Olivia Rodrigo has broken her silence after she copped some downright creepy online backlash over her decision to wear a babydoll dress in a recent music video.
The controversy erupted last month when Rodrigo released the music video for “drop dead”, the first single from her upcoming third album.
In the Paris-set clip, the pop star is seen frolicking through the streets in an off-the-shoulder mini-dress, and the choice of attire prompted some critics to claim Rodrigo was infantilising or overly-sexualising herself.
“Why is she dressing like a toddler and touching herself in a sexual manner? Who the hell stans this kind of abhorrent behaviour?” one X user wrote, while another said “we need to stop this infantilism in the media industry”.
Now, in an interview on the New York Times’ Popcast podcast, Rodrigo has hit back at all the commentary, saying it made her “so upset” before slamming the darker implications of the backlash.
“What’s really disturbing is I have worn outfits that are maybe more revealing on stage… and that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deemed to be childlike was inappropriate,” Rodrigo said.
“It shows how we really normalise pedophilia in our culture,” she added.
Olivia Rodrigo addresses babydoll dress controversy on Popcast:
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 28, 2026
“I have worn outfits that are like, maybe revealing on stage, which is my right. I felt fun and comfortable in that. And like that wasn’t inappropriate, but me, fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be… pic.twitter.com/Os4dCaLURP
The singer then dug further, saying the outcry is the exact kind of “rhetoric” women have dealt with because of misogyny.
“It’s just this rhetoric we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is, ‘don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualise your body and it’s your fault’. It’s so weird,” she said.
“I just think if we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘I don’t want some f**king freak to think that I’m sexy like a baby’, or some crazy thing like that, I think it’s losing the plot a little bit.”
Rodrigo added that she didn’t even “think I looked sexy” in the dress, and was actually inspired by other iconic babydoll-wearers like Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love, the latter of whom was seen ‘liking’ posts defending Rodrigo during the controversy last month.
“drop dead” joins “the cure” as the first two tastes of you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, Rodrigo’s third studio album set for release next month. The pop star teased the album by placing a bunch of heart-shaped lockets all over the world earlier this year.
No word yet on whether she’ll tour the project in Australia, but if she wears a cute and comfy dress during those performances, keep your whack criticisms to yourself!
Lead images: Popcast/Instagram and Getty
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