“I can't be responsible for a man sexualizing me.” After days of controversy and online indignation for the babydolls she wears and which even promote pedophilia, Olivia Rodrigo has had her say.
In the weeks leading up to the release of the third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Lovethe pop star was seen dressed in her typical style that combines the preppy toedgy. On the album cover, for example, she wears a pink dress while fluttering on a swing, in the video Drop Dead she has a blue one with ruffled fabrics, in the performance she did in Barcelona for the Spotify Billions Club Live (available on the platform since yesterday) she has a floral babydoll with coordinated bloomers underneath.
The criticism came online, fierce and plentiful. Rodrigo was accused not only of sexualizing her image, but even of promoting pedophilia as those dresses were linked to childish imagery. “She's wearing pink dresses like little girls wear, with frilly knickers,” someone wrote on X after her performance in Barcelona. “It looks like a little girl's outfit, and with all the sexy moves she tries to do, the result is a disturbing thread.” A post that simply reads “Maybe I'm too woke” has accumulated tens of millions of views, and these are just two examples.
Since the beginning of his career, Rodrigo has presented himself with looks that combine feminine clothes and boots or boots, a reference among other things to the riot grrrls period. Three years ago she explained that her mother woke her up by putting on the music Fountains of Babes in Toyland. «Female rock done like this, for me, is the most beautiful thing in the world». It is therefore not surprising that she took inspiration from the look of the leader of the Babes, Kat Bjelland, one of the icons of the 90s riot grrrl scene. She, Courtney Love and others wore very feminine dresses, creating a contrast between the harmless and almost doll-like look on the one hand and the anger and ferocious performances on the other. A way to subvert expectations that women were supposed to be docile.
Now Rodrigo has addressed the controversy by speaking to Popcastsa podcast from New York Times. She said that it doesn't bother her personally, “people can say whatever they want,” but that “you shouldn't be held responsible for some man sexualizing you even if that wasn't your intention.” He added that «what I find very disturbing is that I happened to wear provocative outfits on stage. I've done concerts in a sparkly bra and tiny shorts, and that's my right. It's fun, it made me feel cool and comfortable. That wasn't considered inappropriate. However, it would be when I put on a dress that covers me completely and that people consider childish. It demonstrates how normalized pedophilia is in our culture.”
For Rodrigo, combining women's clothing and sexual violence is dangerous. «It's the rhetoric that we girls are subjected to from a very young age: “Don't wear that thing because then a man will sexualize your body and it will be your fault”. It's strange. I didn't think I looked sexy in that dress, at all. I thought: it's cool, it makes me look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love, who are among my heroines, as well as making me feel good and cool.”
And again: «It would be wrong to start choosing clothes thinking things like “Oh, I don't want some fucking maniac to think I'm sexy like a little girl” or crazy stuff like that, you lose your mind that way. I am very protective of girls and I absolutely don't want this rhetoric to pass.”
