Why Lily Allen's 'Hard Out Here' single backfired as a feminist message.

Before I get started, I want to make it clear that I am, in fact, a massive fan of Lily Allen. Despite the ideas I am going to discuss regarding her thwarted attempt to create a feminist message using the song Hard Out Here and its accompanying music video, I do really like Allen, both as a person and a singer. I recognize that, although misguided, her attempt to communicate a feminist message is still a positive step, even if this time it unfortunately failed.

It is important to first address the creepy elephant in the room - I'm looking at you, Robin Thicke. Allen makes no attempt to hide the fact that Hard Out Here is a response to the contentious singer's debut single Blurred Lines, featuring Pharrell. We cannot discuss one without the other, so I will briefly describe the infamous debacle that followed Thicke's emergence into the popular music industry. For those who had their eyes and ears shut for the majority of 2013, Blurred Lines was a single which raised the hackles of many feminists and rape survivors. The message behind the lyrics was clear - consent is not a black and white issue but a subjective and ambiguous animal. Let me say that this is irrefutably incorrect. The woman in the song is either giving her permission to be engaged with sexually, or she is not. There are no two ways of looking at consent - either it is present or absent. In its absence, the woman should be shown nothing short of respect and space. Lyrics such as "I know you want it" (rape victims often hear this by their abusers as a means of self-affirmation) demonstrate his idiocy and ignorance of a sensitive topic. Taking advantage of the fact that sexual abuse is not treated with the seriousness it deserves by the legal system and the eye of society, Thicke has ridden on the back of discrimination against women and their sexual autonomy with a view of making himself money. And we, as a society, made him filthy rich.

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The video for Blurred Lines featured messages in the background (behind the girls in underwear dancing with the married father of one) such as "ROBIN THICKE HAS A BIG DICK". This self-celebration of his alleged manhood, and the power this apparently gives him, does much to demonstrate the patriarchal society we are subjected to live within today.
In retaliation, Allen's Hard Out Here video features balloons spelling "LILY ALLEN HAS A BAGGY PUSSY". No doubt a comment to the ridiculousness of Thicke's video, this may be the only part of the video I like. Her unashamed, tongue-in-cheek manner of portraying herself further identifies her as 'unfeminine' (according to the traits we as a society assign femininity: i.e. meekness, demureness, chastity, innocence, polite acquiescence, obedience), for she is loud and confident when screaming about her 'undesirable' womanhood.

Further than this, her lyrics aim to take a swipe at the misogynistic pop culture that has worsened during her (self-imposed) musical hiatus. Allen encourages us to "forget your balls and grow a pair of tits / it's hard, it's hard, it's hard out here for a bitch". The use of the word 'bitch' here is a reclamation of the term, to free it from it's intended insulting connotations and instead becomes something to be used with pride. However, not all of her lyrics encompass the feminist message. "You'll find me in the studio / and not in the kitchen" is probably aimed at all the popular jokes surrounding women retiring to the kitchen and fetching their men sandwiches. I can see why she has said it, but I think such lyrics are counter-productive.

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For me, the essence of the feminist message has two prongs. The first is that women should be equal to men in all aspects of life; be that religion, politics, freedom, employment, etc. The second is that women should have the freedom of choice over themselves. This encompasses a wide range of things, such as sexuality, employment, marital status, motherhood, appearance, etc. The feminist message I believe in would support a woman if she wanted to be a biochemist as equally as it would support a woman who had made the informed choice to be a stay-at-home mom. Neither choice should be coupled with ridicule, disbelief or discrimination.What Allen is effectively doing with this particular lyric is alienating women who choose to be housewives by making them appear as subordinate to those who choose to pursue careers; she identifies as one such woman. I think that Allen has missed the point somewhere that feminism means equality for all women as all men; not only for some women. I am reminded of a quote by George Orwell, in the literary masterpiece that is Animal Farm; "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

Further to this, Allen mocks the misogynistic music videos that men make, and women perpetuate. Her satire is merciless when she approaches media-heavy topics head-on; such as weight (an agent is speaking to her on the operating table and chastising her for her looks, as if aesthetic appeal is more important than the music she has to sell, despite her having had children) and when she is stood in the kitchen, in a seductive outfit and washing up (only instead of a plate, it is assumably her male partner's car rims).

As she says herself, "I don't need to shake my arse for you / cos I've got a brain".
This, unfortunately, is pushed to the wayside when her video features some women 'twerking' in very little clothing and pouring water all over eachother. I assume it can only be meant as a sarcastic parody, but the slow motion shots of women's backsides jiggling in time to her music indicates otherwise. Perhaps the only way Allen thought she could make men receive her message was by luring them in using the sex appeal of some young women? If I was a self-respecting male, I would be outrageously insulted by such an assumption.

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As a white female, I feel that I am ill-equipped and too uneducated to really discuss my next issue, but I feel I must raise it. Her scantily-dressed dancers were of black and Asian descent, leaving herself as the only white female in the centre of the choreography. Allen claims that only the best dancers were hired, race was not an issue, and she only refrained from twerking herself, despite trying during rehearsals, due to insecurities (source). This may be so, but the finished product speaks for itself.


In essence, I think that Allen has tried to make a statement that feminism is still alive, if not a little overlooked, and although "sometimes it's hard to find the words to say / [she'll] go ahead and say them anyway". For that, we should be grateful because, although this attempt may have missed its mark by miles, at least she's trying.