Phoebe Bridgers has broken her silence on the frenzied response fans had to those pictures of her at LAX airport with Bo Burnham and described it as “abuse”.
Bridgers spoke to Them alongside her boygenius bandmates about fame, queerness, politics, and yes — her frustration at people who claim to be fans and then “abuse” and “bully” her online. Honestly, go off queen. Stan culture needs to die.
Discussing the intensified spotlight on her dating life, Bridgers recalled how she was papped with Burnham at the airport amid speculation she and Paul Mescal had broken up — something fans were already devastated about since the two were the internet’s dream indie couple — and how traumatic the result was.
“I’m coming from a place of literally — I’m feeling it in my body as I’m saying it, but — people with my picture as their Twitter picture, who claim to like my music, fucking bullied me at the airport on the way to my father’s funeral this year,” she said.
“I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me fucking dehumanise me and shame me and fucking bully me on the way to my dad’s wake.”
She pointed out that it was no secret she was grieving her father.
“A lot of the top comments [were] like, ‘Hey, her dad just died, what are you guys doing?’” she said.
Bridgers then said what had clearly been weighing on her for some time.
“If you’re a kid and the internet somehow taught you that that’s an okay thing to do, then of course I hate capitalism and everything that led you to believe that it’s okay to do that,” she said.
But if you’re the type to harass her while pretending to stan her, she has this to say: “I fucking hate you and I hope you grow the fuck up.”
“I don’t have to sit here and be fucking grateful that that happened and that that’s a part of my job,” she continued, praising her bandmates for supporting and validating her through the online turmoil.
“It doesn’t have to be, and it wasn’t five years ago, so I appreciate being able to look at two other people and be like, this is dehumanising abuse, horrible shit.”
Her comments come at a time where it seems the chronically online have less and less boundaries in how they treat celebrities, even their faves.
This isn’t about “cancel culture” any more, it’s literally just about not actively bullying people whose only crime is potentially not being in a relationship with someone you like.
As Bridgers said, grow TF up.
