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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Olivia Petter

Billie Eilish shares powerful video addressing body-shaming comments: 'Would you like me to be smaller?'

Billie Eilish has shared a powerful video about body-shaming in which she criticises the way people scrutinise the way she chooses to dress.

The short film shows the 18-year-old singer posing in a dimly lit studio-like setting as she slowly undresses.

“Do you know me? Really know me?” Eilish begins.

“You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body.

“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.”

The teenager goes on to touch on some of the specific criticism she has received regarding her appearance.

“Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller?” she asks.

“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?”

Finally, the singer addresses the paradox that is at the crux of the body-shaming comments she receives.

“If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I’m a s***,” she says.

“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?”

Eilish first played the video to fans while performing on her world tour in March.

But the film was only seen by those in attendance at the “Bad Guy” singer’s concert at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, where the video was projected onto big screens during an interlude.

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