Singer Lana Del Rey is getting trashed for daring to call out the glaring hypocrisy of those criticizing her music for not being feminist enough, while promoting the likes of Cardi B, Nick Minaj, and Beyoncé.
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Del Rey scolded her critics for labeling her as anti-feminist for “singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money.”
“Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f***ing, cheating, etc — can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money — or whatever I want — without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse?” Del Rey asked.
“I am fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world,” she continued.
As noted by The Guardian, Del Rey has been accused of promoting “regressive sexual politics” in her music since the release of her debut album “Born to Die” in 2012. At the time, Pitchfork even said of her work: “You’d be hard-pressed to find any song on which Del Rey reveals an interiority or figures herself as anything more complex than an ice-cream-cone-licking object of male desire.”
Del Rey denounced such critics as “pathetic” for alleging that her music somehow set women back to a more primitive era.
“With all of the topics women are finally allowed to explore, I just want to say over the last ten years I think it’s pathetic that my minor lyrical exploration detailing my sometimes submissive or passive rules in my relationships has often made people say I’ve set women back hundreds of years,” she said. “Let this be clear, I’m not not a feminist – but there has to be a place in feminism for women who look and act like me – the kind of woman who says no but men hear yes – the kind of women who are slated mercilessly for being their authentic, delicate selves, the kind of women who get their own stories and voices taken away from them by stronger women or by men who hate women.”
Despite her passionate plea for fairness, critics on social media dinged Del Rey for criticizing Cardi B and Beyoncé – women of color.
“She aimed her question to ‘the culture’ and then proceeded to name black women specifically (and Ariana/Camilla) who make R&B, Hip Hop, and Urban music,” one Twitter user wrote. “Why is that? Why not Taylor? Billie? Adele? Gaga? Katy? Dua?… Why specifically the ‘urban’ girls?”
“I don’t know who was giving Lana Del Rey a hard time but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Black women. Girl, sing your little cocaine carols and leave us alone,” tweeted cultural critic and writer Jamilah Lemieux.
“I think Lana’s post would have been fine if she hadn’t compared herself to a group of mostly black women with the clear tone that she thinks she’s been treated worse by the media when that’s observably untrue,” tweeted writer and activist Shon Faye.