Lily Allen’s controversial opinions following the BBC’s big pay reveal have not gone down well on Twitter.
The singer remarked on social media that “women are literally better at everything than men” after discovering that two-thirds of BBC talent earning more than £150,000 are men, compared to just one third of women.
While, granted, the gender pay gap is ridiculous and far from ideal - her comments about women being better than men were completely off the mark, especially when that’s not what feminism is about.
Quick refresh: feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes”.
Allen retweeted a Radio Times article in which the BBC’s director general Tony Hall apologised for disparity in pay at the organisation.
The highest paid male at the BBC is presenter Chris Evans who is in the £2,200,000 - £2,249,999 earnings bracket. In contrast, the highest paid female is Claudia Winkleman who earns between £450,000 and £499,999.
After clocking Allen’s tweet, Connor McGurk responded: “Can’t always have 50/50 and have what’s best in terms of money... if some of the women just ain’t as popular or etc (sic).. so what?”
Allen replied: “Don’t be stupid. Women are literally better at everything than men, why do you think we are so oppressed?” Um...
Twitter user William Inglesfield then stepped in to say Allen’s attitude wasn’t “progressive” and is certainly not what feminism is about.
Allen reaffirmed her point once more:
She then backtracked slightly:
When one Twitter user said she was being “sexist” by labelling a whole gender as inferior, she added more fuel to the fire by suggesting men were better at “selling things people don’t need and starting wars”.
“Women are better at humane things,” she added.
Kerrang editor James McMahon replied with the below tweet:
To which she replied:
Needless to say, her comments were not well received.
Allen’s remarks come just days after Emma Watson interviewed Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, about what feminism means to her.
“Do we mean equal legal rights?” Atwood said. “Do we mean women are better than men? Do we mean all men should be pushed off a cliff? What do we mean? Because that word has meant all of those different things.”
She explained that, for her, being a feminist doesn’t mean agreeing with everything every woman says or blindly supporting someone’s policies or beliefs just because they are a woman.
“If we mean, should women as citizens have equal rights, I’m all for it,” she added.
In this case, Lily, we’ll agree to disagree.