For someone who’s whole PR campaign for their new album revolves around exalting women, Pharrell Williams doesn't seem to understands us that well. First he congratulated us on dragging our sorry bums out of bed to make it to work when we’re on our periods (thanks Pharrell, you're the best), and now he's come out to say that, while he thinks women are just great and that, he doesn’t think it’s ‘possible’ for him to be a feminist. Because he’s a man. Hmm, we're not 100 per cent certain Pharrell really understands what a feminist is.
Speaking on Channel 4 News, he said: ‘I've been asked, am I a feminist? I don't think it's possible for me to be that.’
When asked why he simply responded: ‘I'm a man. It makes sense up until a certain point. But what I do is, I do support feminists. There's injustices; there are inequalities that need to be addressed.’
OK, maybe we need to clear a few things up because Pharrell obvi hasn’t been listening to ***Flawless by Beyoncé, when Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains that a feminist is ‘a person who believes in the social , Political, and economic equality of the sexes’. So, just to make it super clear, you can both be a man AND a feminist. Come join us, Pharrell, the water’s lovely!
To be fair though, he did have some very nice things to say about Hilary Clinton: ‘I would love to see a woman run the country. Historically, this world has been run by man. And what would a world be like if 75 percent our world leaders, our presidents and prime ministers, were female? What would that world be like? We don't know, because we haven't given it a shot. We're too busy telling them what they can and can't do with their bodies. Or, we're too busy, you know, not allowing them to make the same amount of money that a man makes.’
Now if he just stops talking about periods, and we can erase Blurred Lines from our memories then everything will be hunky dory.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.