Lily Allen's "Hard Out Here"

This Tuesday, Lily Allen released her new single “Hard Out Here.” It’s her first release in three years, so it’s been long awaited. The music video is a satire on pop culture, and more specifically, on Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” If you are not familiar with his song or music video, I’d recommend watching that first.

When "Blurred Lines" first came out, there was a lot of talk about whether or not the song was sexist and degrading to women. In response, Thicke said it wasn't since he acted respected women and that instead, it was just ironic. Lily Allen is known for singing songs that make a statement about society by telling it how it is. So it only seemed fitting that her first new song in years is a clear satire on the pop culture of today. Her music video directly mocks "Blurred Lines." Please note that the video contains explicit content.

The style of the music video clearly mimics "Blurred Lines" through lighting and color choices and even with certain choreography. I think one of the more genius stabs at Thicke's video is her rendition of the balloons. The lyrics also point towards Thicke's song, with her line "Have you thought about your butt? Who's gonna tear it in two?" being a play off of a line from T.I.'s verse: "I'll give you something big enough to tear your *** in two." And while there are other references in the video to other current pop culture media, like Miley Cyrus' twerking, it is obvious that Robin Thicke was the focus of her parody to show how objectifying women is in our culture.

Despite her attempts at portraying the struggle of female artists in a society that constantly is demeaning towards women, Lily Allen received a lot of criticism for her video. Many complained it was racist. While she satirically sang about the objectification of women, some believe she later in the video raises herself to be a superior figure while black female dancers twerk and pop bottles of champagne around her.

After receiving the negative feedback, Lily Allen released a twitter statement to rebuttal the racist claims: "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."


As a huge Lily Allen fan, I completely stand by her video and don't think it is racist. In fact, her twitter response to those critics proves the very nature of her being. Celebrities don't tweet about their "chronic cellulite." On the contrary, if a media source wrote about a female celebrity having cellulite, that would be a big deal. Meanwhile, Lily Allen just puts it out there, because she doesn't really care.  In my opinion, it was pretty disappointing to see the media focus on the color of the dancers' skin as opposed to the message Lily Allen is trying to send. Like she said, the song should be provoking people to think and that is what the media should be writing about. Even so, I think it definitely acts as a female empowering single. Lily Allen always brings awesome satirical songs, so we should've seen this coming.