Billie Eilish Talks Racial Double Standards in Music and Body Image
Written by SOURCE on June 6, 2020
During her interview for GQ‘s July/August issue last week, Billie Eilish addressed several things including the racial double standards in the music business, how she was happy about Tyler, the Creator’s comments about her during the Grammy’s, and her battles with her body image.
When discussing the racial disparity in music, she specifically referenced some of Tyler, the Creator’s comments during this year’s Grammy’s about his discontent with labeling artists in music based on race. Tyler expressed, ” it sucks that whenever we— and I mean guys that look like me— do anything that’s genre-bending, they always put it in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category.” According to him, it’s another “politically correct way to say the n-word.”
Eilish seconded his sentiments on typecasting artists in music. “I hate when people say, ‘Oh, you look like “blank.” You sound like “blank”,’ It was such a cool thing Tyler said. I agree with him about that term,” she said.
Eilish continued, “Don’t judge an artist off the way someone looks or the way someone dresses. Wasn’t Lizzo in the Best R&B category that night? I mean, she’s more pop than I am. Look, if I wasn’t white I would probably be in ‘rap’. Why? They just judge from what you look like and what they know. I think that is weird. The world wants to put you into a box; I’ve had it my whole career. Just because I am a white teenage female I am pop. Where am I pop? What part of my music sounds like pop?”
She also talked about a video interlude that will be apart of her upcoming tour, and how it lends an empowering message about body image. “I felt very motivated to do it,” Eilish said about her inspirations for the video and taking ownership of her body. “Although, of course, the Daily Mail headlines the next day ran ‘Billie strips to her bra in new tour visuals’. I thought, ‘Are you actually deadass?’ How predictable. First off, I am not stripping. The whole point is that I don’t strip all the way to my bra as it’s gone before you see it – it’s not yours to see. I mean, that shit is all over Pornhub.”
While feeling empowered, she also clarified that she still isn’t exactly where she wants to be yet in terms of how she views her body. “I don’t know about that,” she said about if she’s fully positive about her body yet. “I definitely didn’t want it to come off as, ‘Oh, now I am 18 now I like my body.’ I still have huge issues with my own body.”
Aside from that, Eilish has also been active in voicing her support for George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, posting her thoughts to Instagram.
“I’ve been trying to take this week to figure out a way to address this delicately,” she wrote. “I have an enormous platform and I try really hard to be respectful and take time to think through what I say and how I say it… But holy fucking shit I’m just gonna start talking. If I hear one more white person say ‘all lives matter’ one more fucking I’m gonna lose my fucking mind. … No one is saying your life doesn’t matter. No one is saying your life is not hard. No one is saying literally anything at all about you… All you mfs do is find a way to make everything about yourself.”
