When it comes to personal style, Billie Eilish has faced backlash from all sides.
First for defying gender stereotypes, then for conforming to certain beauty ideals after appearing on the cover of "British Vogue" wearing lingerie. The music icon now admits she feels most powerful when she feels "masculine."
The 20-year-old star made the remarks during an interview for BBC 100 Women in Conversation, to be aired Tuesday.
"I feel the most powerful when I feel masculine," she said, according to the Independent. "I also can find power in femininity, it's kind of a balance of both."
When asked by the interviewer to elaborate on what she meant by "masculine," Eilish said it depended on "how I walk and stand and my clothes and my face — and my jewelry and my fingers, just everything that I am day to day.
"I like to feel more masculine than feminine, it just makes me feel better," she said, adding that it was something she struggled to understand when she was younger.
"I struggled with [preferring to feel masculine] for a long time because I wanted to feel feminine and like it, I just didn't, really," she said.
"But then it's finding moments where you can have that and it still feels good," Eilish said. "Like right now I'm wearing a tighter shirt and I'm wearing a more low cut shirt."
She added: "The older me would have been like 'Eurgh! 'Please don't!' but I like it now and it's just the balance of the two."
In 2021, Eilish defended herself from criticism that arose after she traded her signature baggy clothing and neon green and black hair for lingerie and blonde hair for the "British Vogue" cover shoot. Speaking with Vanity Fair, she said the photo shoot was inspired by a specific genre.
"It was an old kind of Hollywood lingerie kind of classic thing," she said, according to Yahoo! "And it was supposed to be a specific aesthetic for a photo shoot and then it was like 'Billie Eilish's new style' and people kept being like 'Wow, her new style it's so much better than the old style.' Or like, 'Wow, I wish that we could have her old style back, I'm so sad that she's just changed into this.'"
Eilish described the response as "weird" because the photo shoot was not symbolic of her shedding her former image.
"It was so weird because I was like, 'It's not a new style, it's one thing I wore and then I'm gonna wear this another day, and then I'm gonna do this,'" she said during the interview. "Literally the thing that I've been preaching about since I first started is, wear what you want.
"Dress how you want, act how you want, talk how you want, be how you want. That's all I've ever said. It's just being open to new things and not letting people ruin it for you."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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