodrigo, the conversation surrounding her outfit choice hints at a bigger issue:
What's really disturbing is I feel like I actually wear — I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing onstage. I've been onstage 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? And I just think it shows how we just really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”
Rodrigo explained how she felt this narrative was damaging, especially for young girls. “It's just this rhetoric that we're fed as girls since we're so little, which is like, ‘Don't wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it's your fault,’” she said. “It's so weird.”
The 23-year-old added that she didn’t choose the babydoll dress to look “sexy,” but to channel some of her style icons. “I didn't think that I looked sexy in that at all. I was like, ‘This is so cool. I feel like I look like Kathleen Hanna or like Courtney Love’ — all these people who are my heroes. And I felt cool and comfortable in it.”
Rodrigo added that people should be putting the onus back on people who were sexualizing her outfit — not her for wearing it.
“I just think if we start dressing in a way that's like, ‘Oh, I don't want some f*cking freak to think that I like am sexy, like a baby,’ or like some crazy thing like that, I just think it's losing the plot a little bit,” she said. “You know, I’m just very protective of younger women and girls, and I just don't ever want them to be big fed that rhetoric.”
“You shouldn't be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention,” Rodrigo added.
