Olivia Rodrigo Addresses Babydoll Dress Discourse: “It Really Shows How We Really Normalize Pedophilia In Our Culture”
Olivia Rodrigo is addressing the comments she received over a babydoll dress she wore during a recent performance.
The “Drop Dead” singer performed at an event on May 8 and was subjected to criticism over her outfit, which she is now pushing back on, as some said she was sexualizing children’s clothing.
“That’s been making me so upset,” Rodrigo said on The New York Times podcast Popcast. “Not even for me. People can say whatever they want. What’s really disturbing is I feel like I actually have worn outfits that are maybe revealing on stage.”
She continued, “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.”
The former High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star said that the reaction to her outfit “really shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture,” adding, “And also 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 sexualize your body, and it’s your fault.’ It’s so weird.”
Rodrigo noted that she didn’t think she “looked sexy” and felt the outfit was “so cool” and felt that she looked like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love.
“All these people who are my heroes, and I felt cool and comfortable in it,” she said. “I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some f***ing 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 and girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric.”
Rodrigo just wants women to “dress however” and said, “You shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention.”
Watch Rodrigo address the babydoll dress backlash in the video below.
