Last Tuesday, my roommate informed me that Lily Allen returned with a new single. A month before, the two of us rocked out to a playlist of her songs in our bedroom. Allen’s songs always tended to stray from the normal female pop songs. In a song like “Smile,” she refers to physically beating up a boyfriend who cheats on her. Along the same thread is her song, “F*ck You Very Much.” While I used to use her songs primarily for getting over a terrible crush or break up, her new song applied to my every day life.
The full lyrics are “it’s hard out here for a b!tch.” Now, I am not a person who condones vulgarity. I always believe people use curses when they lack an extensive vocabulary. However, after analyzing this song (which wasn’t hard because my roommate and I had it on repeat), I realized she was making a play on the song “It’s Hard Out Here for A Pimp.” Of course, I started to see the thread of feminism within the lyrics of her song.
Allen addresses, a woman’s body image (“if you’re not under a size 6 and you’re not good looking, well you better be rich or be real good at cooking”), the double standards of men’s and women’s sex lives (“if I told you about my sex life, you’d call me a slut. Those boys be talking about their bitches, no one’s making a fuss) and even references Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” with the line, “Don’t you want to have somebody who objectifies you? Have you thought about your butt, who’s going to tear it in two?” (In “Blurred Lines,” TI says “I will give you something big enough to tear that ass in to two.”)
With a really catchy beat and her usual soft singing voice, Allen addresses the struggles of being a woman in today’s society. We demonize female artists who wear limited clothing, curse and bad mouth other musicians, but I don’t think we give enough heat to the male artists who do the same. I can’t tell you the last rap song I heard where a rapper described what’s in a woman’s head and not the body below her neck. Of course, the moment a woman complains about this, the people around you paint you as a radical feminist that burns bras and wants to castrate the male population. However, as shown in the video, Allen is wearing a dress and makeup. She looks very feminine (and sexy for someone who recently gave birth to two babies). Yet, the video happens to be the downfall of her song, because it distracted society from the actual message.
People watch the video to see, predominately, black and latina backup dances twerking and other sexual dance motions throughout the video. People accused Allen of being racist for hiring only minority dancers to dance obscenely and then not twerking herself. Allen responded, “I did not dance in the video because I can’t dance and these women were the best dancers.” As a woman of color, I did not take offense to this video—though twerking in general makes me a little uncomfortable.
Regardless, I think focusing on race doesn’t help the women’s movement. If women of color see this as a “white feminist” song instead of seeing the universal truth behind the lyrics, we only divide ourselves and won’t be able to conquer the misogyny still in this world. Do I think the sexual dances were necessary? Gosh, no. However, it got a lot of people’s attention, and I hope that while watching this video, the lyrics are getting ingrained in their heads too.
Please don’t misunderstand. I like rap and hip hop music, I like to wear cute outfits, and I do want to find someone who finds me physically as well as mentally attractive. However, what Allen says resonates in my mind. Though she is mainly talking about the sexism in the music industry, as a future computer science major I realize I will be one of the few women in my field. When my male counterpart asks for a raise, he may be considered assertive and head strong, a man who knows what he wants. When I do the same, I may be considered…a b!tch. Yes, this double standard is a problem but we can’t fix it overnight. I do believe acknowledging it is a problem is the first step to solving it. I am preparing myself for a life that is “hard out here” for an assertive, headstrong woman who knows what she wants. So, my roommate and I blasting Lily Allen’s new song with the sounds of Lily Allen’s forget about the twerking, forget about white feminism vs. colored feminism and focus on that awesome beat and changing the way we view others based on gender in our society.
On side note: I found this picture on Tumblr that shows Allen’s attack on Thicke’s song Blurred Lines through her video. I thought it was very interesting. As someone who saw Thicke’s video and thought nothing of it, I never noticed how subconsciously these things can affect the way we perceive ourselves and the other women around us.