Olivia Rodrigo responds to babydoll dress criticism: ‘It shows how we normalize pedophilia in our culture’

Olivia Rodrigo has responded to controversy over a recent babydoll dress she wore while performing on stage in Spain. The singer faced backlash online after she wore a short puffy dress with a floral pattern while performing her recent single Drop Dead at Barcelona’s Teatre Grec on 8 May. She also wears a similar style dress on the cover of her upcoming album. “That’s been making me so upset,” Rodrigo said in an interview with the New York Times’ Popcast . “What’s really disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are revealing on stage. Like, I’ve been on stage in like a sparkly bra, 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 deem to be childlike was inappropriate. “I think it shows how we really normalize pedophilia in our culture,” the singer added. “And also it’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is like, ‘Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault.’ Like, it’s so weird.” Rodrigo is promoting her forthcoming third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, out on 12 June. In a review of Drop Dead, the album’s lead single, the Guardian’s Laura Snapes praised its “melody destined to stalk listeners’ brains all summer”. The singer pointed out that the babydoll dress has been an iconic outfit for 90s female punk stars . …