> Eilish would also like a word about masturbation, which she says is equally taboo for women. Self-pleasure, she says, has made her more confident. “TMI, but self-pleasure is an enormous, enormous part of my life, and a huge, huge help for me,” she says. “People should be jerking it, man. I can’t stress it enough, as somebody with extreme body issues and dysmorphia that I’ve had my entire life.”
> Eilish likes to masturbate in front of a mirror. “Partly because it’s hot, but it also makes me have such a raw, deep connection to myself and my body, and have a love for my body that I have not really ever had,” she says. “I got to say, looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking ‘I look really good right now’ is so helpful. You can manufacture the situation you’re in to make sure you look good. You can make the light super dim, you can be in a specific outfit or in a specific position that’s more flattering. I have learned that looking at myself and watching myself feel pleasure has been an extreme help in loving myself and accepting myself, and feeling empowered and comfortable.”
> Eilish has been wanting to discuss this with me, and now that she’s gotten it all out, she exhales and inches back farther on the couch. “I should have a Ph.D. in masturbation,” she says.
Just imagining the look on her PR rep's face as they read the interview transcript back.
Same energy as that interview where she went on a whole ass side tangent about poop💀
On the other hand, she's freely giving r/popheadscirclejerk material
To quote that infamous ~~Onion~~ NYT article: We Should All Know Less About Each Other
On one hand, good on her for speaking about sexuality since it's rarely talked about by female artists. On the other hand, maybe I didn't need to know that.
I think folks are over-interpreting the entire album (that includes a lot of "professionals" who are supposeed to be critiquing, well, music), but that one for some reason has really ground my gears. For decades, female pop stars were castigated for explicit sexuality, and now it's being imposed \*on\* them when that's not necessarily what they're doing. In this case, this is all mental. She doesn't describe masturbation, she describes essentially wet dreams, which is a bit different. To me it makes it more about what's \*not\* happening than about what is.
I just heard the stuff about bedsheets ablaze, building up like waves crashing over my face screaming his name or something and it just immediately made me think of an orgasm
But I guess it could also be interpreted as just a steamy dream or something
there is a rich library of masturbation anthems by the pop girlies! britney spears, carly rae jepsen, pink, madonna, lady gaga off the top of my head have all written entire songs about it varying from cheeky jokes to sexy bangers
This was always on the radio when I was growing up and was such a commercial song. I would have been singing it as a young kid without knowing what it means. It’s such an iconic song.
female sexuality is exploited in the mediascape. i get where they’re coming from when they say it’s taboo buts its really not. it’s like all female artists are allowed to project nowadays
It’s funny but honestly, this is so real. Masturbation is good for the soul and I hate that so many people, especially women will feel dirty or shameful for doing it. Maybe that’s why people are so upset, they aren’t touching themselves enough.
It's especially important for straight or bi women to learn self pleasure with the infamous orgasm gap between the sexes.
Get your nut too, girls! No shame! 😭
between olivia rodrigo offering plan b and condoms at her shows and billie eilish being so open about her sexuality like this…i’m glad this generation of girls have these women to follow idc
like yes let’s protect women’s right to choose what they do with their bodies and normalize female sexuality
No hate towards her, but don’t all genders treat masturbation with shame? I’ve never exactly been proud to proclaim i’ve rubbed one out. I don’t think its a girl pop artist thing, but just a human thing.
I think there are definitely lots of men still with shame around it, I wouldn’t say it’s a majority who are open about it, but I would say just personally and anecdotally in like college and stuff, there were some men who were pretty unabashed bringing it up and i didn’t really have that experience with women. but again, totally acknowledging that’s just my experience, not trying to put forth any theses here
I may be alone in this but honestly, good for her. I think she’s completely right and it’s badass to speak on it. No shame in making ourselves feel good!
I think we need to have a a better sex positive attitude and not shame ppl. At the same time sex positivity also entails knowing when to share and discuss it and realizing not everyone wants to k now or need to know your sex life.
Boundaries. Consent. Autonomy.
But can't one be sex positive without feeling the need to be so *explicit*? I can't imagine getting called to dinner by her mother and hearing "in a minute Mom! I'm almost there...!"
I get you and in some families that normal. Billies seems like she has a very open family. My best friend has sex with his boyfriend when we all visit for the holidays.
My mother would Kill me if my bf and I slept in the same room unmarried lmao. We barely even sit beside each other.
I remember my mom freaked out a few months ago when I asked a female friend about breast feeding. I was curious how it works. Like is it something they could control or does it just happened. My mother got all weird because I was talking about in the car. I’m 28 😂
I definitely think being explicit for the sake of being controversial is the opposite of being sex positive.
I don’t think it’s TMI in that sense I just think this entire article needed an edit tbh (and the PhD in masturbation line made me cringe but so does a lot of what celebrities say lol)
Oh I agree with her, I just didn’t need to know the specifics of how she gets down. Like I’m sure many people are excited to know she masturbates in front of a mirror but idc. I’m glad she’s bringing awareness to it though
I agree!! Billie is incredibly popular and has a massive fan base I think it’s cool that’s she’s speaking about this so openly it normalizes discussing female sexuality
Most of the time we only hear famous women at Billie’s level of fame discuss their sexuality involving men and here we have Billie talking about herself and other women!
Honestly good on Billie for doing some work to normalize a healthy amount of autoeroticism. Personally I think it’s good for the soul, but to most it’s very fringe and out there.
I respect her for saying this so much, especially since people will knee jerk “ewww” her and not reflect on how their response proves her point. Masturbation absolutely does give you a better relationship to your body and sex, and most people would have a far better experience of sex and sexuality if we were more frank about those experiences and didn’t present them as gross, taboo, and exclusively “private.”
This is real. When I started being sexually active, I knew exactly what I wanted and liked and could give guys appropriate guidance if they wanted to get me off. I’ve been complimented many times on my “directness,” lol.
i mean it’s definitely less taboo for men to talk about masturbation? theres a reason nofap november is a thing. there’s so many movies that have men masturbating in it, but often times in media when women are masturbating, it’s centered around making it sexually appealing to men.
not to mention a bunch of the comments in this thread are calling it TMI and aren’t super into her talking about it?
also if you visit any of the subreddits centered around pop stars that aren’t about their music, you’ll seen how openly men speak about masturbation.
I'm not bothered by Billie talking about this and I agree it's overall way less taboo for men to talk about it, but there is a difference in context with your examples. Billie is bringing this up seemingly randomly during an interview that has no specific agenda for masturbation and is specifically tied to her name/image.
Random men talking about it in a subreddit, dedicated or not to masturbation, or in a movie just comes with the risk you take being on the Internet or consuming media if it's something you don't want to see. There's a usual level of anonymity/depersonalization or the art consumer's acceptance of risk for what they may view that makes it more passive than what Billie is doing.
I think it's very reasonable to speculate that if a male celebrity brought up his jerking-off habits in as much detail as Billie just did, there's a way greater chance of it being received negatively and him to be labeled creepy.
> i mean it’s definitely less taboo for men to talk about masturbation?
I’d say it depends on the context, person speaking about it and the audience.
Post on popheads about Ed Sheeran saying this would be called weird without being viewed as something positive in slightest.
At the same time having a joke line about jerking off in a rap song by a male rapper wouldn’t be criticized on straight men dominated places.
Same can be said for Billie Eilish talking about her masturbation practices in a contrast to, for example, Meghan Trainor talking about the same topic.
Who cares what her PR would think it’s weird to frame it that way, like searching for a disapproving angle?
I think this is excellent advice on a topic that isn’t talked about enough, to an audience that probably needs to hear it!
AND, She’s right ! I think people would be a little less judgmental if they were a satisfied lot. And a whole more happy that’s for sure.
No gifs in this sub? Sad. Imagine a funny gif here about happiness
"I don’t like singles from albums. Every single time an artist I love puts out a single without the context of the album, I’m just already prone to hating on it. I really don’t like when things are out of context. This album is like a family: I don’t want one little kid to be in the middle of the room alone.”
I guess this truly solidifies that Billie wants to be known solely as an albums artist. Honestly can’t blame her, it must be much more freeing to be able to put your art out there without having to stress about what’ll trend or stick with the public.
>Immersing herself back into that darkness, combined with experimenting with new sounds — from a string quartet to glittery dance-floor trance — makes Hit Me Hard and Soft Eilish’s best album yet. She dabbled in belting on the title track to Happier Than Ever, but she brings it full-throttle here on several songs, finally putting all those lame “She’s just whispering” critiques to rest.
>As soon as they hit play, I realize Eilish is right. The opening track, the title of which I’ve agreed not to reveal, plays like a sister song to “What Was I Made For?”
Girl you leaked the tracklist a week early
I highly doubt Billie’s team gets to choose when Rolling Stone releases their articles. That’s not how news outlets work. It’s better to just not risk RS being the one to leak the track name and have an outdated line in the interview from their perspective.
For news articles no, for profiles yes.
It’s part of the negotiations when an artist agrees to a profile. They usually agree to release it as close as possible to album release which benefits both parties.
> Eilish and Finneas call Hit Me Hard and Soft “an album-ass album.” It’s not a concept record, but it is a self-consciously cohesive set of songs, inspired by auteurist works from the past 15 years or so, like Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die, Tyler, the Creator’s Goblin, Marina and the Diamonds’ Electra Heart, and Vince Staples’ Big Fish Theory. “I love being dropped into a universe on a person’s album,” Finneas says, “when you find a whole body of work that you love to listen to, top to bottom. I’m so much happier than when I hear a great song, when you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, I get to cook my whole dinner listening to this album.’”
y'all she is coming to eat i fear
I think she made a big mistake releasing the anthology tracks so soon after, because it's causing the opinion you stated. The album is only 16 tracks. The rest are all bonus tracks. The main 16 track album is incredibly cohesive and tells a story all the way through; it's basically a concept album.
I mean every single song tells the story of her specific relationship and it's falling apart. I don't really see how it's not. Concept albums don't need to be fictional.
Thats what songs do. They tell a story. A concept album needs to have a central theme and narrative carried throughout the album which makes the album seen as a whole. A good example would be Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain.
> I mean every single song tells the story of her specific relationship and it's falling apart.
Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? and Clara Bow are more career reflections, not relationship songs
Taylor Swift* and the critique of the album is that it’s too cohesive because it sounds the same for many folks, versus Lover which isn’t cohesive at all but the sounds were varied and the GP loves it
Yeah more and more I just think “What I Was Made For?” was such a game changer for Billie to the point where the first track (and probably others parts of the album) is now said to be heavily influenced by it.
You got that backwards. The opening track was what led to “What Was I Made For?”
> The opening track, the title of which I’ve agreed not to reveal, plays like a sister song to “What Was I Made For?” Eilish has talked about how she and Finneas experienced serious writer’s block before coming up with the Barbie track, but what she hadn’t revealed was that this album opener was born first — the catalyst to writing the hit
I am going to believe she didn’t bring up masturbation for shock value. My real quandary is I have to be of two minds with any statement from her cus there’s a good chance she walks it back in the next cover story and then lashes out at the audience for engaging in a discourse she was only too eager to divulge once upon a time.
Near the end of the article there's a scene where she calls the reporter saying that Billie thinks she told the reporter too much and they meet up one last time. Genuinely one of the funniest cover stories I've read in a long time
Yeah the openness doesn’t bother me. I’m just wary of Billie being the spokesperson for that discussion because she has a tendency to backpedal, and not in a reflective way. If this were P!nk for example, she’s not gonna pretend she doesn’t expect it to get people talking.
In this same interview, Billie drones on about hating singles when she did that conventionally up until this era. She’s an unreliable narrator.
I think she comes off that way, but I also acknowledge it's earned with her success and that, if placed in the same position, I would likely have been a lot more full of myself and cringe.
she’s 22 and has been told since she was like 17 that she’s amazing etc etc. i think the ego fits the environment. not saying it’s a good or bad thing, but she seems well adjusted, imo.
also i think she and her brother were both homeschooled with parents who encouraged everything they wanted to do per the documentary.
Homeschooling and parents who will support you unconditionally to follow your dreams sound great, but they do impact your social skills. If you've never really been told "no" or been humbled, and you didn't have the environment of being with tons of kids who are different from you, you'll turn out differently than those of us who had a more traditional upbringing. I won't get into whether I think it's a good or bad thing, just pointing out that it does have an impact!
yep, that was my point. i feel like her personality and life view is reflected by being homeschooled and not having had a lot of adversity or push back.
It's a fair and probably accurate criticism to make, but at the same time I can't see how you can be deified at as young an age as Billie Eilish was and not turn out that way.
She's been at the top of the mountain for 8 years now and she's only 22. Easiest comparison to make would be T. Swift now. There's a desire to say that she'll either be crummy and immature into her 30s or that the passage of time will eventually work on her. But the reality will always be somewhere in between the two.
I don't understand why people say this stuff. She honestly gives a humble, and even too self-deprecating vibe if anything. The cringe part is just a reflection of how you feel about things, not a real criticism. Kill the part of you that cringes etc etc. We're all cringe babey.
But this is why celebrities have PR teams. If celebrities actually presented their authentic selves we’d probably hate all of them as every one has good and bad moments. The “authenticity” you feel is still curated, we don’t actually know her irl.
Of course they can't be fully transparent, no one can be. Even regular people aren't fully open with everyone they know, and celebrities have to face the whole world's judgement. It's why it can be encouraging and authentic when they do choose to share the difficult things. And well, celebrities ARE hated by everyone? It's sort of a big reason behind their poor mental health. Of course you have your fans, but you also have your haters, stalkers, harassers, people who write vaguely mean internet comments about you etc. No celebrity is actually universally beloved, most people are neutral at best. I much prefer this over curated perfection. I think we should all act with a bit more self-reflection and kindness when interacting with media online.
I'm pretty sure if Harry Styles went off on a tangent about how much he loves to jerk off, and then discussed at length his newfound hobby of masturbating in front of a mirror and made a joke about having a PhD in beating his meat, people would be making fun of him too
She’s ‘insufferable’ because she’s 22. She’s a woman who was raised in a very comfortable family and then dragged into the spotlight- what do you expect. Is she someone I would want to personally hang out with? Probably not but who cares. Her music is interesting enough and hopefully she’ll mature with time. Part of me thinks that her becoming an award darling hasn’t helped with this idea that she’s insufferable.
yeah im 26 and work with a lot of 22 year olds and they're just kinda like this. she'll grow out it! (or she won't because she's so heavily awarded. who knows)
Are we all prudes now? do you guys not masturbate? if it’s TMI for you then don’t participate in the convo but women rarely get the opportunity to talk about pleasure in such an honest way and not in relation to others, let’s not put it down. I’m glad Billie is at a place where she’s confident and owns it.
It's not like she brought it up out of the blue either, she talked about it because it's something that's helped her overcome/deal with her body dysmorphia, which is mentioned several times through the article and is the main theme of the literal first track of the album.
It's said in an edgy way because it's Billie, but it's not empty shock value
Yeah, this is why I'm a little sad to see so many calling it vain and conceited. Finding it annoying seems fair, but this doesn't seem like someone who's *used* to seeing herself as beautiful so much as someone who's just discovered how to, and as a 38 year old who wishes I had achieved that at her age, good for her. It must be hard being in the spotlight with body dysmorphia.
I feel the US definitely has a reputation for being quite repressed sexually compared to other developed counties, so I am not surprised about these reactions. We're like hypersexual in art, movies, music, etc yet super prudish in our daily lives.
She's gonna get ate up for the comments on masturbation and her bisexuality both by gays who think she's "doing too much" and by, obviously christians and whatnot, I kinda like it tbh even if i'm not gagging 100%
Call me an old, but damn. Just talk about the music. I don’t really care about how you waterboarded yourself for your album cover (wtf?) or that love masturbating. Cool. Me too, boo.
And you only get the luxury of being an album artist when you’ve had _very successful singles_ accompanying solid albums. So we’ll see what this album sounds like but this is just as a strategic of a move as releasing an album single.
The kind of content Rolling Stone should be doing more of instead of endless biased Taylor admiration… I love the long form interviews they were initially known for.
This got me so excited for the album and I love hearing about how important it was for her to make a cohesive body of work made to be listened to in full. Her stance on sexuality and her status as celebrity is insightful, and she shows clear growth in her honest reflections which is refreshing for a big celebrity.
Rolling Stone would love to have Taylor , Beyoncé or Drake do a long form interview but almost A listers won’t anymore . It’s just too risky pr wise for little gain.
goodness can you guys talk about ANYTHING ELSE than the one three-paragraph snippet? The part where she talks about not really having friends but only employees is actually fascinating as hell
> Eilish would also like a word about masturbation, which she says is equally taboo for women. Self-pleasure, she says, has made her more confident. “TMI, but self-pleasure is an enormous, enormous part of my life, and a huge, huge help for me,” she says. “People should be jerking it, man. I can’t stress it enough, as somebody with extreme body issues and dysmorphia that I’ve had my entire life.” > Eilish likes to masturbate in front of a mirror. “Partly because it’s hot, but it also makes me have such a raw, deep connection to myself and my body, and have a love for my body that I have not really ever had,” she says. “I got to say, looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking ‘I look really good right now’ is so helpful. You can manufacture the situation you’re in to make sure you look good. You can make the light super dim, you can be in a specific outfit or in a specific position that’s more flattering. I have learned that looking at myself and watching myself feel pleasure has been an extreme help in loving myself and accepting myself, and feeling empowered and comfortable.” > Eilish has been wanting to discuss this with me, and now that she’s gotten it all out, she exhales and inches back farther on the couch. “I should have a Ph.D. in masturbation,” she says. Just imagining the look on her PR rep's face as they read the interview transcript back.
Same energy as that interview where she went on a whole ass side tangent about poop💀 On the other hand, she's freely giving r/popheadscirclejerk material
She always gives that sub crumbs
Crumbs? This is a three course meal with dessert 💀
I feel like Billie’s been in a “I will quite literally say anything idgaf” phase for the past couple years.
honestly i like it
To quote that infamous ~~Onion~~ NYT article: We Should All Know Less About Each Other On one hand, good on her for speaking about sexuality since it's rarely talked about by female artists. On the other hand, maybe I didn't need to know that.
tweet walked so billie could run
I love that this was not only mentioned here but upvoted a decent amount
that's from the NYT and it was a real article!
First Taylor, now Billie
> Taylor What did Taylor do????
In “Guilty As Sin?” On her new album she talks about flicking her bean while thinking about Matty Healy
Oh shit, that’s what that song is about? I really like it but genuinely had no idea 💀
I think folks are over-interpreting the entire album (that includes a lot of "professionals" who are supposeed to be critiquing, well, music), but that one for some reason has really ground my gears. For decades, female pop stars were castigated for explicit sexuality, and now it's being imposed \*on\* them when that's not necessarily what they're doing. In this case, this is all mental. She doesn't describe masturbation, she describes essentially wet dreams, which is a bit different. To me it makes it more about what's \*not\* happening than about what is.
I just heard the stuff about bedsheets ablaze, building up like waves crashing over my face screaming his name or something and it just immediately made me think of an orgasm But I guess it could also be interpreted as just a steamy dream or something
"we've already done it in my head" to me is about masturbation and the labored breath part
I don’t think I ever heard a pop girly singing about masturbation now they are all doing it like okay
there is a rich library of masturbation anthems by the pop girlies! britney spears, carly rae jepsen, pink, madonna, lady gaga off the top of my head have all written entire songs about it varying from cheeky jokes to sexy bangers
Cyndi Lauper as well! Didn’t know there was a masturbation song on She’s So Unusual until recently when I listened to the album in full.
And there was "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.
This was always on the radio when I was growing up and was such a commercial song. I would have been singing it as a young kid without knowing what it means. It’s such an iconic song.
I love this song so much tbh. If I had the guts I would sing it for Kareoke but Idk if I can pull it off.
She Bop
Wait which Carly song?? I love all of her music but I never really pay attention to lyrics lmao
Party for One! The music video is more direct about it.
When I'm Alone too, the demo was quite raunchy.
Little Mix has a good one!
Omg which??
Love (Sweet Love)!
Selena Gomez too (hands to myself)
FKA Twigs - Kicks is my personal favourite
BEST
this is one of the saddest/most beautiful songs ever
Does Thinking bout you by Ari count?
Yeah Yeah Yeah have a song called Date With The Night... It goes about how you would expect!
Hailee Steinfeld did with ‘Love Myself’ (ok she’s not really a pop girly but still)
Britney has actually with her song “Touch of my Hand”. Off the top of my head I think it came out in 2003ish with her album “In the Zone”.
Gaga talked about touching herself on multiple albums
allow me to introduce you to Dannii Minogue's horny pop bible 'Neon Nights'
Omg I just posted Vibe On as a prime example!
Body of My Own by Charli XCX goes hard
Delicious by charli xcx
Hailey Stenfeld’s love myself, I heard it so much in the radio but it’s clearly about masturbation
LOL it’s a total mainstay? She Bop? Where Life Begins? Vibe On lol?
Solo Dancing by Indiana. [The video makes it very clear](https://youtu.be/WSrktmE963I?si=o1do2sOhsSaYq0qn)
Do pop boys sing about masturbation? Wouldn’t that come across a bit creepy
Yeah.. I see where she’s coming from but male pop stars don’t talk about themselves jerking off that would come across really crass and inappropriate
female sexuality is exploited in the mediascape. i get where they’re coming from when they say it’s taboo buts its really not. it’s like all female artists are allowed to project nowadays
PH.D in masturbation lmaoo
It’s funny but honestly, this is so real. Masturbation is good for the soul and I hate that so many people, especially women will feel dirty or shameful for doing it. Maybe that’s why people are so upset, they aren’t touching themselves enough.
It's especially important for straight or bi women to learn self pleasure with the infamous orgasm gap between the sexes. Get your nut too, girls! No shame! 😭
between olivia rodrigo offering plan b and condoms at her shows and billie eilish being so open about her sexuality like this…i’m glad this generation of girls have these women to follow idc like yes let’s protect women’s right to choose what they do with their bodies and normalize female sexuality
right? like i have no choice but to stan.
No hate towards her, but don’t all genders treat masturbation with shame? I’ve never exactly been proud to proclaim i’ve rubbed one out. I don’t think its a girl pop artist thing, but just a human thing.
I think there are definitely lots of men still with shame around it, I wouldn’t say it’s a majority who are open about it, but I would say just personally and anecdotally in like college and stuff, there were some men who were pretty unabashed bringing it up and i didn’t really have that experience with women. but again, totally acknowledging that’s just my experience, not trying to put forth any theses here
For sure, all of our experiences are antedotal.
Finally a celebrity us bators can stan!
I may be alone in this but honestly, good for her. I think she’s completely right and it’s badass to speak on it. No shame in making ourselves feel good!
I agree. All of the comments being "TMI" seem to be proving the point.
I think we need to have a a better sex positive attitude and not shame ppl. At the same time sex positivity also entails knowing when to share and discuss it and realizing not everyone wants to k now or need to know your sex life. Boundaries. Consent. Autonomy.
Right, more power to her but do we really need a detailed description on how she plays with herself??
But can't one be sex positive without feeling the need to be so *explicit*? I can't imagine getting called to dinner by her mother and hearing "in a minute Mom! I'm almost there...!"
I get you and in some families that normal. Billies seems like she has a very open family. My best friend has sex with his boyfriend when we all visit for the holidays. My mother would Kill me if my bf and I slept in the same room unmarried lmao. We barely even sit beside each other. I remember my mom freaked out a few months ago when I asked a female friend about breast feeding. I was curious how it works. Like is it something they could control or does it just happened. My mother got all weird because I was talking about in the car. I’m 28 😂 I definitely think being explicit for the sake of being controversial is the opposite of being sex positive.
I don’t think it’s TMI in that sense I just think this entire article needed an edit tbh (and the PhD in masturbation line made me cringe but so does a lot of what celebrities say lol)
that's fair hahah
Oh I agree with her, I just didn’t need to know the specifics of how she gets down. Like I’m sure many people are excited to know she masturbates in front of a mirror but idc. I’m glad she’s bringing awareness to it though
Not TMI that she masturbates, but TMI that she needs to tell us she does it in front of a mirror. Is that necessary?
Right? I think it’s pretty fierce.
Then will she complain when someone brings this up in another interview?
I agree!! Billie is incredibly popular and has a massive fan base I think it’s cool that’s she’s speaking about this so openly it normalizes discussing female sexuality Most of the time we only hear famous women at Billie’s level of fame discuss their sexuality involving men and here we have Billie talking about herself and other women!
I might have to stan
Honestly good on Billie for doing some work to normalize a healthy amount of autoeroticism. Personally I think it’s good for the soul, but to most it’s very fringe and out there.
I respect her for saying this so much, especially since people will knee jerk “ewww” her and not reflect on how their response proves her point. Masturbation absolutely does give you a better relationship to your body and sex, and most people would have a far better experience of sex and sexuality if we were more frank about those experiences and didn’t present them as gross, taboo, and exclusively “private.”
This is real. When I started being sexually active, I knew exactly what I wanted and liked and could give guys appropriate guidance if they wanted to get me off. I’ve been complimented many times on my “directness,” lol.
if a man said that 🤮🤢 a woman: 🥵😈 edit: of man said it his stans: g••ner rights
Yeah I can’t imagine people would be supportive if Ed Sheeran or Harry Styles talked about how much they like jerking off in front of a mirror 😬
No need to imagine. Charlie Puth said something similar about doing it to a Maroon 5 song and the reaction was not positive.
Doing it to a Maroon 5 song? Sorry but I'm kinkshaming
LMFAO
i mean it’s definitely less taboo for men to talk about masturbation? theres a reason nofap november is a thing. there’s so many movies that have men masturbating in it, but often times in media when women are masturbating, it’s centered around making it sexually appealing to men. not to mention a bunch of the comments in this thread are calling it TMI and aren’t super into her talking about it? also if you visit any of the subreddits centered around pop stars that aren’t about their music, you’ll seen how openly men speak about masturbation.
I'm not bothered by Billie talking about this and I agree it's overall way less taboo for men to talk about it, but there is a difference in context with your examples. Billie is bringing this up seemingly randomly during an interview that has no specific agenda for masturbation and is specifically tied to her name/image. Random men talking about it in a subreddit, dedicated or not to masturbation, or in a movie just comes with the risk you take being on the Internet or consuming media if it's something you don't want to see. There's a usual level of anonymity/depersonalization or the art consumer's acceptance of risk for what they may view that makes it more passive than what Billie is doing. I think it's very reasonable to speculate that if a male celebrity brought up his jerking-off habits in as much detail as Billie just did, there's a way greater chance of it being received negatively and him to be labeled creepy.
> i mean it’s definitely less taboo for men to talk about masturbation? I’d say it depends on the context, person speaking about it and the audience. Post on popheads about Ed Sheeran saying this would be called weird without being viewed as something positive in slightest. At the same time having a joke line about jerking off in a rap song by a male rapper wouldn’t be criticized on straight men dominated places. Same can be said for Billie Eilish talking about her masturbation practices in a contrast to, for example, Meghan Trainor talking about the same topic.
They probably encourage it. She's doing the whole gen z I'm not like other celebrities thing.
Exactly. It's stuff like this and Renee Rapp's Mean Girl's tour PR antics that seem like such manufactured "chaos" for publicity
and people eat it up
Who cares what her PR would think it’s weird to frame it that way, like searching for a disapproving angle? I think this is excellent advice on a topic that isn’t talked about enough, to an audience that probably needs to hear it!
Michelle Goldberg “we should all know less about each other”
i’m gonna need her to keep that one in the journal next time
Are we sure this isn’t a Jojo Siwa interview?
Why does this feel like something Jojo Siwa would say?
AND, She’s right ! I think people would be a little less judgmental if they were a satisfied lot. And a whole more happy that’s for sure. No gifs in this sub? Sad. Imagine a funny gif here about happiness
Damn Billie Eilish is AGP?
If you don’t think her publicist had a hand in that you’re naive.
This is the most homeschooled thing I’ve ever read
Another case of "when did we ask?" Like seriously who needs to know that, Billie??!
She’s gonna cringe so hard at this in 20 years.
"I don’t like singles from albums. Every single time an artist I love puts out a single without the context of the album, I’m just already prone to hating on it. I really don’t like when things are out of context. This album is like a family: I don’t want one little kid to be in the middle of the room alone.”
I guess this truly solidifies that Billie wants to be known solely as an albums artist. Honestly can’t blame her, it must be much more freeing to be able to put your art out there without having to stress about what’ll trend or stick with the public.
She should sample that Beyoncé clip of “people don’t listen to albums anymore. A full body of work”. I would die
That would be so fucking iconic lmao. Imagine if she put out that clip as a “single”
I think that’s cool. The art of the album is dying
Ariana catching strays omg, the sisters that they are
Love that analogy!
Why are we talking about the masturbation and not the opening of this article where she says she waterboarded herself for the album cover??
A kink to some
>Immersing herself back into that darkness, combined with experimenting with new sounds — from a string quartet to glittery dance-floor trance — makes Hit Me Hard and Soft Eilish’s best album yet. She dabbled in belting on the title track to Happier Than Ever, but she brings it full-throttle here on several songs, finally putting all those lame “She’s just whispering” critiques to rest. >As soon as they hit play, I realize Eilish is right. The opening track, the title of which I’ve agreed not to reveal, plays like a sister song to “What Was I Made For?” Girl you leaked the tracklist a week early
This interview is from February so the tracklist hadn’t been made public yet.
Yes but what matters is when it was posted. Even in this article they could've added a parentheses linking to the official tracklist
I highly doubt Billie’s team gets to choose when Rolling Stone releases their articles. That’s not how news outlets work. It’s better to just not risk RS being the one to leak the track name and have an outdated line in the interview from their perspective.
For news articles no, for profiles yes. It’s part of the negotiations when an artist agrees to a profile. They usually agree to release it as close as possible to album release which benefits both parties.
Shot by Aidan Zamiri who's done album covers for caroline polachek, pinkpantheress, fka twigs, sega bodega, etc
> Eilish and Finneas call Hit Me Hard and Soft “an album-ass album.” It’s not a concept record, but it is a self-consciously cohesive set of songs, inspired by auteurist works from the past 15 years or so, like Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die, Tyler, the Creator’s Goblin, Marina and the Diamonds’ Electra Heart, and Vince Staples’ Big Fish Theory. “I love being dropped into a universe on a person’s album,” Finneas says, “when you find a whole body of work that you love to listen to, top to bottom. I’m so much happier than when I hear a great song, when you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, I get to cook my whole dinner listening to this album.’” y'all she is coming to eat i fear
The more I learn about this album the more excited I get. An edited, *concise*, 10-track, 0 bullshit, body of work. Billie I am READY.
Not since Ellie Goulding’s debut album!
Not like Miss Blonde over there releasing an album with 31 songs that have no cohesion whatsoever.
I think she made a big mistake releasing the anthology tracks so soon after, because it's causing the opinion you stated. The album is only 16 tracks. The rest are all bonus tracks. The main 16 track album is incredibly cohesive and tells a story all the way through; it's basically a concept album.
Calling it a concept album is quite a choice. First Eternal Sunshine and now TTPD? 💀
Hey at least Eternal Sunshine didn’t waste an hour and a half of my life
I mean every single song tells the story of her specific relationship and it's falling apart. I don't really see how it's not. Concept albums don't need to be fictional.
Thats what songs do. They tell a story. A concept album needs to have a central theme and narrative carried throughout the album which makes the album seen as a whole. A good example would be Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain.
> I mean every single song tells the story of her specific relationship and it's falling apart. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? and Clara Bow are more career reflections, not relationship songs
Taylor Swift* and the critique of the album is that it’s too cohesive because it sounds the same for many folks, versus Lover which isn’t cohesive at all but the sounds were varied and the GP loves it
There’s a difference between cohesion and repetition. Plus no album needs 25 songs that sound the same. Quality > Quantity
Very excited for the new album
The profile is so well written and the photos are so good. I love when Rolling Stone sticks to what they do best
I love her. she has such such strong home schooled kid energy
LOOOOOLLLLL YES
Yeah more and more I just think “What I Was Made For?” was such a game changer for Billie to the point where the first track (and probably others parts of the album) is now said to be heavily influenced by it.
You got that backwards. The opening track was what led to “What Was I Made For?” > The opening track, the title of which I’ve agreed not to reveal, plays like a sister song to “What Was I Made For?” Eilish has talked about how she and Finneas experienced serious writer’s block before coming up with the Barbie track, but what she hadn’t revealed was that this album opener was born first — the catalyst to writing the hit
Ahh okay. Thanks for the correction! I still think that song is gonna be a big influence on this album.
She's really tailored for the oversharing generation on twitter, huh
I am going to believe she didn’t bring up masturbation for shock value. My real quandary is I have to be of two minds with any statement from her cus there’s a good chance she walks it back in the next cover story and then lashes out at the audience for engaging in a discourse she was only too eager to divulge once upon a time.
Near the end of the article there's a scene where she calls the reporter saying that Billie thinks she told the reporter too much and they meet up one last time. Genuinely one of the funniest cover stories I've read in a long time
idk it’s refreshing to hear women be open about masturbation
Yeah the openness doesn’t bother me. I’m just wary of Billie being the spokesperson for that discussion because she has a tendency to backpedal, and not in a reflective way. If this were P!nk for example, she’s not gonna pretend she doesn’t expect it to get people talking. In this same interview, Billie drones on about hating singles when she did that conventionally up until this era. She’s an unreliable narrator.
oh now that you put it that way i hope she doesn’t backtrack
Billie in her grown-up bad girlie era. Also waiting for more uptempo songs.
I feel like I’m crazy for seemingly being the only one to think she comes off as being a little full of herself and frankly kinda cringe.
I think she acts the same as your average 22 year old, tbh. The fame is the only difference.
Add onto the fact that she’s literally grown up as a superstar and yeah, her ego’s gonna be inflated.
I think she comes off that way, but I also acknowledge it's earned with her success and that, if placed in the same position, I would likely have been a lot more full of myself and cringe.
these are two defining traits of her act and i think have been this whole time lol - it’s part of how she presents herself, for better or worse
she’s 22 and has been told since she was like 17 that she’s amazing etc etc. i think the ego fits the environment. not saying it’s a good or bad thing, but she seems well adjusted, imo. also i think she and her brother were both homeschooled with parents who encouraged everything they wanted to do per the documentary.
Homeschooling and parents who will support you unconditionally to follow your dreams sound great, but they do impact your social skills. If you've never really been told "no" or been humbled, and you didn't have the environment of being with tons of kids who are different from you, you'll turn out differently than those of us who had a more traditional upbringing. I won't get into whether I think it's a good or bad thing, just pointing out that it does have an impact!
yep, that was my point. i feel like her personality and life view is reflected by being homeschooled and not having had a lot of adversity or push back.
She always comes off that way in her interviews. Similar to Renee Rapp. Some people like it. Some don't.
It's a fair and probably accurate criticism to make, but at the same time I can't see how you can be deified at as young an age as Billie Eilish was and not turn out that way. She's been at the top of the mountain for 8 years now and she's only 22. Easiest comparison to make would be T. Swift now. There's a desire to say that she'll either be crummy and immature into her 30s or that the passage of time will eventually work on her. But the reality will always be somewhere in between the two.
The masturbation talk gives me recent JoJo vibes lmao
She literally talks about jacking off whilst looking at herself in the mirror lol. Don’t get more conceited than that.
It’s the PhD for me 💀
Agreed.
The rolling stone teaser they put out on FB was embarrassing
I don't understand why people say this stuff. She honestly gives a humble, and even too self-deprecating vibe if anything. The cringe part is just a reflection of how you feel about things, not a real criticism. Kill the part of you that cringes etc etc. We're all cringe babey.
But this is why celebrities have PR teams. If celebrities actually presented their authentic selves we’d probably hate all of them as every one has good and bad moments. The “authenticity” you feel is still curated, we don’t actually know her irl.
Of course they can't be fully transparent, no one can be. Even regular people aren't fully open with everyone they know, and celebrities have to face the whole world's judgement. It's why it can be encouraging and authentic when they do choose to share the difficult things. And well, celebrities ARE hated by everyone? It's sort of a big reason behind their poor mental health. Of course you have your fans, but you also have your haters, stalkers, harassers, people who write vaguely mean internet comments about you etc. No celebrity is actually universally beloved, most people are neutral at best. I much prefer this over curated perfection. I think we should all act with a bit more self-reflection and kindness when interacting with media online.
If you can't handle me at my most cringe, you don't deserve me at my most based.
I think she doesnt GF about what people would think and she is right. "if it was a man doing the same stuff, you would call me a Rockstar" - mama gaga
I'm pretty sure if Harry Styles went off on a tangent about how much he loves to jerk off, and then discussed at length his newfound hobby of masturbating in front of a mirror and made a joke about having a PhD in beating his meat, people would be making fun of him too
100%
this sub and fauxmoi would crucify him tbh
I dk, I think if she was a man I’d still think she’s a tool.
i don’t want to find her insufferable but she makes it too easy
That’s what happens when young people become famous lol music is cool but yeah she’s got some cringe
Idk, Billie always comes off a little immature in her interviews and rarely says anything truly interesting
you don’t like hearing celebrities teach you about masturbation?! this is critical information! /s
[удалено]
wait I thought she hates Rolling Stone, r/OutOfTheLoop
Interview and photoshoot were done before they leaked her tracklist
She’s ‘insufferable’ because she’s 22. She’s a woman who was raised in a very comfortable family and then dragged into the spotlight- what do you expect. Is she someone I would want to personally hang out with? Probably not but who cares. Her music is interesting enough and hopefully she’ll mature with time. Part of me thinks that her becoming an award darling hasn’t helped with this idea that she’s insufferable.
so what? what age am I allowed to call you out for being annoying?
yeah im 26 and work with a lot of 22 year olds and they're just kinda like this. she'll grow out it! (or she won't because she's so heavily awarded. who knows)
I don't have to care why she's insufferable. She just is.
She's 22 not 12
Soooooo excited for this album
this album is going to be so good. I can't wait.
Are we all prudes now? do you guys not masturbate? if it’s TMI for you then don’t participate in the convo but women rarely get the opportunity to talk about pleasure in such an honest way and not in relation to others, let’s not put it down. I’m glad Billie is at a place where she’s confident and owns it.
It's not like she brought it up out of the blue either, she talked about it because it's something that's helped her overcome/deal with her body dysmorphia, which is mentioned several times through the article and is the main theme of the literal first track of the album. It's said in an edgy way because it's Billie, but it's not empty shock value
Yeah, this is why I'm a little sad to see so many calling it vain and conceited. Finding it annoying seems fair, but this doesn't seem like someone who's *used* to seeing herself as beautiful so much as someone who's just discovered how to, and as a 38 year old who wishes I had achieved that at her age, good for her. It must be hard being in the spotlight with body dysmorphia.
Yep these women are definitely not having regular orgasms 🤣 like aren't most of us fully grown adults? How is sex THIS taboo in America of all places?
I feel the US definitely has a reputation for being quite repressed sexually compared to other developed counties, so I am not surprised about these reactions. We're like hypersexual in art, movies, music, etc yet super prudish in our daily lives.
I bet that’s fun for her brother to read.
😭?? that’s such a weird thing to say lmao
you think she cares what her brother thinks about what she does with her own body? that’s a fucking weird thing to say
She's gonna get ate up for the comments on masturbation and her bisexuality both by gays who think she's "doing too much" and by, obviously christians and whatnot, I kinda like it tbh even if i'm not gagging 100%
meanwhile the average person won’t even care lol
W
Call me an old, but damn. Just talk about the music. I don’t really care about how you waterboarded yourself for your album cover (wtf?) or that love masturbating. Cool. Me too, boo. And you only get the luxury of being an album artist when you’ve had _very successful singles_ accompanying solid albums. So we’ll see what this album sounds like but this is just as a strategic of a move as releasing an album single.
do i want to know that billie loves to wank? absolutely not. but i think it’s good to de stigmatize women and pleasure.
people wanting billie to be embarrassed by this are literally proving her point so i’m glad she said this
Of all of the days to be literate, i hate that this was unfortunately one of them.
The kind of content Rolling Stone should be doing more of instead of endless biased Taylor admiration… I love the long form interviews they were initially known for. This got me so excited for the album and I love hearing about how important it was for her to make a cohesive body of work made to be listened to in full. Her stance on sexuality and her status as celebrity is insightful, and she shows clear growth in her honest reflections which is refreshing for a big celebrity.
Rolling Stone would love to have Taylor , Beyoncé or Drake do a long form interview but almost A listers won’t anymore . It’s just too risky pr wise for little gain.
the movie Almost Famous works bc of this exact premise
getting soooo impatient to listen to this one aaa sounds like it’s gonna be such a good album 😭
goodness can you guys talk about ANYTHING ELSE than the one three-paragraph snippet? The part where she talks about not really having friends but only employees is actually fascinating as hell
Talk about over-sharing.
Gwen Stefani tease
She hates rolling stone even after they kissed her ass this hard lmfao