I once hated Lily Allen. I didn't buy
Elle because she was on the cover, I refused to watch her TV show
(remember that?) and she did not make it onto my iPod.
Was it because she wore trainers with ball-gowns? No.
Was it because she was always slagging people off in the press? No.
It was because my boyfriend at the time fancied her.
Thankfully, I have matured a little since 2008 and no longer draw moustaches and zits onto the faces of the women that my boyfriends fancy (and no, it's not because I don't have a boyfriend, thank you), meaning that I am able to evaluate Lily's comeback with some objectivity, I think.
With Hard Out Here, Lily has kind of, a bit, offered up an alternative to the ignorant little ditties that the media have previously held up as empowering feminist anthems (We Run The World, I'm looking at you), even though their message often seems to be something along the lines of 'girlz rool, boyz drool'. The lyrics are a bit of a step up, in particular the lines “We've never had it so good/ yeah we're out of the woods/ and if you can't detect the sarcasm you've misunderstood”, (do song lyrics ever not look 'a bit cringe' when they're written down?) as I often get frustrated with the idea that The Man, and also his wife, have put a big fat tick next to Gender Equality on their To Do List.
Whilst it won't make my playlist, I do find some of the initial comments levelled at Hard Out Here a little disheartening. Annoyingly, one of the first criticisms that I picked up on was that it “over-simplified the issue of feminism a bit.” Well of course it does, it's a fucking pop song. I'm pretty sure that Feed The World ignored the more complicated aspects of third world poverty in favour of a catchy melody and no one seemed too cross about that. Hard Out Here isn't an essay, it's a song. Actually, even if it was an essay it would still probably ignore an important aspect of the feminist movement and thank god, because it's these omissions that provoke people into writing an essay in response and voila; a discussion is born.
Whilst I don't want to dismiss the pop song's ability to successfully tackle 'The Issues', I think that Hard Out Here is more of a vehicle for discussion; I feel better about the whole thing when I see it like that anyway.
Another criticism of Hard Out Here that surfaced not too long after it's release, and has been shrewdly condensed down by the media to 'Is Lily Allen a racist?', was the use of black female backing dancers in the video.
If I'm being completely honest, and not to seem all 'colour blind', but I didn't really notice the race of the dancers when I first watched the video. I just saw it as a parody of an R'n'B video and so with that in my mind, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Perhaps that was the intention or perhaps it was my own ignorance, I'm not too sure.
Since reading the opinions of those angered by the sexualisation of black women in the video, I've re-watched Hard Out Here many times. I think that these are valid criticisms, but that these criticisms should be directed at those who make 'those' R'n'B videos, as it's these videos that Hard Out Here is copying. Some argued that by copying these videos Lily Allen is only serving to perpetuate the sexualisation of black women, but really the video is showing, without 'doing', the sexualisation of all women. It's not a sexy video, it's a video that's pointing to a wobbling, champagne-covered arse and shouting “THIS is what's pissing me off!” It's recreating an image that people recognise whilst saying why this image is wrong.
Perhaps the most disheartening and frustrating criticisms that I noticed the day after the Hard Out Here release were those that essentially said “THIS ISN'T FEMINISM”, “THIS ISN'T HOW FEMINISM SHOULD BE DONE”, “WRONG!!!” or “SHE'S WEARING MAKE UP, SHE AIN'T A FEMINIST” (*cough*Janet Street-Porter*cough*)
Every time a woman comes out of the walk-in closet and declares “I am a feminist!” whilst throwing her head back and tries to offer her own contribution to the feminist movement, a Real Feminist pops up and pulls down a whiteboard that displays 'Feminism; The Rules' to tell them how it should be done.
It leaves me feeling a little “Oh what's the point?”
It's this immediate finger-waggling telling off that makes it so scary to say “Oh, actually, I kind of have an opinion on this too” meekly from the back of the room. Feminism isn't a grammar school; you don't have to take a test to prove that you've read every feminist essay ever written in order to prove your worth. And for Gods sake, you certainly don't have to be a woman. If women think that you have to have a copy of The Female Eunuch in your bedside drawers before you can express an opinion on feminism then things are going to go pretty quiet very quickly, as let's face it, you have to be in a certain kind of mood to read Greer.
Was it because she wore trainers with ball-gowns? No.
Was it because she was always slagging people off in the press? No.
It was because my boyfriend at the time fancied her.
Thankfully, I have matured a little since 2008 and no longer draw moustaches and zits onto the faces of the women that my boyfriends fancy (and no, it's not because I don't have a boyfriend, thank you), meaning that I am able to evaluate Lily's comeback with some objectivity, I think.
With Hard Out Here, Lily has kind of, a bit, offered up an alternative to the ignorant little ditties that the media have previously held up as empowering feminist anthems (We Run The World, I'm looking at you), even though their message often seems to be something along the lines of 'girlz rool, boyz drool'. The lyrics are a bit of a step up, in particular the lines “We've never had it so good/ yeah we're out of the woods/ and if you can't detect the sarcasm you've misunderstood”, (do song lyrics ever not look 'a bit cringe' when they're written down?) as I often get frustrated with the idea that The Man, and also his wife, have put a big fat tick next to Gender Equality on their To Do List.
Whilst it won't make my playlist, I do find some of the initial comments levelled at Hard Out Here a little disheartening. Annoyingly, one of the first criticisms that I picked up on was that it “over-simplified the issue of feminism a bit.” Well of course it does, it's a fucking pop song. I'm pretty sure that Feed The World ignored the more complicated aspects of third world poverty in favour of a catchy melody and no one seemed too cross about that. Hard Out Here isn't an essay, it's a song. Actually, even if it was an essay it would still probably ignore an important aspect of the feminist movement and thank god, because it's these omissions that provoke people into writing an essay in response and voila; a discussion is born.
Whilst I don't want to dismiss the pop song's ability to successfully tackle 'The Issues', I think that Hard Out Here is more of a vehicle for discussion; I feel better about the whole thing when I see it like that anyway.
Another criticism of Hard Out Here that surfaced not too long after it's release, and has been shrewdly condensed down by the media to 'Is Lily Allen a racist?', was the use of black female backing dancers in the video.
If I'm being completely honest, and not to seem all 'colour blind', but I didn't really notice the race of the dancers when I first watched the video. I just saw it as a parody of an R'n'B video and so with that in my mind, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Perhaps that was the intention or perhaps it was my own ignorance, I'm not too sure.
Since reading the opinions of those angered by the sexualisation of black women in the video, I've re-watched Hard Out Here many times. I think that these are valid criticisms, but that these criticisms should be directed at those who make 'those' R'n'B videos, as it's these videos that Hard Out Here is copying. Some argued that by copying these videos Lily Allen is only serving to perpetuate the sexualisation of black women, but really the video is showing, without 'doing', the sexualisation of all women. It's not a sexy video, it's a video that's pointing to a wobbling, champagne-covered arse and shouting “THIS is what's pissing me off!” It's recreating an image that people recognise whilst saying why this image is wrong.
Perhaps the most disheartening and frustrating criticisms that I noticed the day after the Hard Out Here release were those that essentially said “THIS ISN'T FEMINISM”, “THIS ISN'T HOW FEMINISM SHOULD BE DONE”, “WRONG!!!” or “SHE'S WEARING MAKE UP, SHE AIN'T A FEMINIST” (*cough*Janet Street-Porter*cough*)
Every time a woman comes out of the walk-in closet and declares “I am a feminist!” whilst throwing her head back and tries to offer her own contribution to the feminist movement, a Real Feminist pops up and pulls down a whiteboard that displays 'Feminism; The Rules' to tell them how it should be done.
It leaves me feeling a little “Oh what's the point?”
It's this immediate finger-waggling telling off that makes it so scary to say “Oh, actually, I kind of have an opinion on this too” meekly from the back of the room. Feminism isn't a grammar school; you don't have to take a test to prove that you've read every feminist essay ever written in order to prove your worth. And for Gods sake, you certainly don't have to be a woman. If women think that you have to have a copy of The Female Eunuch in your bedside drawers before you can express an opinion on feminism then things are going to go pretty quiet very quickly, as let's face it, you have to be in a certain kind of mood to read Greer.
Is Hard Out Here going to win a
Grammy? Probs not.
Is it one of THE BEST POP SONGS EVER WRITTEN? Not so much.
It is going to create an on-going, meaningful discussion about feminism and the media's treatment of women in particular? Fingers crossed.
Is it an alright song to have on your radar on a day in which you received an email from your boss saying “No skirt today? :(“? Yes, it is. It really is.
Is it one of THE BEST POP SONGS EVER WRITTEN? Not so much.
It is going to create an on-going, meaningful discussion about feminism and the media's treatment of women in particular? Fingers crossed.
Is it an alright song to have on your radar on a day in which you received an email from your boss saying “No skirt today? :(“? Yes, it is. It really is.
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