Billie Eilish famously posed for some uncharacteristically revealing lingerie photos for Vogue recently, to go along with an accompanying feature story. In the piece, Eilish anticipated some backlash to the shoot and insisted that she didn’t care about being perceived as a hypocrite for going with a new clothing style. Now she has clapped back at haters by co-signing a viral post in support of her.
In a recent Instagram Story (as NME notes), Eilish shared an Instagram post from writer Emily Clarkson, which has over 650,000 likes as of this post. In it, Clarkson posted a screenshot of a Daily Mail article that was titled, “‘Proof that money can make you change your values and sell out’: Billie Eilish shocks fans by swapping baggy clothes for lingerie in Vogue – despite years of vowing to ‘hide her body’.” However, Clarkson crossed out “Proof that money can make you change your values and sell out” and added, “proof that women can change their minds and reclaim autonomy over their own bodies. She also crossed out “bowing to ‘hide her body'” and replaced it with, “of being an actual child.”
In her lengthy caption, she decried the article and threw her full support behind Eilish, writing:
“oop, fixed it for ya xxxx
honestly where do you start on this?? We collectively GASPED at the strength emanating from Billie in those vogue images. Full f*cking POWER a woman standing up with total body autonomy and showing herself to the world in the way that SHE wanted to.
She hid her body for years because she didn’t want to be sexualised. She made this decision when she was a CHILD. Because she knew what grownups can be like. These decisions are ones we have all made – “‘chool skirts mustnt be too short or else they’ll distract the boys!!’ She went to those lengths because she had to. But this society – this perverted, f*cked up place, couldn’t let that be and they hounded her until they got photos of her body which they published without her consent. Those photos BLEW UP! The news was everywhere. Woman has body!!! It was like she asked us not to sexualise her and they took it as a challenge.
and now she’s a legal adult and she’s made another decision because that is what grownups are allowed to do (!!!!) and all of a sudden she’s a hypocrite going back on herself (note use of the word VOW, implying she’s committing some mortal sin and letting her fans down). An EXTRAORDINARY accusation when you really think about the fact she is literally 19. I didn’t wanna be sexualised in my school uniform (it happened anyway) but because of that I’m not allowed to ever claim any autonomy over my own body or embrace any sort of femininity?? What an extraordinary way to manipulate quite a reasonable request. This society is nuts. Keep an eye on it x”
Check out Clarkson’s post below.
