Billie Eilish Vogue Photoshoot Starts Important Conversation About Societys Corrupt Beauty Standards

Via: @billieeilish on Instagram

TW: Body image, sexual abuse, depression

The societal beauty standards for women are toxic and nearly impossible to meet.

Navigating life during adolescence is already extremely difficult as is, but teenage music superstar, Billie Eilish has to grow up with millions of people critiquing her in the public eye.

Billie Eilish’s career began in 2015 - when she was only 13 years old - as she started creating songs with her older brother Finneas. Today, at only nineteen years old, she is one of the most successful artists of all time and continues topping charts and breaking world records.

Initially, Eilish’s signature look consisted of loose-fitting clothing and natural makeup.

In an interview for a Calvin Klein campaign, she says the reason why she wears baggy clothes is so “nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what’s underneath.”

Moreover, Eilish told British Vogue that her body was the initial reason for her depression when she was younger and that it was her “biggest insecurity.”

This statement opens up a deeper conversation: why are women’s bodies constantly being sexually objectified? And how are toxic beauty standards harming people, especially young, impressionable youth like Billie Eilish?

The societal definition of beauty is utterly attainable as companies are continuously profiting off of people’s insecurities. The existence of beauty standards is to allow businesses to make profits off of societies’ vulnerabilities and insecurities by selling beauty products and unrealistic perceptions of what women should look like.

Society conditions us to believe that we have to fit a mold of what is deemed as “ideal” in order to be viewed as beautiful. People who do not completely align with society’s beauty standards are shamed for their natural qualities.

In this case, Billie Eilish is frequently shamed for how she chooses to present herself.

Regardless of whether Eilish wears conventionally “modest” clothing or whether she decides to show more of her body in outfits, she is shamed and told that she should change her appearance.

In a society still upholding patriarchal relations in its beauty standards, women and femme-presenting people cannot win.

Although Eilish is only a young woman, she constantly endures traumatic events where people - specifically men - abuse power and control over her.

In an interview with People Magazine, Eiish says that “you can always be taken advantage of who you are, what your life is, your situation, who you surround yourself with, how strong you are, how smart you are."

Tragically, Eilish revealed that she had endured sexual abuse as a young child.

During the same interview with People Magazine, Eilish also states that she does not “know one girl or woman who hasn't had a weird experience, or a really bad experience.”

When society dehumanizes women and sexually objectifies their bodies, it directly encourages the exploitation of power and therefore allows for incidents of sexual misconduct to occur freely.

Not only are societal beauty standards unrealistic, but they are rooted in deeper social injustices like misogyny, ableism, fatphobia, queerphobia, colourism, white supremacy, and more. The severely poor representation in the media often results in people from marginalized communities feeling unimportant.

Dismissal and ignorance of these corrupt beauty ideals further continue the cycle of oppressive systems and lead to systemic marginalization perpetuating in different societal aspects.

Eilish believes that “showing your body and showing your skin — or not — should not take any respect away from you.”