At the beginning of Lily Allen’s music video for “Hard Out Here,” released at the peak of her fame in 2014, we see the 29-year-old strapped to an operating table, having fat extracted from her stomach and legs by two male doctors. A suited American music executive remarks: “How does someone get like this?” “A lack of self-discipline,” one of the doctors replies. Allen looks stricken. “Umm, but I’ve had two babies!”
The single was a satire of music industry misogyny. Later, Allen would speak of male power brokers who sexually abused and trivialized her, prioritizing “sex, youth and availability” over talent and purpose. In 2019, Allen was dropped by her label and her management following her lowest-selling album, No Shame – the music business had chewed her up and spat her out by the age of 34. When she relocated to America and moved into acting, escaping a toxic tabloid culture that had always portrayed her as a cartoon villain, it was assumed that she had officially retired from pop.
