Fans Are Praising Billie Eilish After She Showed Off Her Body On Tour Alongside A Powerful Message About Being Shamed
"If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut," Billie said on the first night of her world tour. "Though you've never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why?"
Billie Eilish used the opening night of her world tour to address constant speculation about her body, removing her clothes in a video that played on screens while she recited a powerful message over the top.
Ever since erupting into the mainstream and taking the world by storm, the 18-year-old has become just as known for her clothes — which she once described as being "800 sizes bigger" than she is — as well as her incredible singing and songwriting talent.
In the past, the star has revealed that part of the reason for wearing oversized clothes is so people can't have an opinion on her body because they haven't actually seen it.
"I never want the world to know everything about me," she said in a 2019 Calvin Klein campaign. "I mean, that's why I wear big baggy clothes: Nobody can have an opinion, because they haven't seen what's underneath."
And Billie reiterated her point when she graced the cover of Vogue Australia, saying that wearing baggy clothes "gives nobody the opportunity to judge what your body looks like".
"I want layers and layers and layers and I want to be mysterious. You don't know what's underneath and you don't know what's on top," she said. "I don't want to give anyone the excuse of judging."
However, in a later interview with Pharrell Williams, Billie clarified her comments and said that the speculation about what she chooses to wear had an element of slut-shaming about it.
"[The] positive [comments] about how I dress have this slut-shaming element," she said. "Like, 'I am so glad that you are dressing like a boy so that other girls can dress like boys, so that they aren’t sluts.'"
Well, on Monday night, Billie's Where Do We Go? tour kicked off in Miami, and, during a visual interlude, a video played on the screens showing Billie removing her clothes while responding to people's opinions about her and her body.
VIDEO: In an interlude, Billie takes off her hoodie and blouse, while speaking about body shaming. #WDWGMiami
"You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body," Billie's voice said over the video. "Some people hate what I wear. Some people praise it. Some people use it to shame others. Some people use it to shame me."
"If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut," Billie continued. "Though you've never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why?"
The powerful message concluded: "Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?"
According to fans who attended the show, the full message said:
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. So while I feel your stares, your disapproval, or your sigh of relief, if I lived by them, I'd never be able to move.
Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips? The body I was born with, is it not what you wanted?
If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut. Though you've never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why? You make assumptions about people based on their size. We decide what they're worth. If I wear more, who decides what that makes me? What that means? Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?
As the video played to the crowd, fans could be heard screaming their support, and the entire venue appeared to give Billie's message a ton of (very loud) praise.
Billie shows off her body during powerful interlude on the “WHERE DO WE GO? WORLD TOUR” (1/2)
And the video was also met with praise online as fans rallied behind Billie's message.
billie is using her tour as a platform to send a positive statement to her fans by using an interlude about how people’s opinions on her body aren’t her responsibility is so powerful. i love this women so much
billie stripping down and showing off her body while expressing that everyone else’s opinions don’t matter cause SHES confident and your opinion of her is NOT HER RESPONSIBILITY is a fucking power move.
Some were concerned that the video might be the result of Billie feeling "pressured" into showing off her body. However, in a previous interview late last year, she suggested that in the future she might want to look "desirable" and shouldn't be shamed for that.
"I'm gonna be a woman. I wanna show my body. What if I wanna make a video where I wanna look desirable?" she told Elle.
"I know it would be a huge thing," she continued. "I know people will say, 'I've lost all respect for her.'"
