Billie Eilish broke social media records with a photo she shared on March 17. 

The subject of the viral post: She had dyed her hair.

Eilish’s photo is now the fastest Instagram post to reach 1 million likes, with her post passing the milestone in just six minutes. Within six hours, the photo sat at 13.2 million likes, her most liked photo since Nov. 2020. And that was only the beginning. 

Roughly 16 hours after her post entered fans’ timelines and feeds, it sat at 16.5 million likes, the sixth-most liked post of all time for the photo-sharing platform. This photo is also the most-liked post made by any female singer, surpassing Ariana Grande’s engagement photo, which sits at 15.6 million likes. 

Fans were quick to comment on her new hairdo, with most compliments making the mark. Here is a compilation for the best, and the not-so-thrilled, reactions from fans and social media users alike. 

COMPARISONS

With any stunning transformation in appearance comes name drops of other celebrities.

One user said Eilish resembled none other than Scarlett Johansson in the 2008 romantic comedy film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” 

Another compared the “Therefore I Am” singer to the drummer for rock band Queen, Roger Taylor. This compliment is strangely sweet and eerily accurate the longer you stare at the two photos side by side. 

The celebrity I am surprised no one mentioned is the 70s starlet Farrah Fawcett, who was a pivotal member of the television trio “Charlie’s Angels.” Fawcett was also known for her feathered curtain bangs, a trend she notoriously started roughly five decades ago, which is why the hairstyle is often coined “Farrah Fawcett Hair.”

Aside from Johansson and the odd runoff reference to Taylor, neither of these were the most mentioned celebrities. Lady Gaga took that title. 

One fan said Eilish looked like she was ready to star in a Gaga biopic.  Another joked by pulling two photos of Gaga, one with green and the other with blonde locks. 

But while some comparisons were sweet and comical, not all were kind. Some posts went a little backhanded, like this post calling Eilish an “off-brand” Lady Gaga.

Comparing celebrities can be a double-edged sword. On one end, artists are their own people, and they should be esteemed as none other than individuals. But compliments and comparisons can be a really good thing if done the right way. They can even boost an artist’s morale if they were possibly unsure about their change in appearance.

SEXUALIZATION OF THE SINGER

Comments on who the celebrity looked like were not limited to prominent figures either.

Comparisons turned domestic when fans began to say Eilish looked like a 50s housewife, which is not necessarily a bad remark on its own. It only got weird when posters called Eilish a MILF, which is an acronym for a mom I’d like to… you know.

Eilish became a legal adult less than two years ago, in Dec. 2019. But there’s an underlying pattern in sexualizing the young singer, even if fans mean no harm by it.

People, particularly young adult men, began to make comments on Eilish’s figure when she was as young as 17 years old. Nobody has to comment on how pedophilic that is, it should be pretty obvious.

Comments about her chest and her figure began as early as summer 2019, shortly after Eilish’s spring to success with her March 2019 single “Bad Guy.” 

Eilish alluded to her discomfort in a July 2019 Calvin Klein ad where she compared her privacy to her larger-than-life clothing choices.

“I never want the world to know everything about me,” she said. “I mean, that’s why I wear big, baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath.”

Nevertheless, Twitter users persisted and made references to her body in 2020 when a paparazzi image surfaced of the singer in a brown tank top and shorts.

One user said Eilish had the body of a “mid-30s wine mom.” Eilish was only 18 years old.

When the “MILF” comments fired away on March 17, it read similarly to the objectification the singer faced in 2019 and 2020. Unfortunately, what makes these posts sting the most is that they are from her own fans, no longer just male keyboard warriors. Eilish wasn’t wearing any revealing clothing either, which wouldn’t have made the comments on her appearance any more justified. 

In essence, many fans became the very thing they sought to destroy in 2019: social media users who were adamant in sexualizing the star.

But while some users rudely compared the singer to others, many knew how to compliment the singer in a tasteful way. They did so using no words at all. Just a little bit of pixie dust. 

To end on a positive note, here are a multitude of ethereal edits made by users to show how Eilish would look with fairy wings. 

Joshua LeBerte is a sophomore studying news media. His column covers national pop culture items and runs regularly.