Since she was thrusted into the limelight at barely 15 years old, Billie Eilish has faced her fair share of public scrutiny – particularly when it comes to body shame and her decision to cover up with baggy clothes.
Speaking of Billie Eilish, hear about her foray into 007 below:
During Billie Eilish’s ‘Where Do We Go’ world tour a few months ago, the singer’s performance was interrupted by a beautiful video of her stripping off those baggy layers. As Eilish removes each piece of clothing, she says, “Do you really know me? You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body. Some people hate what I wear, some people praise it. Some people use it to shame others, some people use it to shame me. But I feel you watching… always. And nothing I do goes unseen.”
Today, Eilish released the official video via social media. It quickly racked up over 40,000 comments – most of which were praising the singer for fighting against body shamers, and supporting her decision to take control over the way in which the world views her body.
Body shame and the pressure to look ‘perfect’ is something women have become all too familiar with, and sadly, men are now facing the same sort of unrealistic expectations.
Earlier this week, Twitter user @katiey_KE_ went viral after posting a photo of a man’s chiselled abs with the question, “Dear men, what is preventing you from looking like this?”
The tweet racked up over 17,000 retweets with dozens of responses calling her out for body shaming. One user replied, “an awful aspect in societal standards is women getting body shamed and here you are doing it as well, to men.”
“You have a type. We get it, but it’s not THE type,” they continued. “Body shaming every man on the planet ain’t the way to go about it and if you don’t see that, you’re part of the problem.”
Despite the backlash, @katiey_KE_ hit back, claiming “ASKING FOR ABS IS NOT BODY SHAMING!”
Luckily, other Twitter users were able to turn the whole thing around and make some pretty great memes out of the tone-deaf comment.
It’s incredibly unfair to expect all men to sport washboard (and most probably digitally-enhanced) abs like the ones posted in this tweet. No matter your gender, body shame is never okay and will get you called out on social media. Thank goodness for people like Billie Eilish, who are fighting back against the bullshit standards.
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