Lily Allen - This summers biggest racist?

Like I mean if we're going to get into transphobic interpretations of that statement, I don't even know.

Ugh let's just sum up this whole thing as "everything is terrible, especially for women still"

Because we're not exactly solving anything with the circular firing squad bullshit.

new life description xpost

yikes. that's pretty awful. (xxxpost)

cosign on awfulness of the word 'problematic.'

why did I GIS that

Within the context of her industry, though? There isn't a lot of deviation for actresses these days, certainly not leads. Like, I'm not particularly invested in this argument, but the post linked up thread was about people who talk about certain issues and what JL might have said that construed her being "problematic" on the subject of body issues.

Wasn't a golliwog, don't know if it was her husbands or boyfriends dick and it was in response to some fairly nasty abuse that Banks started. Just saying.

So racism is excused if you're sufficiently mean? How mean does someone have to be before you can throw out a racial slur or slap some blackface on a penis? Just wondering.

Azealia Banks is wholly worthless and humanity as a whole would be better off if she didn't exist IMO; that doesn't actually make it excusable to tweet racist shit at her

I guess I don't really see off-the-cuff statements on red carpets or at junkets as unassailable declarations of there being only one alternative? Perhaps the media-saturated age is also resulting in too many opportunities for people to spiral off statements and then point fingers and say "PROBLEMATIC"!!!!

Absolutely. This Tumblr about Jennifer Lawrence is like something from the Red Scare.

http://yourfaveisproblematic.tumblr.com/post/45661326649/jennifer-lawrence

Objectifying people is pretty much the entire foundation of the music industry, isn't it? Taking musical expression and selling it as physical object. Taking an artist and selling them as "a brand".

the whole penis thing was insanely racist

Your Ass Is Problematic

Wasn't a golliwog, don't know if it was her husbands or boyfriends dick and it was in response to some fairly nasty abuse that Banks started. Just saying.

wow i knew the video would have its defenders but i had no idea there'd be apologists for the dick in blackface

Was the thread title changed?

and yes, AZB has been pretty awful herself (and, unlike LA at the time of the beef, she's been rightly raked over the coals for it), and all that shows us is that to come off even worse you have to be really vile yourself

just pointing out someone named "everything" posted that right after maura said "everything is terrible"

11th dimensional trolling??

Moka: yes the thread title was changed. Several lolled.

The dick was not in blackface. It was a black or brown dick (decorated to look like Azalia Banks maybe). Whatever. Sorry to interupt the outrage. Congrats to Lily Allen for getting some people who don't give a shit about her to pay her some attention.

The dick was not in blackface.

are you kidding me

Yes.

k good

Really what this thread needs for some empirical evidence like maybe a white male poster who can turn up and go "well actually he might be right, last time I blacked up my penis it didn't look anything like that" but really so many more 0_0 things have happened on ILX over the years that I wouldn't be remotely surprised.

Moka: yes the thread title was changed. Several lolled.

― smoking, drinking, cracking and showing the MIDDLE FINGER (DJP),

Hahaha ok, yeah i found it funny but I was reading the initial posts and nothing made sense.

the more we talk abt it the more people will GIS it the better I'll feel

Surely you critical lot have an opinion on this??!!

Eclex

― E-Clex (E-Clex), Thursday, April 27, 2006 2:00 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is what I mean by a low bar. The video doesn't make the male viewer uncomfortable or subvert his expectations in any significant way. It doesn't allow the strippers any personality. By not showing their faces it presents them only as sexualised bodies. And yet it counts as celebration and reclamation because it's better than all the other videos with strippers in? Maybe so. I've read the Hairpin discussion twice and I just don't see it.

― Deafening silence (DL), Thursday, November 14, 2013 11:01 AM (1 hour ago)

why should a hypothetical male viewer's response enter into it?

Why would it not? All discussion of gaze involves hypothetical viewers. And check out YouTube - they're not hypothetical.

i just figure that a woman's reclamation of something occurs on her own terms, not how i imagine some guy might interpret the gesture

^ ...not in relation to how i imagine some guy...

"cuz i've got a brain" is traditionally a phrase only used by relatively stupid/insecure people, so little wonder it turns out she's out of her depth.

the rap verse from electrik red's "muah" (presented w/o comment. legitimately!)

Now tell me what you really gonna do with that
Never seen a girl with an ass so fat
I'm not a stripper but I dance like that
I'm not a stripper but where the money at
I'm not a freak, I'm not a nasty hoe
Well I'm lyin but I'm classy though
I'm like you don't wanna get get get it?
To the bed room hit hit hit it
I'm not a ditz, I got a brain
You saw my titties before you see my face
It's all good nigga don't be ashamed
I would feel the same, cause I know you know

I'm the shit with this shit

etc

<3333333

i loved watching this just now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOVDnDz2eYI

i'm kind of shocked a singer like Timberlake or somebody hasn't tried to repurpose that phrase in a sex jam yet (i.e. "girl, i wanna get problematic with you!" or "the way you dress be problematic for me, baby")

― da croupier, Thursday, November 14, 2013 2:27 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL

just want to add re: lily allen's "no one wants to see my cellulite" is particularly bullshit since a main visual motif is the slow motion rippling tide of the dancer's asses

White Feminist ‏@WhiteFeminist

Hard Out Here to replace Same Love as my #PoliticsJam 4 the term! Lily Allen delivers w a scathing critique of #UrbanMusic & objectification

<3

perfect

that account is always perfect

i was WAITING FOR IT

lollllll @ that j-law rap sheet

• In an interview with Zach Galifianakis, she asked, “Isn’t [the hunger games] your life story?” to allude to the fact that he is fat. (This was scripted by Galifianakis himself)

i'm kind of shocked a singer like Timberlake or somebody hasn't tried to repurpose that phrase in a sex jam yet (i.e. "girl, i wanna get problematic with you!" or "the way you dress be problematic for me, baby")

― da croupier, Thursday, November 14, 2013 2:27 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL

― flopson, Thursday, November 14, 2013 10:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Girl, I'm gonna problematize you.

lmao the first thing i did after seeing the video was to check the whitefeminist twitter

btw i really don't think this is a case of "well the imagery is highly questionable BUT THE LYRICS ARE GOOD SO I'M OKAY WITH IT"... i mean you don't even have to go three couplets in before you're encountering lyrics that are horrifying on their own. of course the way the words and images interact is especially vile.

yeah, the bar for "good lyrics" is apparently set at "you'll find me in the studio instead of the kitchen." it's like... a combination of "how biting -- in 1963" and "oh, ok, my apologies for cooking myself dinner instead of having the foresight and/or brains to be a platinum-selling recording artist."

"You'll find me in the studio instead of the kitchen."

You could tell me Ed Sheeran wrote that and I'd believe you -> therefore, it's not good.

the massive hypocrisy in mocking how black people boast about their wealth in verse one, then in verse two blithely presenting "there's money to make" as a feminist sentiment, as well

it's not ostentatious if you spend it on "nice things"

This has me thinking about this thread:

C or D - 70s era artists (usually white dudes) with gospel-style backup singers (usually black women)

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/daisy-lindlar/lily-allen-hard-out-here_b_4276840.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

This week, the music video for Lily Allen's first new single since 2009, Hard Out Here, was released. The video, a satire on the objectification of women, has been viewed on YouTube over two million times in two days, and the hype surrounding it shows no sign of slowing down. Feminist issues have been put in the media spotlight recently, particularly within the music industry; who can forget the recent criticism of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, and the backlash over Miley Cyrus' fondness for twerking?

Despite the empowering message of the song, the video for Hard Out Here has received a lot of criticism, particularly for it's supposedly racist undertones. However, I completely support Allen in what she is trying to achieve, and I wish that others - particularly women - would do the same.

In the video, the message Allen is trying to send is clear. We are worth more than our appearance and our bodies, we should be proud of who we are, and we shouldn't be letting anyone tell us otherwise. This is a message that goes unnoticed all too often in the media, where a woman is a lot more likely to be celebrated for her figure than her talents (often through no fault of her own), and any woman who is trying to go against this should be celebrated.

It's a sad fact that we live in a society where women can never win. If we wear revealing clothes, we are criticised. If we stay covered up, we are criticised. If we talk openly about our sex lives, we are criticised. If we prefer to keep it private, yet again, we are criticised. That is why I am a firm believer that we, as women, should support each other. After all, the idea of the sisterhood is at the core of feminism, and if we don't support and respect one another, how can we expect anyone else to?

It's true, Allen's video is not everyone's idea of feminist perfection. Yes, she is fully clothed whilst the dancers are not. Yes, the majority of the dancers are from ethnic minorities. However, if she were just wearing a bikini in the video, she would have been criticised for using her body to sell records. And if she had only used white dancers, the video would still have been labelled 'racist'. In reality, nothing is perfect, and this does extend to feminist media, and feminists themselves. For example, I am slightly ashamed to admit that I probably wouldn't leave the house without make up on. Does this make me any less of a feminist? Or make what I have to say on feminism any less relevant? Not at all.

What we should be doing is celebrating the fact that Lily Allen is making an effort to change the message that women are fed by the media every day. Rather than point out what she has done wrong, we should be recognising what she has done right. And the fact is that, in terms of empowering women, she has done a lot more than many other musicians have. So let's stop pointing out all the flaws, and give her the credit she deserves.

It's hard out here for a bitch. Let's not make it any harder.

Follow Daisy Lindlar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DaisyLindlar

Let's not make it any harder.

lmao