Dua Lipa is a Grammy and Brit Award winner with a string of hit singles to her name. This year's "Don't Start Now" and "Physical" are essential additions to anyone's home workout playlist.
The British singer-songwriter is using her excellent new album Future Nostalgia to spread a message of female empowerment. During an interview to promote the album – which dropped Friday, a week earlier than originally planned – she spoke out against sexist double standards in the media.
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"There is a lot less scrutiny of male pop stars," she told The Sunday Times. "Maybe we’re more fun to write about?"
Lipa proceeded to describe the way this scrutiny tends to play out. "I don’t know, but the way women are described compared to men, it’s, like, she is wearing shorts? ‘She puts on a leggy display!’"
"I just feel I’m here because I do music, but when people write articles like that about me, it takes it away from my talent and makes me a thing. An object. People like to just objectify women," she said.
Lipa's new album concludes with "Boys Will Be Boys", a song which she's said is about the "growing pains of what it's like to be a girl". The song's chorus succinctly highlights this inequality with the line: "Boys will be boys, but girls will be women."
During her Sunday Times interview, Lipa said she wrote the song to start a "conversation" about the struggles girls face as they grow up.
"We constantly change the way we are so we don’t get harassed. Cover our bodies so boys don’t say things," she said. "From when we are kids we are told the way boys act towards us is completely normal."
“Like kiss chase," she continued. "Girls are terrified to get kissed by a boy at a young age. You’re running because you don’t want to get kissed. You’re giggling because it’s uncomfortable. You’re f****** seven years old and teachers don’t do anything because it’s just a game."
Lipa then concluded her point on a more hopeful note, saying: "However, if we talk about this in schools, it would make a big difference to society."