I think we’ve all seen it—countless girls in music videos, Miley Cyrus at the VMAs, and many other things of that nature society that likes to deem as “unacceptable.” Though I cannot envision myself twerking in my bedroom to the sounds of ambient music, I’m not going to shame girls who do! Who am I to tell people what to do with their bodies? But a better question is, who is Lily Allen to call out anyone in her new song “Hard Out Here”? Though she argues the same point that I bring forth, her video is clouded with countless video girls being used as “props”—and though she’s trying to be “satirical,” her feminist statement has gone awry!
Mercy Harper, a listener from Texas, said, “I’m particularly concerned with the line, ‘[I] don’t have to shake my [butt] for you, ’cause I’ve got a brain,’ which may imply that women can [only] either be sexual or smart.” According to Allen, there’s no middle! Just because a woman decides to take up any career that may stem from her sexuality, it doesn’t mean that she’s dumb, tasteless or trashy. It means she’s a grown woman and can choose any career path she likes because she’s a human being. Also the lines, “You will find me in the studio and not in the kitchen,” demeans women who enjoy domesticated work. Shaming one group of people to put another group above them is backwards in terms of her “feminist approach.”
In an interview, Lily Allen has admitted (though it was blatantly obvious) that her new song is spiraled from Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” tomfoolery. (For more information about the interview click here.) Olivia Sera from Britain said, “… in the video she is using the exact imagery with her dancers that many complain about. Allen herself, is acting as the ‘male’ role within her video while they dance around her, [so] surely she is just as bad as the males she is singing about because she is acting in the exact same misogynistic manner.”
The video, in itself, is highly problematic. Samantha Butler, a junior at Bob Jones, has stated, “I’ve noticed that a lot of the video girls used were black. If this is a parody of “Blurred Lines”, could we take a moment to realize that only one of the girls in that video was of color.” The way Allen portrayed the black women she used in her video as merely objects could be because she was trying to be ironic. But, at the end of the day, ironic racism is still racism.
In short, while trying to be “cheeky” and “ironic,” Mrs. Allen failed in her delivery! From demeaning one group of women to putting down another, and even using the women of color in her videos merely as props (“ironically”), it’s nothing short of offensive. In all of Lily’s attempts to put forth a girl power movement, she’s offended women around the world. So, I ask, is it that hard out here?
