Questions: Society's Obsession with Diminishing Women

Women could use more recognition in the arts. Luckily, there are specific events that cater to that need. Last week was Billboard’s Women in Music event. Featuring various women, the event recognizes women’s achievements in the music industry and community. Huzzah! Women get to be acknowledged! 

The WIM event hands out awards to different artists, creators, producers, and executives for their work. 2022’s biggest honor, Woman of the Year, went to Olivia Rodrigo. Well deserved after releasing an incredible debut EP last year. The nineteen year old is clearly on her way to do great things, including playing a sold out tour this year. 

You would think that at an event dedicated to focusing on women’s achievements, the interview questions would focus on the careers of these accomplished women. To my surprise, I felt that the Olivia Rodrigo interview didn’t really achieve that. Granted, two and a half minutes is an extremely short interview time, but I thought more questions could have been asked about tour and writing music than asking about Taylor Swift. While Rodrigo handled the questions beautifully and managed to promote herself a bit, I felt quite saddened that the interview questions weren’t directed in a productive manner.  
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There was one particular question that ticked me off. For context, Olivia brought up her tour (self promotion queen) and mentioned she was doing cardio to prep. Right after, the interviewer asked Rodrigo if she was on “a diet or detox”. In my opinion, I don't think that question should have been asked. While Olivia mentioned working out, that was in context of building up endurance for touring. While diet is important for everybody, I felt like it didn’t fit into the framework of the tour.  

In all my years of watching artist interviews, I don’t think I’ve come across a single one where a male is asked that. That’s not to say that men aren’t asked these questions and don’t feel the societal pressure to look a certain way. Of course they do! However, I think we can all agree that women feel it way more than men. 

I posted a TikTok with the clip of the interview and my reaction to it saying “this doesn’t seem very women supporting women”. Which was practically the first sentence out of the interviewer’s mouth. To my surprise, the TikTok kind of blew up. It currently has over 650k views and over 300 comments. 

The majority of people seem to be agreeing with me. It’s 2022. We all thought we left the diet and detox talk back in the mid 2000s. A couple of people brought up that Olivia mentioned exercising, but as I said, it doesn’t really fit into the context of prepping for tour. 

Take a guess at the (small) disagreeable group that left comments like “how is this offensive” “who cares” and “men get this too”. Yup, it’s men. If you can’t figure out why you shouldn’t ask a young singer about her diet when she hasn’t brought it up herself and has no relevance, it’s time to get a clue. 

The comments about men getting asked about dieting referred to superhero movie interviews, which is a whole different ballgame. Acting vs. singing. Again, I’m not saying men never get asked these questions, but women get a hell of a lot more questions and pressure than they do. I will also point out, that when men are asked about their health, it’s mostly about working out, not dieting. This points to the societal standard of men being expected to be muscular, which is a problem in and of itself. Men are asked about getting bigger. When it comes to women, they’re primarily asked about diet. They’re asked about losing weight. Women are also expected to be smaller. That my dear friends, is the problem. 

If I were an interviewer, I would ask more questions about an artist’s art. That’s what everybody’s there for and what I’m most curious about. What are you writing? What’s the vibe? What’s the inspiration? Not what diet are you following? 

I’m curious to hear other people’s thoughts and reactions to this interview. What do you think of these  types of questions being asked in general? Leave a comment with your ideas.