A Brief History of Pharrell Williams's Feminist Awakening

Pharrell's 2013 collaboration with Robin Thicke, "Blurred Lines," became a megahit — and a mega controversy. The track's lyrics were widely derided as "rapey" and the music video was criticized for using naked women as little more than props for its male stars. At the time, Pharrell pushed back hard against the criticism, saying the song was actually meant to be empowering.

"The Robin Thicke lyrics are: 'You don't need no papers,' meaning, 'You are not a possession,'" Pharrell told Pitchfork in an interview the following year. "He's a man, so he definitely did not make you . . . What I was trying to say was: 'That man is trying to domesticate you, but you don't need no papers — let me liberate you.'"

Despite his defenses, most critics of the song remained pretty unconvinced.

Pharrell told Time it was "not possible" for him to be a feminist.

The comment drew plenty of ire, although when heard in fuller context, it seems as though it may have stemmed from some kind of misguided attempt to position himself as an ally. He continued: "But what I do is — I do support feminists. I do think there's injustices. There are inequalities that need to be addressed."

Pharrell released his album GIRL in 2014, and while promoting the record months later, he referred to it as a 21st century take on feminism".

"If all the women in the world decide not to work it would shut down the economic systems. If women decided they didn't like what we were doing as a species, they could end the planet," he told the UK's Stylist magazine. "So when I hear people say 'power women,' it's not possible to empower women. It's just necessary for women to remember their power. Power is a perception and it's one that you guys [women] were raised to ignore and believe something that's false, like a male-dominated world."

Still, feminists were only cautiously optimistic, noting that "appreciating" women is not the same as truly doing the work to understand and dismantle misogyny.

Pharrell surprised many when he threw his support behind Swedish Feminist Initiative party leader Gudrun Schyman at a Stockholm concert.

"I hear you guys might actually have a feminist party tomorrow," he said as he invited the politician on stage. "Let's give women a shot for once in a while to try to run this world."

At the Odd Future music festival in LA, Pharrell debuted a new song he produced with Gwen Stefani and proudly announced it was a feminist anthem. (Notably, Gwen herself never used the word to describe the track, and has shied away from identifying as a feminist herself over the years.)

"I just wanna see y'all faces when it come on," he told the crowd. "It's called 'Spark the Fire' — it's about feminism."

The same month, Pharrell walked back his comments about not being a feminist. Pharrell told BuzzFeed he's a feminist "if I'm allowed to be. If feminism is a synonym for equality, then, yeah, sure."

Pharrell campaigned for Hillary Clinton . . . even though he kinda stuck his foot in his mouth by calling her dishonest while doing it.

"It makes me angry when people say she can't lead our country because she's a woman," he said at a fundraiser that month. "How dare anyone question a woman's ability. Every person on this planet was brought into this world by a woman. Has she been dishonest about things? Sure. Have you? She don't lie no more than any other politician does."

Pharrell reflected on the role women have played in his life and career in an interview with the Los Angeles Times — and framed projects like Hidden Figures as a way to pay them back and pay them tribute.

"I just recognize that, musically, women have lifted me and kept me up, for years. Good songs, bad songs, they've always been there for me," Pharrell told the newspaper. "So I've been on this thing where I just want to lift women."

The same month, Pharrell chatted with Billboard, and told the magazine the movie is a fresh, empowering representation of black women. "You have three African American female protagonists not talking about divorces or consoling each other or burning up the Range Rovers; none of that. These were three African American female protagonists who were scientists, engineers, mathematicians, technologically advanced," he said. "There's a lot of gender bias and there's still racial bias. It's severe to me."

Pharrell's pride in bringing Hidden Figures to the big screen couldn't be contained in an interview with the New York Times. The true story revolves around a group of black women who helped make the space program a reality in the early days of NASA, before the Civil Rights movement took hold.

"The female contribution can be hid no more," he told the paper. Pharrell also said he is committed to bringing the stories of black Americans and women to the forefront of film in his role as a producer.