Billie Eilish thinks that Drake’s penchant for texting underage girls is totally fine and that anyone who thinks otherwise is overreacting.
In her cover interview for the March issue of Vogue, Eilish defended Drake against the “stupid-ass mess” of internet backlash he received after Eilish revealed that the two had a texting friendship despite their 15-year age difference. (Drake is 33, Eilish is 18.)
Eilish said,
“Everybody’s so sensitive. A grown man can’t be a fan of an artist? There are so many people that the internet should be more worried about.”
Drake first faced scrutiny about his friendship with Eilish back in November, when a then-17-year-old Eilish gushed about the singer in an interview with Variety, calling him “the nicest dude I’ve ever spoken to.” She continued,
“I mean I’ve only like texted him, but he’s so nice. Like, he does not need to be nice. You know what I mean? He’s at a level of his life where he doesn’t need to be nice, but he is, you know?”
If this was just a one-off comment, perhaps it wouldn’t have raised cause for concern. However, prior to Eilish’s Variety interview, Drake had already established a questionable history of befriending underage girls, leaving fans concerned for Eilish’s well-being.
After all, just a year before, Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown had revealed a texting friendship with the singer. She was 14 at the time — he was 31. At the time, Brown casually mentioned that he had texted her things like, “I miss you so much.”
And then, of course, there was the slimy concert footage of Drake groping a fan onstage, saying, “I can’t go to jail yet, man!” when he found out she was 17. After he found out her age, he carried on wondering,
“Why do you look like that? You thick. Look at all this… I don’t know if I should feel guilty or not, but I had fun. I like the way your breasts feel against my chest.”
But despite Drake’s proven history of unsettling behavior around teenage girls, Eilish is unconcerned. Instead, she makes an absolutely apples-to-oranges comparison, saying,
“Like, you’re really going to say that Drake is creepy because he’s a fan of mine, and then you’re going to go vote for Trump? What the fuck is that shit?”
Of course, the issue isn’t that Drake is a fan of Billie Eilish. It isn’t even that he might be a mentor to her, a superstar in the industry for her to look up to and want to emulate. All of that is completely understandable. But there is no real reason a grown man should continually strike up texting friendships with teenage girls. It’s not cute. It’s not normal. And it’s definitely not appropriate.
Though Eilish’s outright dismissal of Drake’s transgressions is certainly disappointing, it’s also is exactly the reason why we should be concerned. After all, many of us can certainly remember being a teenager and feeling flattered when an older guy paid us attention only to realize it was creepy, or even sinister, in retrospect.
Eilish is only 18, and newly so. It’s not her job to police the actions of a 33-year-old man. For his part, Drake has not commented on the texting controversy. But maybe it’s time he put the phone down and owned up to his wildly unacceptable behavior.
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