Lily Allen exploded back into the media Tuesday with a new music video that appeared to have quite an agenda. When you watch her video, you’ll pick up on not-so-subtle jabs at Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Robin Thicke. While Allen claims the video is purely satirical, she has begun to receive a lot of backlash.
Though Lily says she does not need to shake her rear because she “got a brain,” she has a team of black and Asian women behind her, twerking and bathing themselves in champagne. Her social commentary on the objectification of women in pop media is overshadowed by Allen’s dominating white presence.
While pop artists can say they intended their videos to make certain statements, public perception determines the context. It seems like Allen missed the mark in “Hard Out Here.”
Because Allen admits to her inability to twerk well, she chose to hire dancers. Allen fired back at her critics, claiming she did not choose her backup dancers based on the color of their skin. In a BuzzFeed list posted Wednesday, Allen also said the video is not about race, but the modern objectification of women.
Allen said she covered her legs because she was embarrassed by her cellulite — her insecurities kept her concealed. The rest of the women are pretty scantily dressed and dancing on a Rolls Royce. Allen, on the other hand, is in a kitchen washing a hubcap. What does this say about society? That white women stay at home and clean and black women twerk on cars?
Firstly, if Allen wanted to empower women in her video, she could have stripped down as well. She could have also stuck leggings on the dancers who appeared alongside her, so that every woman on screen showed the same amount of skin. Secondly, she could have avoided placing white and black women into two separate categories.
Lyrically Allen does a stellar job of illustrating the stereotypes forced on women. her video may lack sensitivity for racial issues, but from a gender equality standpoint, she nails the primary problems associated to women and pop culture.
It’s easy to argue that the video is not about race. All Allen had to do was put out a statement that clarified her intention to talk about gender relations. But it isn’t that simple. If people are making enough noise about her objectification of black women, then she needs to reevaluate how she plans to make social commentary in the future.
Whether the negative stereotypes were intentional, if Allen planned to combat how female pop stars use their sexuality to get famous, she should have caught the undertones in her casting and placement of people. She enforces racial stereotypes by separating the realms between her and her dancers.
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