Men and women have always been seen differently throughout history, whether it is on their role in the household, their wages, or how appropriate it is for them to express their sexuality. Society views women as lesser than men, as if the time and effort they exert into their daily lives is not and will never be enough to be seen as equal. Inequality among the genders has been an ongoing issue since the beginning of humanity, and British singer Lily Allen decides to shed light on how it affects her line of work. In her hit song “Hard Out Here”, Lily Allen addresses and forwards the issues of misogyny and sexism in the music industry through her lyrics used in the song, the ironic use of black dancers to make a statement, and imagery in her
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Allen’s intended audience for this song is potentially anyone who will listen and empathize with her on this issue, but the main focus is directed at executives as well as artists in the music industry who allow for these sexist portrayals of women to happen again and again. Once instance of her response can be seen through the lyrics in Allen’s song, “Don’t you want to have somebody who objectifies you? Have you thought about your butt who’s gonna tear it in two?”, an apparent ode to T.I’s line, “Hit me up when you passing through, I’ll give you something big to tear that ass in two” in “Blurred Lines”. Another similarity between the songs comes from Allen’s replication of the symbolic use of large grey balloons to convey a catchy phrase. Thicke’s balloons spell out “Robin Thicke Has A Big D” while Allen opted for “Lily Allen Has A Baggy Pussy”. According to Yahoo! Journalist Lyndsey Parker, Allen’s song is the “wittiest, realest, most girl-powered pop song to come out in years” (Parker). Allen’s lyrics and overall portrayal in her videos is calling out the sexism in the music industry, exposing what truly goes on behind the scenes and refusing to keep quiet about it any longer. Lily Allen’s overall tone of her lyrics comes off as aggressive with a hint of …show more content…
Writer for Salon Media Group, Prachi Gupta, reports that Allen’s lyrics “aim to ridicule common tropes perpetuated about women in pop music” and argues that her over exaggeration of sex in the music video – women spraying themselves with champagne, the various up close shots of jiggling butts, etc. – undermines her own message (Gupta). Gupta’s statement takes away from the entire purpose of the video. Allen’s main point was to over exaggerate the women’s actions and amplify the sexual content so viewers could have an eye-opening experience in realizing how women are treated and seen in other music videos. The director of the “Hard Out Here” video, Christopher Sweeney, responded to criticisms about the ethnicity of Allen’s backup dancers, announcing “…they were in on it” and “it was their idea to spray champagne over each other”, because they understood the message Allen was trying to convey and were happy to help (Michaels). This is a slap in the face to all the critics who wrote on Allen’s racism and remarked how her message missed its mark due to her usage of black dancers. In Lily Allen’s perspective, her use of the black female dancers only proved her point further, especially once a portion of fans and writers were offended at her ironically sexist
Allen’s intended audience for this song is potentially anyone who will listen and empathize with her on this issue, but the main focus is directed at executives as well as artists in the music industry who allow for these sexist portrayals of women to happen again and again. Once instance of her response can be seen through the lyrics in Allen’s song, “Don’t you want to have somebody who objectifies you? Have you thought about your butt who’s gonna tear it in two?”, an apparent ode to T.I’s line, “Hit me up when you passing through, I’ll give you something big to tear that ass in two” in “Blurred Lines”. Another similarity between the songs comes from Allen’s replication of the symbolic use of large grey balloons to convey a catchy phrase. Thicke’s balloons spell out “Robin Thicke Has A Big D” while Allen opted for “Lily Allen Has A Baggy Pussy”. According to Yahoo! Journalist Lyndsey Parker, Allen’s song is the “wittiest, realest, most girl-powered pop song to come out in years” (Parker). Allen’s lyrics and overall portrayal in her videos is calling out the sexism in the music industry, exposing what truly goes on behind the scenes and refusing to keep quiet about it any longer. Lily Allen’s overall tone of her lyrics comes off as aggressive with a hint of …show more content…
Writer for Salon Media Group, Prachi Gupta, reports that Allen’s lyrics “aim to ridicule common tropes perpetuated about women in pop music” and argues that her over exaggeration of sex in the music video – women spraying themselves with champagne, the various up close shots of jiggling butts, etc. – undermines her own message (Gupta). Gupta’s statement takes away from the entire purpose of the video. Allen’s main point was to over exaggerate the women’s actions and amplify the sexual content so viewers could have an eye-opening experience in realizing how women are treated and seen in other music videos. The director of the “Hard Out Here” video, Christopher Sweeney, responded to criticisms about the ethnicity of Allen’s backup dancers, announcing “…they were in on it” and “it was their idea to spray champagne over each other”, because they understood the message Allen was trying to convey and were happy to help (Michaels). This is a slap in the face to all the critics who wrote on Allen’s racism and remarked how her message missed its mark due to her usage of black dancers. In Lily Allen’s perspective, her use of the black female dancers only proved her point further, especially once a portion of fans and writers were offended at her ironically sexist