US pop star Olivia Rodrigo has criticized the online backlash over a baby-doll dress she wore during a recent performance, arguing that the controversy reflects the normalization of pedophilia and a tendency to blame girls for being sexualized.
The backlash came after Rodrigo wore the dress in the music video for her single ‘Drop Dead’ and during a performance in Barcelona.
Critics online described the look as “infantilizing,” “inappropriate,” and “too Lolita,” while some accused her of wearing “pedo bait” or “dressing like a toddler.”
Rodrigo rejected claims that the outfit was intended to be sexual, saying on The New York Times’ Popcast on Wednesday that it was inspired by punk and grunge icons Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love.
She also noted that she had previously worn far more revealing stage outfits without drawing the same reaction and that the pink floral baby-doll dress in question covered more of her body than many of her other looks.
“What’s really disturbing is I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing on stage. I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts, which is my right,” Rodrigo said. “And that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be childlike was inappropriate.”
“It just really shows how we normalize pedophilia in our culture,” she argued. “Also, it’s just this rhetoric we’re fed as girls from the time we’re little, which is, ‘Don’t wear that because a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault.’ It’s so weird.”
Rodrigo’s remarks come amid a broader debate over the sexualization of minors in entertainment and popular culture, a discussion that has also been fueled by renewed scrutiny of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Another US pop star, Sabrina Carpenter, was criticized last year by some fans who argued that her photoshoot resembled the 1997 film Lolita, which centers on a relationship between an adult man and an underage girl.
Earlier this year, some fans accused the creators of the US popular drama series Euphoria of “inciting pedophilia” after one of the show’s female lead characters appeared in a toddler-like fetish costume.
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