Olivia Rodrigo Fires Back at Babydoll Dress Critics: ‘It Really Shows How We Normalize Pedophilia in Our Culture’
Olivia Rodrigo pushed back on backlash over her babydoll dress looks in a new NYT Popcast interview, calling out the double standard of critics who found her modest dress ‘inappropriate’ but not her revealing stagewear — and linking the criticism to how society normalizes the sexualization of young girls.
- Olivia Rodrigo, 23, pushed back against online criticism of her babydoll dress looks in a new interview on The New York Times’ Popcast, calling the reaction “really disturbing” and saying it shows “how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture”
- The backlash began after she wore a pink-and-blue minidress in her “Drop Dead” music video and escalated when she wore a Génération78 babydoll dress at Spotify’s Billions Club Live concert in Barcelona on May 8 — critics described the looks as “infantilizing” and accused her of wearing “sexualized children’s clothing”
- Rodrigo pointed out the double standard directly: “I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage. I’ve been on stage in a sparkly bra and little shorts… and that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be childlike was inappropriate”
- Per Complex, she connected the criticism to riot grrrl fashion history and broader patterns of how society sexualizes young girls, calling those reactions “freak” reactions
- “Drop Dead” is from her forthcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad
Olivia Rodrigo has had enough. The “Drivers License” singer spent part of a new New York Times Popcast interview addressing the months-long online debate over her babydoll dresses — and she didn’t hold back.
The controversy started in April when Rodrigo wore a pink-and-blue minidress in the video for “Drop Dead,” a single from her upcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad. It intensified after she performed at Spotify’s Billions Club Live concert in Barcelona on May 8 in a Génération78 babydoll dress and knee-high black boots — a look that set off a fresh wave of takes, with some describing the outfit as that of a “sexualized child” and others writing things like “A grown woman wearing children’s clothes… she keeps giving me the ick.”
Rodrigo’s response, recorded for an upcoming Popcast episode and previewed widely this week, was pointed. “That’s been making me so upset,” she told Us Magazine. “Not even for me. People can say whatever they want.”
‘Fully Covered Up… Was Inappropriate’
What bothered her, she said, was the logic the critics were applying. “What’s really disturbing is I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage,” Rodrigo continued, per Newsweek. “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 said the pattern was “really disturbing” and added: “It really shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”
Per Complex, she tied the reaction to riot grrrl fashion — a deliberately transgressive, anti-sexualization aesthetic with deep roots in ’90s punk and feminist music — and to broader double standards in how young women’s bodies get policed and interpreted regardless of what they actually wear. The framing, she suggested, says more about the critics than it does about the dress.
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