‘Sparkly Bra’ And ‘Little Shorts’: Olivia Rodrigo Tries Playing The Victim, Makes Everything So Much Worse
Olivia Rodrigo presented a bizarre response to fashion critics on The New York Times’ “Popcast” podcast.
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“One of the other things you’ve been a lightning rod over, is like, the babydoll dress,” host Joe Coscarelli noted in a clip released Wednesday.
“That’s been making me so upset. Not even for me, like, I don’t care, people could say whatever they want,” Rodrigo began, before launching into a spiel about how much she doesn’t care. (RELATED: Olivia Rodrigo Gives Subtly Bloodthirsty Answer To Question On Palace Of Versailles)
Rodrigo has started wearing babydoll dresses — short dresses with high waistlines — and ruffled bloomers amid her new album rollout. The look has attracted objections.
“[W]e need to have an actual serious conversation about Olivia Rodrigo mainstreaming Lolita and babydoll aesthetics that appeal to pedophiles,” reads a tweet with over 350,000 views.
Some criticized a video of Rodrigo kneeling onstage, lifting up her dress to display her underwear-like shorts.
BARCELONA, SPAIN – MAY 8: Olivia Rodrigo performs on stage during an exclusive Billions Club Live show to celebrate the partnership between Spotify and FC Barcelona before El Clásico on May 8, 2026 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Xavi Torrent/Getty Images for Spotify)
Rodrigo told the “Popcast” hosts: “What’s really, like, disturbing, is I feel like I actually wear — I have worn outfits that are, like, maybe revealing on stage. Like, I’ve been on stage in, like, a sparkly bra and, like, little shorts, which is my right, that’s fun, I felt cool and comfortable in that. And like, that wasn’t inappropriate, but me, like, fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be like, childlike, was inappropriate … It just, like, shows how we just, like, really normalize pedophilia in our culture.”
Holy strawman.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think Rodrigo or her team are trying to “appeal to pedophiles.” I think Rodrigo is trying to tap into the 1990s grunge or alternative rock aesthetic and not doing a very good job at it. If anything, the response to Rodrigo’s outfits and choreography suggests pedophilia is extraordinarily taboo in the West, and that people are rather vigilant about the subject.
But Rodrigo has a point. Dancing around in a sparkly bra and little shorts does not provoke controversy, because our expectation is that pop stars will dress like hookers.
Rodrigo continued: “And also, it’s just, is this, this, like 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 … I didn’t think that I looked sexy in that at all. I was like, ‘This is so cool.’ I feel like I look like Kathleen Hanna or like Courtney Love, all these people who are my heroes. And I felt cool and comfortable in it … If we start dressing in a way that’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want some fucking freak to think that I like, am sexy like a baby,’ or like some crazy thing like that, like, I just, I just think it’s like losing the plot a little bit.” (RELATED: Olivia Rodrigo’s Leather Crop Top Busts Open Mid-Concert)
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Rodrigo contradicts herself. She clearly understands that certain items of clothing carry sexual connotations — she doesn’t think she looked “sexy” in the babydoll dress, so she presumably thinks she’s looked “sexy” in other outfits.
The “rhetoric” she refers to is basically common sense. If you don’t want men to notice certain areas of your body, don’t wear clothing which emphasizes those areas. I’m also amused by the very Zoomer way in which she qualifies her beliefs: “Like, it’s so weird.”
When you don’t have a conclusion, just apply social pressure to convince your audience that you’re right.
Rodrigo added that she’s “very protective” of “younger women and girls,” and doesn’t ever “want them to be, like, fed that rhetoric.” Rodrigo is right. The best way to protect younger women and girls is to let them dress like prostitutes, if they please.
INDIO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: (L-R) Maddie Ziegler, Addison Rae and Olivia Rodrigo pose backstage at the Coachella Stage during the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club on April 18, 2026 in Indio, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Coachella)
“And also, protect their right, as they grow up, to do,” host Jon Caramanica added.
“To dress however,” Rodrigo interrupted.
“Whatever it is, whatever it ends up being,” said Caramanica.
“It’s like a weird cult,” Rodrigo said, “It’s like, yeah, you shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualizing you in a way that was never your intention.”
My sense is that Rodrigo’s fiercest critics are women. Is the average man even familiar with the term “babydoll dress”? Is the average man at all familiar with the “Olivia Rodrigo outfit” discourse?
The funniest element of this “controversy” is that it is entirely playing out in people’s heads. Rodrigo’s critics are envisioning a man who thinks Rodrigo looks like a young child and finds that attractive. Rodrigo is mad at that same hypothetical man for sexualizing her. That man has yet to materialize, based on a cursory scroll through social media.
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