Lana del Rey is giving me a headache. The first chapter of this Lana controversy was fun because she just seemed too melodramatic and self-absorbed. The second chapter was more bizarre and offensive, because she just made everything worse. The third chapter is… just confusing. I can’t even really follow her train of thought at this point.
To recap, Lana announced that she will be dropping a new album in early September. She announced that album by making a statement on social media about how other female artists – like Cardi, Beyonce, Doja Cat, Ariana – sing or rap about abusive relationships, sex, break ups, drama, etc, and yet people are always climbing up Lana’s butt about how she “glamorizes” problematic sh-t in her music. Her original argument was that she’s just a glamorous person singing about dysfunctional sh-t, and get off her back. People jumped all over her because six out of the seven women she named were women of color, and she was basically saying that she was being treated worse (?) than women of color, perhaps because (?) she is a glamorous white woman. She then doubled down on all of that and argued that she’s not racist, and she’s just “advocating for a more delicate personality,” again with an argument that she, as a glamorous white lady, is being treated worse than women of color. And now… this…
Lana Del Rey tarts off her long-winded open letter by declaring that she has some “final notes” on her first post, which she describes as “not controversial at all.”
“Despite the feedback I’ve heard from several people that I mentioned in a complimentary way, whether it be Ariana [Grande] or Doja Cat—I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity and stance in that what I was writing about was the importance of self-advocacy for more delicate and often dismissed, softer female personality, and that there does have to be room for that type in what will inevitably become a new wave/3rd wave of feminism that is rapidly approaching,” she writes. The 34-year-old acknowledges that she could’ve “given more context” to her post, but only in regards to the name of her future book of poetry.
She then gives a glib apology to the people she offended, who she says she assumes are “super trump/pence supporters or hyper liberals or flip flopping headline grabbing critics [who] can’t read and want to make it a race war.” She clarifies that her issue was actually with “female critics and female alternative artists who are dissociated from their own fragility and sexuality and berate more sexually liberated artists,” like herself and the other women she name-dropped yesterday.
Lana then claims that by pointing out she mostly named women of color, those critics are revealing their true colors. “You want the drama, you don’t want to believe that a woman could be beautiful, strong and fragile at the same time… Nothing new here in your reaction. Same as ten years ago when a million think pieces came out about me feigning emotional fragility or lying out coming from no money when that was the truth,” she says. She concludes her message by announcing: “If the women I mention don’t want to be associated with me that’s absolutely fine by me.”
“Despite the feedback I’ve heard from several people that I mentioned in a complimentary way, whether it be Ariana [Grande] or Doja Cat—I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity…” Does that mean that some of the women she name-checked called her and told her to apologize, clarify or take their name out of her mouth and she was like “screw you, I know what I’m TRYING to say”? I think that’s what it means. “Despite” is doing a lot of work there! Anyway, no, I’m not a Trumper and most of the people wondering WTF Lana was talking about weren’t Trumpers either. We just truly don’t understand why she’s doing this, at all. She started this argument and it feels like she’s trying to white-feminist her way out of it. It’s gross.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid and Instagram.
OMG. Please stop saying words before I really have to stop listening to your music. Please.
It seems like you’re really going through…..something, I guess, but for the love of god, step away from the keyboard and talk it out with someone.
No one has time for this shiz, Lana.
Yeah I think she must be struggling with something and tbh, as a woman of colour, I don’t think she’s saying that she has it worse. She’s just implying that she’s struggled with something but she should know that people will jump all over it.
Her causal racism made it about race.
+1
For some reason sometimes she reminds me of Taylor Swift.
Don’t know why.
“White Woman Says Racist Shit, Doesn’t Understand Why It’s Racist – Covers Ears, Deflects, Cries”
Same as it ever was.
English is not my first language and that might be the reason why my head is spinning from what I just read… Her statement turned me into the ‘what?’ minion several times and I also rolled my eyes because it had to be written in type writer style.
At this point I just don’t understand how anyone can be that stupid! It is very likely that, as a white person, you aren’t even aware of all of the racist crap you think, say or do. So if anyone calls you out on it don’t pull the “I’m not racist” card, just listen and take a deep look inside yourself and MOSTLY shut up.
Yes, she cannot string words together to express complete thoughts. Very incohorent and I really have hard time following what she is trying to say when I read this myself.
Trusting my fellow Celebitches here.
The comment section for her posts are hilarious.
The comment that said “Beyoncé doesn’t even know u” — DYING.
Is there a Lana Del Karen translation book?
Lol.
Noooo, she needs to stop taking now! It’s the perfect time to lay low until September! No one is talking about this after the Doja Cat showing her feet to incels in chat rooms story picked up!
She is an “artist” who uses words for a living but they are failing her now. The word salads she is posting feels like she is trying to talk her way out of the corner she put herself into. But she is failing badly. A simple apology followed by silence is called for now. Otherwise she may have repercussion s that she is not prepared for
She literally doesn’t know we’ve moved past 2nd wave feminism. Bless her Karen heart.
Yeah I caught that too…she’s predicting a third wave? Like, check your messages because the Millenials called ten years ago to invite you to their party.
I don’t think she got an invite tbh. Maybe that’s why she missed it?
She is not smart at all if that’s what she is taking away from this. And she apparently lacks the depth to take a look at what she said and decide to shut up for a while.
minorities: *speak*
white people: IT’S A RACE WAR!!!
Thank you for saying this. I had a discussion online with a white woman who runs a feminist site on IG about a problematic post. I stated facts and she accused me of attacking her, and then said that if I was nicer she might listen. I was like, you put up a racist post, I told you why it is, and you basically ignored me because your opinion is more important than the clear racist undertones in the post. Lana’s apology was so weak she just shouldn’t have bothered. I just can’t with these women.
Jeeeez if her type of feminism is “I should be allowed to be fragile and not accept criticism and promote abusive relationships” I really want to skip over that wave right away?!
What even was that post.
Well,,, thatnks for clarifying, I guess… (stares in confusion)
She keeps digging the hole deeper for herself and has shown that she really hasn’t listen at all to what people have been trying to educate her. She may be going through something but it doesn’t excuse this kind of action and behavior. Her victim complex is astounding. I hope she has family or friends that can get her – in the meantime I will just delete her music off my iTunes because now when it plays, I remember this and her casual racism against WOC. Oh and she thought Ariana was a WOC lol!!!
“I want to say that I remain firm in my clarity and stance in that what I was writing about was the importance of self-advocacy for more delicate and often dismissed, softer female personality”
This is exactly what people sound like when they’re insecure about their intelligence and/or writing skills, and try to bluff their way with strained syntax and words that don’t quite mean what they think they mean. Which makes me sad; she’s an accomplished person and lauded artist, she shouldn’t feel like having her privilege bubble popped invalidates her smarts or skills. This is where the reaction to The Thing You Did somehow makes it 10x worse, when a simple “whoops, I did not express myself well, I’m sorry I gave the wrong impression and I regret any hurt I caused in my ignorance” would have maybe been a little humiliating, but would have mostly put things to bed. I guess you have to have a much stronger sense of self to take a little humiliation on the chin.
I’m mad she doesn’t know third wave feminism has come and gone, though. You throw around these concepts to protect yourself from attack, you just look like you’re using whatever’s in reach — not like you actually care about those concepts. Also a major aspect of the third wave was intersectionalism, aka the overlap of issues of sex and class, or sex and race, aka everything those WOC she name-dropped have to deal with that she doesn’t, so… that’s telling.
A more delicate personality … that is so coded. barely.
Yep!
And I’m still not sure how “My pu**y tastes like Pepsi Cola” is supposed to be delicate.
Hmm…she might wanna have that looked at tho.
Only a$$holes use the term “race war”. That is all.
Newsflash to white people: people of color reacting to a racially charged post by a celebrity IS NOT a “race war”.
Aside from the racism, which is veiled enough so that other white people don’t see it, she is ignorant about the history of music. Many people have done her style of music before, black artists included, she ain’t special.
This is some Tired, coded racial language about white women being soft and delicate and black women being tough.
And she’s dating a guy from one of those cop shows.
I think we can tell what kind of person she is.
Saying ‘this isn’t about race’ is white privilege to the nth degree. It hurts to learn these things, because then, upon reflection, one might realize one has been an asshat and whatever one was taught whilst young, once an adult, one must take responsibility for what one speaks, thinks and acts. This woman has yet to learn …. it’s hard…growing up. I sincerely hope she hurries up ~
English isn’t my first language, neither, and I don’t fully understand her messages. However, all I think is that something must be wrong with her. Of all the singers she mentions, she has the thinnest voice and makes the most boring music (sorry, just my opinion); she can’t hold a candle to them musically.
And hasn‘t she had unnecessary plastic surgery at a very young age …? Weird. I also wonder if there aren’t worse problems to worry about in these times…🙄
The not coming from money comment was weird. Did she say that? Thought her father was a billionaire.
Shows she thinks that this is about the haters and this is about a personal attack on her
It always drives me nuts when she pretends to have grown up in a trailer park with barely any means. Her father was a bigwig at Dell and worth tons of money. I know because my husband was friends with her back when she was Lizzie Grant at an upper crust Connecticut boarding school.
The way she is trying to explain herself make me think.
Did she use ghost writer for her album?