From Sabrina Carpenter’s Lolita shoots to Olivia Rodrigo’s babydoll dresses, a hyper-infantilised aesthetic is back. But is this subversive fashion or “baby-baiting” designed to ignite the algorithm?
The male gaze is back – and it’s more frightening than ever. In 2025, Sabrina Carpenter appeared in a Lolita-style photoshoot. And then there was the strange warping of powerhouse vocalist Ariana Grande’s voice, skewing it into a Galinda-inspired ‘baby voice’ for the press tour of Wicked.
Now, pop star Olivia Rodrigo is under scrutiny for wearing a baby doll dress and bloomers on stage, while rolling around and lifting the hemline to reveal her underwear. She performed at Barcelona’s Teatro Greco for Spotify’s Billions Club on May 9th in a babydoll style dress by Chemena Kamali, the creative director of Chloé – and the internet is popping off with debate.
Commenters are arguing about whether women should be allowed to choose what they wear – the answer to that is: don’t be silly, of course they can and should. Though these commentators are missing the point: we should not be asking if they can, we should be considering why this aesthetic is on the rise.
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Critics globally have been taking to their keyboards to type out their takes. Rolling Stone’s Maya Georgi responded to the criticism, writing: “The internet melted down this week because Rodrigo chose to have a sense of fashion.” While Aiyana Ishmael, for Cosmopolitan, dismissed the concerns as originating from “bad faith critics”.
We can agree that it wastes time and energy to question whether a woman should wear these garments, as female agency should be given primacy and respect. Let women like Rodrigo wear what they want. But why are we seeing a resurgence of this aesthetic now?
The babydoll dress first emerged in the 1940s as a functional short nightie, with the cropped hemline a response to wartime fabric shortages. Initially it was a symbol of infantilised innocence, which then evolved into a potent political statement during the 1990s “Kinderwhore” aesthetic.
Pioneered by artists like Courtney Love, the dress was co-opted as a subversive tool to reclaim girlhood, by pairing “pretty” doll-like lace with smeared makeup and heavy boots, wearers intentionally disrupted traditional gender expectations. A middle finger up at their own forced sexualisation.
With Love’s performances chewed up and spat out the polished and pretty aesthetics the male gaze lusts for. The Hole front-woman also spoke out in 2005 against Harvey Weinstein years before his prosecution.
As the feminist adage goes: the personal is political, and that extends from finances right through to the clothing women choose to wear. Even the concept of women wearing trousers was a political movement.
These sartorial rebellions had a purpose – and we must consider the purpose behind the choice to present an infantilised aesthetic. And so Rodrigo, Carpenter and Grande’s infantilisation serves a purpose too. Is this just rage-baiting? Yes, absolutely – and with that comes attention, then income. These women celebrities are just playing the game that thrives off viral moments on social media.
Women wearing childish clothing is not the issue. Critics have been slamming the outfit as “baby baiting”. One fan said: “The dress wasn’t the problem, it’s the dress paired with the bloomers and on stage adult behaviour.” Whereas another writes that the stage performance had “p*edophilia-induced imagery”.
“Cute” girlhood tropes, like this resurging babydoll trend, are in and of themselves innocent – but there is a sinister cohort in society, beyond women’s control, that sees these aesthetics on adult women, and contorts it into a crime.
The hyper-sexualisation of, say, Carpenter’s lyrics or Rodrigo’s lifting of her hem are the actions of an adult, but there is a sick element online that eats this content up – and it sets algorithm alight with controversy.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
