In the public eye, girls and women with strong perspectives are

The words of Billie Eilish — “In the public eye, girls and women with strong perspectives are hated. If you’re a girl with an opinion, people just hate you. There are still people who are afraid of successful women, and that’s so lame.” — burn with both frustration and truth. Spoken by one so young yet already seasoned by fame, they expose an ancient wound: society’s unease with the voices of women who dare to speak boldly and live freely.

The meaning is clear and sorrowful. In the public eye, silence in women is praised as grace, meekness is celebrated as virtue, but strong perspectives are punished as arrogance, defiance, or threat. To hold an opinion is not in itself offensive — until it comes from a girl who refuses to shrink. Eilish unmasks the lingering fear that shadows even the modern world: the fear of women who succeed, who rise above expectation, who claim the space that was long denied them.

History bears witness to this same truth. Think of Joan of Arc, who, as a mere peasant girl, led armies with divine conviction. To some she was a saint; to many she was dangerous, hated for daring to command. She was burned at the stake, not merely for her visions, but for her audacity to hold an opinion that challenged the order of men. Or recall Marie Curie, whose pioneering discoveries in science were overshadowed by gossip, jealousy, and dismissal — her brilliance resisted not by reason, but by fear of a successful woman.

Eilish’s words remind us that progress does not end with new laws or shifting fashions; prejudice lingers in whispers, in criticism, in mockery of young women who speak too loud or shine too brightly. To call this “so lame” is both youthful slang and timeless truth: it is shameful, petty, and unworthy of a just society. Yet by naming it, by refusing silence, she joins the long line of voices that pierce through centuries of resistance.

Let this wisdom echo across generations: never shrink from strong perspectives, never despise the opinion of a woman, and never fear her success. For the world that fears powerful women is a world still chained to weakness. Billie Eilish, with the courage of youth, cries aloud what many have lived and suffered: that equality is not yet complete, and that only when every girl may speak without hate, and every woman may rise without fear, will freedom truly be born.