Billie Eilish hits back at body shamers by stripping off and disappearing in a new short film
by Jacob Sarkisian
- Billie Eilish shared the short film “Not My Responsibility,” which she originally unveiled at a March concert, on YouTube and social media.
- In the film, Eilish slowly strips off her clothes as her own narration addresses body shamers and their harmful rhetorics.
- Eilish says: “If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed layers, I’m a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it – and judge me for it.”
- The closing lines of the film are: “Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?”
- Fans have praised Eilish for “bringing awareness on society’s beauty standards” towards women and women’s bodies.
- Previously, Eilish has struggled with body shamers, and once said she “hates” her body while parents thank her when their daughters “don’t dress like sluts.”
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Billie Eilish has shared a powerful short film about body shaming, entitled “Not My Responsibility,” on YouTube and social media.
She first teased the video at a Miami concert back in March.
In it, Eilish slowly strips off her clothes while her own narration, alongside atmospheric music, plays over the top during the three-minute 41-second film. Her narration addresses body shamers and their harmful rhetorics:
“Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? 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?”
Eilish’s narration continues: “If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed layers, I’m a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it – and judge me for it. Why make assumptions about people based on their size?”
In the closing sequence of the film Eilish, who is now in only a black bra, slowly sinks beneath ominous black water, disappearing completely. Air bubbles slowly rise to the top of the black liquid as Eilish’s narration continues:
“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?”
Fans are praising Eilish for so directly confronting body shamers, something she has discussed before.
In a February interview with Vogue, Eilish said that she “hated” her body after she went through puberty early: “I would have done anything to be in a different one.”
The singer also said that parents thank her when their daughters “don’t dress like a slut.”
“Sometimes I get this response from parents like, ‘Thank you for dressing the way you do so my daughter doesn’t dress like a slut,’ and I’m like, ‘Whoa! That is the opposite of what I’m trying to do,'” Eilish said.
Watch the full video below:
Read more:
Billie Eilish says the only reason she began wearing baggy clothes was because ‘I hated my body’