Bella Thorne Calls out Double Standards After ‘Shake It’ Music Video Temporarily Removed From YouTube (Exclusive)

Bella Thorne’s music video for her new song “Shake It” was meant to be two minutes and 45 seconds of fun to get people feeling “a little bit fabulous” during a difficult time, so the singer was shocked and “annoyed” to see it get taken down by YouTube temporarily not long after its release last week, she told PopCulture in a new interview.

The video, which Thorne also directed, features steamy scenes with adult actress Abella Danger after a wedding gone hilariously wrong, and is meant to represent some of the “best women in [Thorne’s] life and random nights” having fun together. So when she first saw it had been taken down by the video streaming platform, Thorne immediately spoke out against the societal double standard against women’s sexuality she saw being enforced once again.

She told PopCulture, “I think with public platforms, they really have to take a stand — the right stance.” With the world changing and people becoming much more “educated on what is right,” the former Shake It Up star had hoped YouTube would be more supportive. “I’m like, YouTube I love you guys. Like, don’t get stuck in the male misogyny! What is happening?” Thorne said.

She continued, “I can’t shake my a— in a video, but every other rapper can smoke drugs, drive drunk in videos … but you’re gonna take mine down? It’s like, you know what guys, what are you doing here?” The “Lonely” artist continued that YouTube has plenty of violent content that is allowed to stay up without question. “Whether it’s fake or not, even in music videos you have people getting shot in the head, you have serious violence being filmed — showing kids, putting it in their faces, the serious violence,” she explained, adding that when it comes down to “Shake It” being removed, she simply found it “annoying.”

Thorne has plans to release two more songs and videos in March that she told PopCulture will allow her to shed all genre expectations. “In music and acting, it’s this really strict box of ‘OK you’re a girl, you’re pretty, you can dance, so OK.’ … [You can’t] really be anything else but this box that they’re gonna put you in, whatever that box is,” she shared.