Lana Del Rey discusses Instagram backlash in lengthy new message
Lana Del Rey has shared a lengthy video message responding to criticism over a recent Instagram post.
It comes after the singer this weekend posted what she called “a couple of final notes” about an Instagram post that has courted controversy after she named a series of female artists to hit back at claims her music “glamorises abuse.”
In the new video, which runs for six minutes, Del Rey discusses “the need for fragility in the feminist movement,” and hits back against claims that she’s racist.
“Hey, so I don’t wanna beat a dead horse, and I don’t wanna go on and on about this post thing,” she said in the new message, “but I just wanna remind you that in that post, my one and only personal declaration that I’ve ever made – thanks for being so warm and welcoming – was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement. It’s gonna be important.
“When I mentioned women that look like me, I didn’t mean white like me. I mean the kind of women who other people might not believe, because they think, ‘Oh, well look at her, she fucking deserves it’ or whatever. There are a lot of people like that.”
She continued: “I think it’s sad that the women I mentioned, and that they’d sing about dancing for money or whatever… the same stuff by the way that I’ve been singing about and chronicling for 13 years. That’s why I’m in that echelon. Yes, they are my friends and peers and contemporaries.
“The difference is, when I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when [FKA] twigs gets on the pole, it’s art. I’m reminded constantly by my friends that, lyrically, there are complicated psychological factors that play into some of my songwriting, but I just wanna say that the culture is super sick right now, and the fact they want to turn my post, my advocacy for fragility into a race war, it’s really bad.
Discussing the backlash to her original post, the singer said: “I’m super strong… you can call me whatever. I’m sorry that I didn’t add one 100% caucasian person into the mix of the women that I admire. It really says more about you than it does about me.
“What’s interesting is that the very first time I decide to tell you anything about my life, or that I’m writing books that chronicle that fragility, that 200,000 hateful, spiteful comments come in, and my phone number leaked, and comments like, ‘You fucking white bitch’. It’s the opposite of the spirit of an advocate. It’s what causes fragility, but it’s not gonna stop me. Period.”
Concluding the message, Del Rey said: “I’m not the enemy, and I’m definitely not racist, so don’t get it twisted. Nobody gets to tell your story except for you, and that’s what I’m gonna do in the next couple of books. So god bless, and, yeah, fuck off if you don’t like the post.”
She also took the opportunity to reveal the title of her new album, ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’, which she calls “special.”
The new album, set to come out on September 5, will follow last year’s ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell!’.
