Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Media Moment 3: "It's Hard Out Here... for a Bitch"

Kaitlyn Harrington
The British pop artist Lily Allen has just released a music video for her new song called "Hard Out Here." The catchy tune is filled with satire and auto tune (something she's never used before) to make a cultural statement. The lyrics and events that occur in the music video are a social commentary on how women are treated in society and in the music business. She tackles issues such as thinness, slut-shaming and the objectification of women. Allen is essentially using sarcasm to express the outrageous expectations for women within this culture.

Do you think that the way in which the women are portrayed in the video is effective? Or do you think that by allowing the women to be objectified in the video it is being counter productive?

Any comments are welcome!!

Basically, Lily Allen is back and she's ready to slice your head off... and I approve. 


UPDATE:

Lily took to Twitter to write this regarding criticism about the video-

"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"

No comments:

Post a Comment