WASHINGTON: Singer-songwriter and actor Olivia Rodrigo has responded to online criticism over her recent babydoll dress stage outfits, describing the backlash as “really disturbing”, according to Page Six.
Speaking on The New York Times podcast Popcast, the Grammy-winning artist addressed the controversy surrounding her recent stage and music video styling.
“I didn’t think that I looked sexy in that at all,” Rodrigo said, referring to the public reaction to her outfits.
“I was like, this is so cool. I feel like I look like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love, all these people who are my heroes,” she added, citing the riot grrrl musicians who inspired her current aesthetic.
Rodrigo criticised how her fully covered outfits were interpreted online.
“I just think it shows how we really normalise paedophilia in our culture,” she said, as per the outlet.
The controversy began after Rodrigo wore a powder-blue Chloé ensemble with bloomers in her “Drop Dead” music video, and later appeared in a floral Generation78 top styled as a babydoll mini dress during Spotify’s Billions Club Live concert in Barcelona.
Clips from the performance circulated online, showing her crawling across the stage and revealing ruffled bloomers while performing her song Brutal, which explores the pressures faced by teenage girls.
Some social media users criticised the outfits, with comments describing them as “paedo bait” and comparing the styling to Lolita, the controversial 1955 novel.
Responding to the backlash, Rodrigo highlighted the contrast between reactions to her outfits and more revealing stagewear.
“I’ve been on stage in little shorts, which is my right — that’s fun, I felt cool and comfortable in that,” she said.
“And that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be childlike was inappropriate,” she added.
She further argued that self-censorship based on potential public interpretation distracts from the real issue.
“If we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘I don’t want some freak to think that I’m sexy like a baby’… I think it’s losing the plot a little bit,” she said, according to Page Six.
According to Rolling Stone, some supporters believe the backlash may resemble recent bot-driven online smear campaigns previously directed at artists such as Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan, though no coordinated campaign against Rodrigo has been confirmed.
Rodrigo’s upcoming third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, is scheduled for release on June 12. Her 65-date Unraveled Tour will begin on September 25, according to Page Six.
(With inputs from ANI)
