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Dua Lipa condemns normalisation of toxic male behaviour: ‘Getting home from school, I put keys between my knuckles’

Pop star says women ‘constantly change the way we are so we don’t get harassed’

Roisin O'Connor
Sunday 29 March 2020 06:05 EDT
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Grammys 2019: Dua Lipa wins Best New Artist at the Grammys in first big British win of the night

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Dua Lipa has spoken of how she hopes her song "Boys Will Be Boys" could start a conversation around the issues girls and women face.

“Because these are real things I have gone through," she told The Sunday Times, referencing the song's lyrics.

"Getting home from school, scared of boys, I put keys between my knuckles. We constantly change the way we are so we don’t get harassed. Cover our bodies so boys don’t say things."

"From when we are kids we are told the way boys act towards us is completely normal," she said.

The pop star used the schoolgame "Kiss Chase" as an example, commenting on how girls are made to feel uncomfortable from such a young age, "and the teachers don't do anything, because it's just a game."

"And it’s difficult, once you’re in a fixed mindset, to change your ways," she said. "However, if we talk about this in schools, it would make a big difference to society.”

Dua Lipa released her second album, Future Nostalgia, this week to critical raves.

In a five-star review for The Independent, Helen Brown said the album "channels the zingy, electro-ambitions of the 1980s with remarkable freshness, given that the decade’s revival has now lasted about twice as long as the original period.

"Her nods to Madonna, Olivia Newton John, Prince, Debbie Harry and Nile Rodgers are direct and unblinking – mercifully free from the raised eyebrow of irony so often used to give retro sounds a modern topspin."

Read the full review here.

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