{"id":446278,"date":"2026-05-13T06:51:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/446278\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T06:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T06:51:28","slug":"olivia-rodrigos-baby-doll-dress-controversy-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/446278\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Rodrigo’s Baby Doll Dress Controversy Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOlivia Rodrigo<\/a> wasn\u2019t wrong \u2014 it is quite brutal out here<\/a>, especially if \u201chere\u201d is the desecrated place that is the internet and its ridiculous outrage over a pop star\u2019s preference for babydoll dresses. The internet melted down this week because Rodrigo chose to have a sense of fashion. (Honestly, that place is really only good for stalking crushes<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Rodrigo gears up to release her third LP, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love,<\/a> she\u2019s been twirling around in the loose, fluttering silhouette, a signature of her preppy-meets-edgy style. She donned a bubblegum-pink, floral collared dress for the album\u2019s artwork<\/a>; a blue, ruffled one for the \u201cDrop Dead\u201d <\/a>music video; and most recently, rocked out at Barcelona\u2019s Teatro Greco for Spotify\u2019s Billions Club Live<\/a> while wearing a floral babydoll dress and matching bloomer shorts underneath.<\/p>\n

\n\tApparently, this was all too much for users on X and Instagram, who have been losing it, claiming that the frilly silhouette both infantilizes and sexualizes the 23-year-old star. \u201cShe is wearing pink dresses that are similar to what toddlers wear with frilly underwear beneath it,\u201d wrote<\/a> one X user, referencing Rodrigo\u2019s Barcelona outfit. \u201cThis is giving child clothes and with all the sexy moves she tries to pull, it kinda looks weird,\u201d wrote another<\/a> X user. One post that refers back to the same outfit racked up 21 million views and simply reads<\/a>, \u201cMaybe I\u2019m too woke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThese looks are nothing new for the singer, who has been pairing feminine dresses with combat boots since she kicked off her musical career in 2021. Rodrigo\u2019s style has also always been referential; it\u2019s a hallmark that\u2019s helped her gain fans across generations. Back in 2023, she told Rolling Stone<\/a> that her mom used to wake her up by putting on Babes in Toyland<\/a>\u2019s Fontanelle. \u201cRock in that feminine way, that\u2019s just the coolest thing in the world to me,\u201d the pop star said at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s no wonder the singer has taken a page from Babes lead singer Kat Bjelland\u2019s book when it comes to clothes, too. Bjelland was one of the icons of the riot grrrl scene in the Nineties, and along with Courtney Love<\/a> and Bratmobile\u2019s Allison Wolfe<\/a>, she was known for sporting\u00a0hyper-feminine, girly dresses. This harmless, doll-like look juxtaposed with the anger running through their punk discographies and unruly performances was meant to subvert the expectations of women as docile objects in the patriarchy.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not that shocking that folks aren\u2019t picking up on Rodrigo\u2019s blatant references. What is surprising is the insistence that she must be supporting something nefarious by dressing this way. If anything, that all feels contrived and brings to mind the manufactured outrage online bots are so great at.\u00a0Could it be yet another example of a bot-coordinated attack? It\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the past year, GUDEA, a behavioral intelligence startup that tracks viral, reputation-harming claims on the internet, flagged two separate bot smear<\/a> campaigns<\/a> against Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan. These attacks happen when fake profiles create incendiary echo chambers by continuously posting about something, giving the appearance that there was viral consensus amongst internet users, the last place one would expect it.\u00a0So far, there hasn\u2019t been a confirmed bot attack to explain away the anger at Rodrigo and her fashion. But the weirder the outrage, the more likely it is all totally baseless.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt may all be as simple as good ol\u2019 misogyny, something Rodrigo knows all too well. \u201cPutting out music in the age of social media can be really daunting,\u201d Rodrigo told Alanis Morissette back in 2021 for Rolling Stone\u2019s Musicians on Musicians<\/a>. \u201cI think people hold young women to an incredibly unrealistic standard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Rodrigo wasn\u2019t wrong \u2014 it is quite brutal out here, especially if \u201chere\u201d is the desecrated place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[194084,321,40225,93,61,60,15735],"class_list":["post-446278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-babes-in-toyland","tag-celebrities","tag-courtney-love","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-olivia-rodrigo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}