If you’ve been anywhere near a place where the Internet exists in the last 24 hours, you’ve probably noticed that London songstress Lily Allen dropped her first new song in three years last night, and that’s “dropped” as in a bomb. Opening with Allen getting liposuction as tut-tutting man in a suit looks down disapprovingly, “Hard Out Here” launches into a no-holds barred attack on popular culture’s objectification of women and the appropriation of racially charged imagery — which is to say, on Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus. Champagne is popped, butts are twerked, and Mylar balloons spell out “Lily Allen has a baggy pussy.” (“But I’ve had two kids,” she protests in the opening scene.)
The world, as it was meant to, exploded with “Lily disses Miley!” headlines and counter-accusations that Allen was exploiting the same trends she pretends to critique, not to mention unloading a truckload of upper-class privilege. (Between them, Allen, Thicke and Cyrus are the spawn of two TV personalities and a country music star, which makes this seem like some sort of Big Brother-type feud.)
But some of the most insightful comments, and certainly the widest range of opinions, came from Lena Dunham’s Twitter feed, after she asked her followers to weigh in on the video. Dunham retweeted a wide range of responses — roughly 80% of which were followed by “OMG LENA DUNHAM JUST RTED ME!” — fomenting a conversation that’s still going on. (Update: Allen has posted her own response to the criticisms; click through to hear from some of her dancers as well.)
Re new Lily Allen video: I love when pop music addresses gender directly. I read the video as pure rap-game parody. But…
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) November 13, 2013
I’m very interested to hear what it evokes for YOU. I’ve always loved Lily- she’s been through the media ringer and is still cracking wise.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I think the video is clever but not quite clever enough. She makes fun of misogyny but then still has sexy women dancing around
— Ian Carlos Crawford (@ianxcarlos) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham thought she super missed the mark using women of color as her dancers, being critical of ass shakin like it’s a bad thing
— Meredith Gran (@granulac) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham Making a caricature out of cultural appropriation doesn’t offer a viable SOLUTION to appropriation. That’s what bugs me.
— Ella Ceron (@ellapalooza) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I think it perpetuates what she’s rallying against. I understand sarcasm, etc. but it’s not working for me.
— kelly kend (@projectid) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham the line ‘and if you can’t detect the sarcasm, you’ve misunderstood’ sums up the video x
— Robin Brook (@RobinBrook3) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I can have a brain AND shake my ass if I want to
— fruta no es postre (@mery_rox) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I felt uncomfortable re race & “bitch”. But it’s also not Lily’s job to be the perfect intersectional feminist. It’s a start.
— Beeever (@ViveLeBeeve) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I adore Lily/her music, but the video made me vaguely uncomfortable for using the tropes she’s rallying against. I’m conflicted.
— wini (@winiw) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I think she missed an opportunity to comment on the exploitation of women’s sexuality by the music industry as a whole
— Rebecca Darling (@RococoVintage) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham Enjoy her music. But there’s a LOT of white artists satirizing & judging hip hop iconography lately, and it’s not our place.
— Diablo Cody (@diablocody) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham It def has its moments, but using WOC as props is just never ok. Also quite elitist IMO. Some women are happy in their kitchens.
— Iben C. N. (@Ibennilsson) November 13, 2013
@diablocody @lenadunham Also, satire should punch up, not down. More focus on the old white manager and not the WOC dancers cld be better?
— Beeever (@ViveLeBeeve) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham Her intent, solid. Her art, dangerously close to Weird Al territory.
— Amy Stein (@amy_stein) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham derrida said we can’t critique a discourse without tacitly participating in it; we can’t escape its conventions and terminology
— Cohen is a ghost (@skullmandible) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham I would’ve liked to have seen some more personality/annoyance/eye-rolling from the WOCs to feel like they were more “in on it.”
— Kate (@heyescapist) November 13, 2013
@skullmandible @lenadunham or the ever-applicable audre lorde statement re: using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house
— alecia lynn (@alecialynn) November 13, 2013
@lenadunham It’s all how you use your platform. Miley Cyrus uses hers to twerk. Lily Allen uses hers to make a statement beyond twerking.
— wendy clark (@wnd) November 13, 2013
Love it RT @peachfish42 Damn – people getting all Bryn Mawr up in here.”
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) November 13, 2013
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