Billy Eilish has come under fire due to her recent comments regarding masculine body standards, or according to her, the lack thereof. The What Was I Made For artist revealed her thoughts on the matter while talking to Variety.
In the interview, the actress talked about her views on femininity and how men are given much less of a bar to stand to when compared to women, a comment that has been widely panned on the internet, attracting a slew of remarks trying to correct the artist on her ideas about the matter,
Billie Eilish feels men have it easy because women are more open-minded
In an interview with Variety, Eilish opened up about her feelings as a woman, about how she sees herself, and how she thinks other women see her. The singer said:
“I wasn’t trying to have people not sexualize me, but I didn’t want people to have access to my body, even visually. I wasn’t strong enough and secure enough to show it. If I had shown it at that time, I would have been completely devastated if people had said anything.”
The actress opened up about her many insecurities, leading her to talk about her views about herself. She talked about the image that she wanted to maintain for the public, and what she felt comfortable sharing with them, be it personal or impersonal. The singer/songwriter also opened up about how she felt about trolls who commented on her body. She said:
“I have big b**bs. I’ve had big b**bs since I was nine years old, and that’s just the way I am. That’s how I look. You wear something that’s at all revealing, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, but you didn’t want people to sexualize you?’ You can suck my a**! I’m literally a being that is sexual sometimes. F**k you!”
This, however, led the actress to bring up the topic, concerning men. Building off of her previous comment, she said:
“Nobody ever says a thing about men’s bodies. If you’re muscular, cool. If you’re not, cool. If you’re rail thin, cool. If you have a dad bod, cool. If you’re pudgy, love it! Everybody’s happy with it. You know why? Because girls are nice. They don’t give a f**k because we see people for who they are!”
Eilish believes that men face less scrutiny because women are better equipped to handle diversity than men. While the idea might seem ironclad from her standpoint, it is categorically false that men do not face any judgment for their appearance.
Fans were not happy with the comments Billy Eilish made
Fans and other neutral spectators alike took to the internet to refute Eilish’s comments. The consensus very much was the fact that men are put through the same amount of scrutiny, and it is not always other men who are to blame for this phenomenon.
Valid, sure. But we also don’t have to pretend that men get away with looking however, acting however, but acting while looking however- while women are categorically scrutinized based on how they look. Their entire characters judged on the basis of what they look like. You’re…
— HST (@satansleftnutXO) November 14, 2023
We also don’t have to pretend men are the only ones perpetuating these body standards/scrutinizing based on looks as she’s suggesting
— JiMMi (@JiMMiN00btron) November 14, 2023
This is false and a little tone deaf, a lot ofppl go through criticism both as men and female and every experience is valid
— Tuzh 🐊 (@pleasestopppfr) November 13, 2023
I love Billie but men receive criticism all the time for their bodies. If a guy is too fat, too short, or whatever, they are criticized by both men and women. I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s as bad as what women have experienced for decades because that would be an obvious…
— Pop Thirst Alert (@PopThirstAlert) November 13, 2023
Another episode of “Women don’t know anything about Men issues” pic.twitter.com/EHuDw1COyw
— Venkatesh Koka (@venkatesh_koka) November 13, 2023
The outrage seems to be stemming from the fact that Eilish has divided the narrative not along the lines of body shamers and those who get body shamed, but along the lines of men and women, fundamentally changing what the issue is about to begin with.
While her position on people commenting on women’s bodies is right, the fact of the matter remains that it is not just men who are perpetuating such standards, but women too. When a figure such as Eilish says that ‘men have it easy’ or ‘men don’t face the same criticism’, it essentially mocks the problems of men, reverting to the old sentiment of ‘being man enough’, instead of recognizing the problem as a social one, rather than a gendered one.
