HQ opened on Wednesday evening with the age old battle cry “ Bring on the gin!” and ended up in a happy mess of people rolling about on the giant celebration cake making stupid jokes about the Great British Bakeoff.
I believe that at some point a boy in green high heels danced on the counter with the dissenters hat on back to front and a gold crowbar between his teeth. But I can’t be sure of that.
I know we should have had a more professional art opening but hey – its hard out here for Bitches.
BITCH – now there’s a word. In an attempt to illuminate the entrenched misogyny of the great steaming dungheap that is the corporate music business, Lily Allen has hauled the word out, turned it into a pop song and invited us all to empower ourselves with it. Do it your way – own your world. Mean what you say and say what you mean. Don’t be afraid to be that BITCH they say you are.
She brought on the twerking dancing girls to illustrate her point further…she spelled out LILY has a BAGGY PUSSY in balloons on her backdrop…she went to war in the way she knows best….bold and tuneful and sweetly sarcastic…London style…full of bravado but still endearing round the edges.
It made me smile when I read about it in the Sunday papers and it made me laugh when I watched the video and then it made me really pissed off when I saw her slagged off in one paper for not doing feminism ‘right’. The feminist prefects out in force again. Telling women who are bringing their own experiences and creating their own new languages around feminism what IS and what IS NOT ‘correct’.
Feminism is about moving towards creating a society that is free of sexism and racism so we can all live in a more egalitarian world. Feminism is inclusive – Its not a bloody private club for those that can recite marxist feminist mantras verbatum. We are a social movement that should include you me and her next door..mothers…daughters…doctors… teachers …shopgirls and rentgirls…Its not a ladder you climb to get gold stars for being the BEST feminist.. (now theres a thought for a new game this Xmas)
We all do it differently using our own tools and our own cultural and social vocabularies…We experiment with what works and what doesn’t. We have small triumphs and occasional mess ups.. We dress in heels, we dress in boots we have short skirts and no skirts, we are clever and we are foolish.. We are confrontational and we are subversive and we compromise because thats how you get through the day.. We are erratic as often as we are constant. Irreverence and humour is a common thread. Its called being a woman – its called being human.
Lily Allen is right – Its hard out here being a bitch – so why make it any harder?
