‘It’s infantilising’
Lily Allen has said she thinks the term ‘nepo baby’ is sexist because it is only used when talking about women.
‘Nepo baby’ is a term used by some online when talking about celebrities who have been helped along in their careers by famous parents.
Lily and her brother Alfie Allen – best known for his role as Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones – are the children of actor Keith Allen.
And whilst the 39-year-old said she doesn’t “really mind the nepotism thing,” it’s the use of ‘baby’ that she took issue with.
The singer and actor said the term is “infantilising” and is never used in reference to men, comparing it to women being called a ‘Karen.’
Speaking on her Miss Me? podcast, the Smile hitmaker said: “Nepo babies, I think it’s quite like ‘Karen’, in the sense that it’s just a word that is basically used for women who are taking up space and we’d rather they didn’t and they should just go away.
“I’m called a nepo baby all the time. I actually don’t really mind the nepotism thing, it’s the ‘baby’ that annoys me, it’s like, I’m 40 years old nearly!”
“It’s meant to be infantilising. Also I think it’s something that is almost exclusively used for women, I don’t think I can even really name any male nepo babies.”
Mentioning her sibling, she said: “My brother, for instance, doesn’t get called nepo baby and I do.”
She continued: “I feel like a lot of the time over the past 15, 20 years when I’ve been written about it will always say ‘Lily Allen, daughter of Keith Allen’ and I don’t see that happening with boys as often as it does with girls.
“It’s always like when we’re talking about women in these spaces.. there’s like a follow-up of what it really was that put them there.
“There’s an element of truth to it, I grew up in a certain class bracket, I grew up in and amongst people that worked in media, and I don’t think I’ve ever really disputed that.”
This isn’t the first time Allen has addressed debates around nepotism in the entertainment industry.
Back in 2022, she posted on X that the “nepo babies y’all should be worrying about are the ones working for legal firms, the ones working for banks, and the ones working in politics.”
She followed this up with another post saying: “And before you come at me for being a nepo baby myself, I will be the first to tell you that I literally deserve nothing.”
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