Lily Allen on controversial feminist comments: 'Those weren't my words'

Lily Allen has responded to criticism surrounding her interview as guest editor of men's magazine Shortlist, insisting: "Those were not my words."

The singer was quoted in the magazine as saying, "Feminism. I hate that word because it shouldn't even be a thing anymore. We're all equal, everyone is equal. Why is there even a conversation about feminism? What's the man version of feminism? There isn't even a word for it. Menanism. Male-ism. It doesn't exist."

According to Shortlist, the singer went on to say, "I don't think men are the enemy. I think women are the enemy. I know that when I'm sitting in a restaurant and a really beautiful woman walks in, who's skinny, I instinctively think, 'Oh, she's really skinny and beautiful and I'm really fat and ugly.' So it's more of a competitive thing. It's weird. It's just really unhealthy and we're our own worst enemy."

Since the interview though, Allen has taken to Twitter to defend her controversial remarks. In a conversation with the user @Becca_DP, who published an article criticising Allen's recent stance, the singer wrote, "I deal with sexism and misogyny every day, I'm patronised on an hourly basis, so exuse me if your article has fucked me off." She then added, "They weren't my words, you interpreted them wrongly and SHORTLIST misquoted me."

Earlier, in a conversation with the user @HolyMoly, Allen said, "I think you rather missed my point. I said that I believe women are equal to men, we are all human. I can't believe that we're still having to have discussions about feminist [sic] because sexism should not exist anymore."

Clearly becoming increasingly fed up with the furore, Allen posted a picture of a tweet that was too long to publish.

🚺 pic.twitter.com/w5Aol2LDQx

Allen retired from music after releasing her second album It's Not Me, It's You in 2009, before making a comeback at the end of last year with the controversial feminist anthem 'Hard Out Here', and the less controversial TV advert song 'Somewhere Only We Know'. The singer recently revealed that her upcoming album will be called Sheezus, an "homage" to Kanye West's Yeezus.