Phoebe Bridgers has hit out at so-called fans who ‘bullied’ and ‘dehumanized’ her when she was on her way to her father’s funeral.
The singer shared the sad news of her dad’s passing on Instagram on January 3, writing simply: “Rest in peace dad” alongside an old photo of her and her father.
A week later, Bridgers was seen walking through LAX airport with comedian Bo Burnham following speculation that she had split from Irish star Paul Mescal.
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Bridgers said the images, which were taken while she was on her way to her dad’s wake, were shared online by her fans who used them to ‘bully’ and ‘shame’ her during the difficult time.
Speaking to Them magazine, Bridgers said: “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, f***ing bullied me at the airport on the way to my father’s funeral this year.”
She then hit out at the culture of her internet stans thinking its acceptable to pick apart her life like that.
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“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,” Bridgers said.
“I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me f***ing dehumanise me and shame me and f***ing bully me on the way to my dad’s wake.”
Bridgers continued: “It’s not like they didn’t know my dad just died. “A lot of the top comments [were] like, ‘Hey, her dad just died, what are you guys doing?’”
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Bridgers then took time to heap praise on her Boygenius bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, who were also being interviewed, for their support during the tough time.
She said: “I have to say, most of the people I talk to light up my life and remind me what I love about my job, but my two best friends are helping me with the boundary of: I don’t have to sit here and be f***ing grateful that that happened and that that’s a part of my job.
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“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 dehumanizing abuse, horrible s**t.”
Claire Reid