With displays of debauchery having featured in rap videos for years the sight of women twerking and gyrating in bikini’s and thongs is nothing new. However, this sight in Lily Allen’s new music video to her single ‘Hard Out Here’ has sparked cries of racism and quotes stating that Lily is throwing around her white privilege.
The video see Lily a white female surrounded by black female dancers doing just this while she is fully clothed and not dancing anywhere near as sexy. Allen is apparently having a go at the nasty sexism of the music industry and giving a shout out to all those women with “baggy pussies” and bodies changed by birth, and the Robin Thicke haters as she sings ‘It’s hard out here for a bitch’.
The song lyrics fail to pack a punch and the melody is boring and has left many unimpressed with Lily Allen’s comeback. However, is her video racist, or does it just provoke feminists, as well as highlighting people’s discomfort when two cultures uncomfortably collide whilst also ignoring the bigger issue of class?
Here is Lily’s response:
1. If anyone thinks for a second that I requested specific ethnicities for the video, they’re wrong.
2. If anyone thinks that after asking the girls to audition, I was going to send any of them away because of the colour of their skin, they’re wrong.
3. The message is clear. Whilst I don’t want to offend anyone. I do strive to provoke thought and conversation. The video is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all.”
4. If I could dance like the ladies can, it would have been my arse on your screens; I actually rehearsed for two weeks trying to perfect my twerk, but failed miserably. If I was a little braver, I would have been wearing a bikini too, but I do not and I have chronic cellulite, which nobody wants to see. What I’m trying to say is that me being covered up has nothing to do with me wanting to disassociate myself from the girls, it has more to do with my own insecurities and I just wanted to feel as comfortable as possible on the shoot day.
5. I’m not going to apologise because I think that would imply that I’m guilty of something, but I promise you this, in no way do I feel superior to anyone, except paedophiles, rapists murderers etc., and I would not only be surprised but deeply saddened if I thought anyone came away from that video feeling taken advantage of or compromised in any way.
6. Ask the ladies yourselves @shalaeuroasia @monique_Lawz @ceodancers @TempleArtist @SelizaShowtime @melycrisp
Lily Allen’s new single ‘Hard Out Here’ will be released on November 17 and serves as the first cut to be lifted from her forthcoming third studio album.