On Sunday, the pro-life movement revealed itself in one of the most unlikely places: The Grammys.
Joy Villa, a 26-year-old pro-Trump singer, made headlines at last year’s award show, sporting a Make America Great Again dress. This year, she debuted a white dress with a hand painted rainbow depiction of a baby in its mother’s womb. She paired the dress with a purse that had the words “choose life” painted on it.
Villa captioned an Instagram post of the dress: “I believe in loving the child and the mother, and I am proudly #ProLife. There is so much pain out there, but I choose to spread love and hope.”
The painting on the dress was originally done by the singer when she was pregnant at 20 years old. “I hand painted my Pronovias gown with a…recreation of my daughter[‘s] portrait I painted in 2007 at 20 years old 8 months pregnant with my beautiful daughter, whom I adopted out to a wonderful family,” Villa explained in the caption.
“I’m incredibly blessed to have given life, and I hope to encourage anyone in a similar situation to choose adoption,” she continued. “This year I chose to make a statement on the red carpet like I always do. I’m all about life.”
Although Villa may have received positive feedback from those within the pro-life community, many on the liberal left were angered by her outfit.
“Yeah, she literally walked around with a uterus on her dress. But sporting human anatomy on her gown wasn’t to celebrate women’s bodies — it was actually meant to shame those who choose to have abortions,” commented a writer for Hollywood Life. “Honestly, I can’t say I’m surprised to see the Fox News contributor in such an offensive article of clothing.”
Some of her fellow singers also took to Twitter to express their disapproval:
You’re talentless
You’re an idiot
You look like shit #JoyVillaDid you paint that dress yourself?
Crown by Party City. pic.twitter.com/u1sgabij7x— Jaremi Carey (@PhiPhiOhara) January 29, 2018
Whether you loved her choice, hated it, or wished she had done something different for an awards show, it is safe to say that Villa not only turned heads, but also forced discussion over the issue of abortion.
Photo credit: Ref54 via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
