Lily Allen - This summers biggest racist?

i heard a bit of this the other day and wondered why somebody had chosen to cover Keane in a style not very different from Keane, assumed it was some ad agency copyright-dodging bullshit

You are supposed to know if you own a TV or not.

xxxxpost

Just checked and yes, I DO have a TV. But I don't watch it. In fact I turned it around to face the wall because I literally don't watch it.

i think that was irony that didn't appear to be irony.

xpost - almost certain.

i'm gonna save my contempt for advertising and all its works for a different thread cos this one obviously needs to focus on Lily Allen and her ironic racism

i don't equate thinking advertising is shit with being above TV and therefore being a terrible person who spits on the common "man" tho

xxpost

We've never had it so good, uh huh
We're out of the woods
And if you can't detect the sarcasm
You've misunderstood

personally, i would judge advertisements on their merits, the same as anything else. tho i suppose it has got a lot worse as live tv becomes less popular.

xpost.

well tonight thank god it's them instead of you
and if you can't detect the sarcasm, you've misunderstood

I really liked her second album--clunky social commentary aside--but so much of her behavior, not to mention this song and video, is just beyond unacceptable.

Doing all the same gross shit as pops major players, but with an added wink wink nudge nudge does not constitute clever, witty, incisive commentary. In fact, such a thing is little more than posturing, and functions almost exclusively as a way for Allen to position herself as above the shit she's lambasting while still benefiting from it.

"and if you can't detect the sarcasm, I'm fucked"

Amazing girl, she can both sing and animate like a pro!

Greer OTM

she posted this on twitlonger:

Privilege,Superiority and Misconceptions

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

If I could dance like the ladies can, it would have been my arse on your screens

b-b-but "you have a brain"!

I do strive to provoke thought and conversation.

oh god, she really pulled the "conversation? good, that was the idea" card.

http://www.goolfm.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/arsene-wenger-head-in-hands.jpg

paedophiles, rapists murderers etc

The smartest piece I've read yet, drawing comparisons with older songs by Pink and Jewel.

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/11/13/2929071/lily-allen-hard/

"I'm not going to apologise, I'm sorry but I'm not"

tbh i actually prefer the "i'm not going to apologize" over the bullshit "i'm sorry that YOU were offended"

I agree with the assessment that nobody seemed to be thinking about anything while the video was in production.

#4 really undermines the whole song, not just the "Don’t need to shake my ass for you ‘cuz I got a brain" but the entirety of the second verse.

"you should really be more self-conscious and judgmental about your body...by the way i'm being sarcastic!" vs "hey the reason i was the least naked woman on the screen is because i want to spare everyone my cellulite"

if you're hot and can twerk, you should TOTALLY be half-naked and twerking in a music video, how could you ever think lily allen feels otherwise

a lighthearted satirical response

Not buying "the video is meant to be a light-hearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all" when in an interview her director says that:

"We deliberately didn’t want to reference anyone specific. It was more, "what would be the most hip hop thing you could ever do?""

It has nothing to do with race, at all.

Glad that's sorted.

actually thought the video might've been directed by dawn shadforth - curious to know what she makes of it

Were you nervous about doing a video that sent out quite an explicit message about your own industry?
No, it all needs talking about. I just thought it would be hypocritical to claim that this is what everyone else does but we don’t do it. That's why she joins in, and does all the things that everybody does. I think we’re all complicit, you have to be, that's what's required these days.

amazing hate-the-game response

She hasn't really addressed the issues Angry Twitter has been highlighting since yesterday, eg. Lex's 'what about the blackface penis?' concern. Also, the minute someone excuses their own behaviour using the words 'light-hearted' it's indicative of ASSHOLE SPOKEN HERE. And perhaps being a bear of littler brain than most sentient creatures.

I was also unimpressed by the deployment of a cigar-chomping 'Jewish' guy in the video, should've gone for a Terry Richardson-type powerful sexist doucheroo. On the other hand, if she'd picked a bunch of ugly men to twerk in the background, a lot of Angry Twitter would've been all 'OMG she's a Queen Bee' and then those people would've been castigated by several prominent women who are public friends with her, who are not in any way social media Queen Bees themselves, of course.

glad the director made it clear they were deliberately going for hip-hop, so we don't have to deal with obtuse folks claiming that the obvious hip hop tropes and signifiers are just, like, post-racial pop culture tropes with no loaded racial implications to be brought up or questioned.

the suzanne moore piece on this seems to be... actually good? who knew that this would be what it took.

It would be cool if more black females were actually promoted as recording artists rather than just appearing in videos for Arcade Fire/Lily Allen/Spiritualized/Miley/whoever.

this director is a traet

Well you know what we were editing it at my house, and my cleaning lady was there and she doesn’t speak English, and we were just chopping up the bit with the champagne and the bums and she was watching and she had no idea it was for Lily Allen, she doesn’t even know what I do as a job, and it was me and the editor sitting in my kitchen editing, and she was looking at it, thinking "fuck I think he’s a porn director." That was quite awkward.

but the real nail in the coffin, ladies and gentlemen:

the inspiration for the video was the lyrics. The lyrics are really blatant so when I sent a pitch in to do it, I wanted to encapsulate the that idea of music industry sexism and poke fun at it. I didn’t mean it to be a statement as much as a bit of fun. I think the music video clichés we make nods to in the video are part of a culture we’re all complicit in. So, our video’s not attacking those things as much as addressing them and having a bit of fun with them. That culture is something we’re all complicit in – we all sit and watch those videos with twerking and champagne spilling over gyrating naked women and all that on MTV all the time, so to really rally against them would be hypocritical. It’s much more effective and much funnier to kinda have a bit of fun with those things instead of making any kind of angry statement against them in the video. It’s just a bit of fun.

"Just a bit of fun"

Julianne Shepherd's response.

the video is definitely... walking a lot of lines. BUT i read the line "don’t need to shake my ass for you ‘cuz I got a brain" as more of a "hi, women are not just sexual beings for you to leer at until we get ancient at the ripe old age of 25, and we have worth beyond your slobbering gaze" sort of protest? nb i am a person who is very fatigued by the notion of "slut-shaming" because women who aren't seen as sexual also get a shitty end of the ol' patriarchy stick in ways that aren't as acceptable to discuss because doing so kickstarts the "slut-shaming" cycle, which, sigh

But what about the vile racism? Think of the vile racism.

"at the ripe old age of 22*" is probably what Lily Allen would argue there.

..I'll see myself out.

mostly what i get from this video is that people's butts are pretty great

and lily allen has a baggy pussy

well she goes to great lengths to say she's not "slut-shaming" in her non-apology anyway, suggesting that the only reason she wasn't twerking in her skivvies is because her legs aren't easy on the eye. which does beg the question of what the hell she was doing.

can't believe she went for "it's a coincidence that the women twerking their asses off in my video are black" as an excuse. most offensive thing about this non-issue, imo.

If you believed her or didn't give a shit, your offensive non-issue would be a non-issue. Learn to trust.

"which does beg the question of what the hell she was doing"

being blinded by insecurity?

also that's not how 'beg the question' is used but anyway

Don't get me wrong, it's a bummer that that insecurity led to such a muddled video, taking an "objectification sucks" sentiment and turning it into "people who let themselves be objectified suck" sentiment - by neither twerking half-naked herself nor making clear she's mocking clothed people who smack their half-naked dancers, she comes off more like a pious miley than someone mocking miley (the reason that robin thicke joke works best is because the subversion is actually followed through). but that non-apology only adds to the confusion, and suggest she's either too proud to see/admit how she fucked up, or genuinely oblivious to the issues people have brought up.

nb i am a person who is very fatigued by the notion of "slut-shaming" because women who aren't seen as sexual also get a shitty end of the ol' patriarchy stick in ways that aren't as acceptable to discuss because doing so kickstarts the "slut-shaming" cycle, which, sigh

i think it was erika villani who coined the term "prude-shaming" a while ago (i think re: t-swift?) - i definitely see it as a concept that could do with more traction, and with an emphasis that it comes from the exact same place as slut-shaming

BUT i read the line "don’t need to shake my ass for you ‘cuz I got a brain" as more of a "hi, women are not just sexual beings for you to leer at until we get ancient at the ripe old age of 25, and we have worth beyond your slobbering gaze" sort of protest?

shitting on other women is a poor way to fight sexism.

I wonder if in this age of intense scrutiny of every lyric whether musicians will make themselves think harder or run songs past other people to pick up on bits that don't work. The video's horribly misjudged but the lyrics are fine imo apart from that one line, yet of course that's the line we're talking about.

lex: http://thequietus.com/articles/13871-lily-allen-hard-out-here-macklemore-miley-cyrus

No, they're not, DL! I listened to the song before watching the video and it still sucked.