Lily Allen Can Dish But Can't Take it

What's that? It's been more than two days and you haven't heard any controversy about Lily Allen? Fear not, because it's Tuesday, a good a time as any to tell you that Allen thinks that women are picking on her. In an interview with Glamour UK for their June issue, Allen revealed that her feelings are very hurt. "I feel betrayed by my sex," Allen said. "People have got their own agendas these days. It’s obvious when it’s about ego and them wanting to sound clever. It’s sad. Exhausting. Your own sex, in the name of feminism, hitting you back down. But I’m not gonna censor myself. I’m not gonna be beige."

Well, Allen, if there's one thing you ain't, it's beige. In fact, in the lead-up to the Sheezus release, Allen has drummed up more controversy than perhaps ever before in her career: she perhaps took a stab at Queen Bey, was totally flippant and oblivious to the racism of her Hard Out Here video, and has, in general, been decidedly stubborn in acknowledging her own harms to feminism. When she was critiqued for Hard Out Here as well as the potential disses to other female artists like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga in the title track of her new album, Allen's response was this inflammatory, offensive and, frankly, ass-backwards tweet where she told people who were trying to tell her what kind of feminist to be to "fuck off." Progressive!

So why is Allen dishing to Glamour that she feels ganged up on? What kind of solidarity does she expect from women when she has been so divisive and unwilling to accept criticism of any sort? She seems to think any valid conversation about her own misgivings and missteps, particularly the racism of the Hard Out Here video, are personal attacks, rather than actual conversations about the institutions that would allow Allen to think her behavior is acceptable. Her actions are hypocritical: she expects sympathy, support and understanding about her choices when she can only offer anger, ire, and an unwillingness to see her own faults.

So I can't feel bad for her when she victimizes herself in the Glamour interview, and it's disappointing that the magazine would publish her thinly veiled martyrdom in the first place. After so many attempts from the public to try to hold Allen accountable, why is a major publication allowing her to put herself on a pedestal as a target? Perhaps if she had been more open and forthcoming about her own mistakes, it would be more understandable, but she's made no attempts to reconcile. She seems like she just doesn't give a damn about how her actions cause real harm, but wants a hand extended to her. Hypocrisy of the highest order.

She told Glamour she's not going to censor herself, but she's seriously conflating "censorship" with "sensitivity" and "general awareness on how to be a human being."