Billie Eilish kicked off the first leg of her WHERE DO WE GO? World Tour on March 9 in Miami, FL.
The 18 year-old pop star, who is currently dominating her genre, delivered a powerful message about body shaming on Monday night. When you think of Eilish the first thing you may imagine is her trade-mark green hair, baggy clothes, long acrylics and Cuban links. The singer has always been outspoken about body positivity and anti-body shaming. Speaking in a Calvin Kleins ad last May, Eilish explained her reasoning for the fashion choice.
“I never want the world to know everything about me. I mean, that’s why I wear big, baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath. Nobody can be like, ‘she’s slim-thick,’ ‘she’s not slim-thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she’s got a fat ass.’ No one can say any of that because they don’t know.”
Now, Eilish emphasizes her thoughts in a powerful, new video interlude she debuted at the start of this tour. The two-minute video was played towards the end of her lengthy 22-song set, immediately before the song “All The Good Girls Go To Hell.” In the visual, Eilish was seen removing several layers of clothing until she was only wearing a bra, before sinking symbolically under the surface of a black, tar-like liquid. Eilish’s ‘must-hear’ message was as follows:
“Do you really know me? You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body,” Eilish begins. “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 sighs 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 what I wear 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 who they are. We decide what they’re worth. If I wear more, if I wear less, 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?”
Until this moment, fans of the singer had never truly seen her uncover in such a manner, this interlude marks the first time Eilish has chosen to publicly display her body since she went from a homeschooled musician to a chart-topping artist. This video was beyond compelling as it truly depicts the societal pressures placed on women to look, act, and think a certain way. The tar she’s seen sinking into can be interpreted as the sense of drowning one feels as they try to assimilate to such impossible standards. However, many women such as Eilish choose to reclaim their power and reveal the true layers of themselves on their own terms without a single concern for patriarchal norms.
Watch the fan shot video below.
