Olivia Rodrigo Reacts To Babydoll Dress Criticism: 'It Shows How We Normalise Paedophilia In Culture'

American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo has opened up about the conversation around her fashion choices. Olivia Rodrigo's dress controversy sparked after she wore babydoll-style outfits; first for a pink dress for her new album’s cover, later a blue one for the “Drop Dead” music video and a floral short dress at her recent Spotify’s Billions Club Live concert. She weighed in on the criticism in The New York Times‘ Popcast, where she said that the controversy “really shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”

Olivia Rodrigo on dress criticism

The Grammy Award winner said he was inspired by music icons like Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love.

Rodrigo, 23, said, “That’s been making me so upset,” she said in a clip from the show. adding, “People can say whatever they want. 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, that’s fun, I felt cool and comfortable in that. And that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be childlike was inappropriate.”

She also said how this kind of criticism shows “how we really normalise paedophilia in our culture. Also, it’s just this rhetoric we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is, don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault. It’s so weird.”

The “Drivers License” crooner doesn't think she looked sexy in that dress, but felt cool and comfortable. She felt she looked like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love, who she considers her heroes.

“I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘I don’t want some fucking freak to think that I’m sexy like a baby’ or some crazy thing like that, I think it’s losing the plot a little bit. I’m just very protective of younger women, girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric.”