Lily Allen - This summers biggest racist?

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.

I don't like "I won't be bragging 'bout my cars or talking 'bout my chains" but I don't have a problem with the rest of it.

the song is, on a musical level, astonishingly weak

sorry if i missed it being posted already, but http://noisey.vice.com/blog/lily-allen-hard-out-here-ayesha-a-siddiqi is good.

Oh man I clicked this thread and now bagpuss is ruined forever, thanks conty

Great article, Lex

is taking this style of dancing and body image into videos outside rap and rnb useful at all? inevitably cack-handed but maybe it ends up actually helping to enhance the debate beyond the extreme ends (essentially down to whether or not it exploits men as potently as women) even if most of what gets said is so clueless and cringeworthy (lily and the director apparently leading the way there - just saying as long as people are talking about it we've done our job shouldn't be good enough)

but other videos this year like 'pour it up' and major lazer's totally ignored 'bubble butt' seem more interesting in exploring the exploitation issue (if only by virtue of being more conceptually and stylistically disturbing with it)

also i guess i should've made this more explicit but can we talk about allen criticising hip-hop wealth culture then a verse later blithely presenting "there's money to make" as a feminist sentiment

What is this throwback obsession with gold chains this year? Lest we forget: "If you don't judge my gold chains/I'll forget the iron chains".

http://www.thevine.com.au/music/news/appeal-of-the-wrong-in-pop-lily-allen-hard-out-here-20131114-268343/

and she didn't forget to put a gold chain on her boyfriend's blackface dick

how much of this sort of thing is an expression of revulsion against specific cultural signifiers, compared to general commodity fetishism abetted by over-blown pop culture aspirations, though?

Her appearance on Dizzee Rascal's "Wanna Be" in 2007 was so much wittier and welcome.

xp well if you feel much more revulsion towards the cultural signifiers of black working class commodity fetishism than towards other kinds of commodity fetishism etc then you perhaaaaaps have questions to be asking of yourself.

http://www.collapseboard.com/everett-true/conversation-held-in-public-around-the-new-lily-allen-video/

ayesha siddiqi's piece is great too: http://noisey.vice.com/blog/lily-allen-hard-out-here-ayesha-a-siddiqi

*sigh*
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-xrated-factor-lily-allen-sticks-it-to-the-misogynistic-music-man-8935706.html

would like to see more pieces, esp non-official blogs, by women of colour - i think i missed a ton while i was offline writing

chimene suleyman: http://www.poejazzi.com/fighting-against-the-fetishisation-of-women-doesnt-work-if-you-fetishise-women/

So here it is: You don’t satirise race.

I disagree with that as a blanket statement but it's certainly applicable here

10 videos that actually pushed feminism forward in 2013 by Aimee Cliff
http://www.dummymag.com/lists/alternative-feminist-videos-to-lily-allen-2013

wow, Q.U.E.E.N. is really fucking great eh

not watching l. allen video

Janelle Monae rules hardcore

you gotta wonder why more people can't do it with intelligence, charm, good music & STILL get mass airplay. idk.

The short, glib answer is that there's no box for that.

intersectional feminism is thankfully becoming more of an acknowledged thing & i guess monae/badu are 2 of its cultural standard-bearers

janelle monae doesn't get mass airplay