After I first skimmed Lorde’s cover profile for Dazed Magazine, it took me a few days to work up the energy to cover it. That’s not about Lorde – I really like Lorde and I think she’s transitioning from a “wunderkind” to an adult pop star with a lot of grace and intelligence. No, my problem was that Dazed sent Lena Dunham to interview Lorde. They know each other through Taylor Swift – Lena and Lorde are two of Swifty’s most high-profile collected friends. And even though Lorde is the one being profiled, Lena managed to make most of the interview and profile about Lena. Because what else were you expecting? The result is one of the most annoying celebrity profiles I’ve read in a while (and I read profiles all f—king day!!!). So here are some highlights and of course I have to include a lot of Lena stuff because Lena just wanted to talk about Lena.
Lorde on her ‘tude: “I sometimes get asked, ‘Did people try to sexualise you early on in your career?’ But I came into this with such a strong viewpoint – even when I was 13 or 14, my sense of self felt too permanent for anyone to f–k with. You know, whenever there was a makeover suggestion or like, ‘Do you wanna try this push- up bra?’ I think I freaked enough people out – or intimidated enough people – that it didn’t happen. But also, does that still happen these days? Is that a thing? I feel like people think more of teenage girls than that.
Lorde on whether she mostly has dude friends: “I do. I have a lot of dude friends. I was kind of the camp mother of all the guys. I’ve been texting my friend because he hasn’t had a haircut without me in seven years so he just sends me the haircut emoji and I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to take you.’ They’re amazing. I feel like teenage boys, all their emotions are really simple and diluted. Teenage girls feel everything so intensely and are so multi-faceted. Boys are just like, they’ll rest a head on your shoulder and you know exactly what that means.
Lena on their friends: “And speaking of camp mother, I feel that Taylor (Swift) has really taken control and said, ‘I’m going to get us all together in the same place, I’m gonna make it very clear that friendship is powerful and women are magic and if anybody thinks this is a witches’ coven they might be right.’ She’s just made it her job in a very cool way.”
Lorde on Swifty: “Yeah! I mean, she definitely brought me into this amazing world of supportive female friendship. For me, someone starts talking about boys and I’m like, ‘I just don’t know what to say.’ I’m useless in that capacity and that was why I thought, ‘Well, I can’t have girl friends (because) I don’t know how to talk about boys.’ But Taylor just glosses over the fact that I’m terrible at that and she’s just like, ‘It’s OK, I’ll love you for your other qualities.’
Lorde’s mom is crazy old? “My mum is such a big influence on all aspects of my life – as a child of immigrants who escaped the First World War, she’s the strongest person I have come across in my entire life.”
On feminism: “I’m not just going to do a 180 on a girl because she hasn’t learned about feminism. I remember not being 100 per cent sure what feminism or intersectional feminism is – I’m still not 100 per cent sure! One thing I hadn’t come face-to-face with until I was about 16 was thinking really hard about whiteness and what it means to be white, and all these questions around race and sexuality, which are incredibly important. For a long time, I wasn’t aware of how important it was to be a feminist for all women.
As you can imagine, the Gawker Lorde-Age-Truthers are having a field day with that totally weird quote about her mom. “As a child of immigrants who escaped the First World War…” That means that when her mom was born in 1965, Lorde’s mom’s parents were in their 50s? Does that make any sense? Is Lorde’s family full of vampires? Lorde Age-Truthers need to get on this!
Lena repeatedly brings up feminism and Lorde handles all of those questions very well. It’s sort of remarkable to see an 18-year-old (!!!) talk about feminism, white privilege and intersectionality with such grace while Lena, who is 29 years old, still sounds like such an a—hole about all of it.
Photos courtesy of Ryan McGinley/DAZED.
Lena Dunham is the Tyra Banks of actresses. Both are pure manifestations of the ego. Gross.
At least Tyra had some talent to walk the runaway, Lena has zero talent as an actress or writer.
Insult to Tyra. Lena is way worse.
Lol at these lifeless age truthers, they actually have a name, maybe she meant her grandparents escaped,and that her parents were the children ????
Yeah, but if her grandparents escaped the FIRST WW, lets say they were born when it began and like 4 when it ended, and then had kids at 35, that makes her mom born in ’49, if Lorde’s 18 then she was born when her mom was 44. Or, like Kaiser said, if her mom was born in ’65 and her grandma escaped WWI, that makes her grandma 51 when she had her mom.
Maybe she meant second world war? I’m about her age, my mom had me kind of late, and my mom’s parents were young young kids during WWII.
Let’s say they escaped as one year olds with their families at the end of the World War One – 1917 that would make them 49 in 1965 when her mom was born. It’s possible. Or maybe she misspoke and meant the WW II.
Maybe she meant the second world war? Maybe her parent(s) escaped as small children? And then had her a little later?
Her mum’s from Croatia, she probably meant WW2, a lot of people left after it because of the communist regime.
I really like Lorde, but the whole magic sparkly female frendship group is just annoying, and that’s coming from someone whose friends are mostly women.
It only seems annoying because it is headed by Swifty and seems completely insincere, it’s like she is trying to befriend every female in Hollywood just so she can get in their ear and possiblly insure Katy Perry won’t be their friend ever. Very childish, Taylor is very calculating with her personal life.
And I am so glad Lorde had enough sense not to appear on that Bad Blood nonsense.
Ah you’re kinda right…
It does seem like she’s trying to snatch up everyone who isn’t Katy.
That’s what I thought. But if you try to get all deep with intersectional feminism you might not want to mess up the two world wars. It negates the point you’re trying to make. “I’m only 18 but I KNOW stuff.”
Can’t shade her too much though. If I had given an interview at 18 … Christ, the idiocy.
Why is Lena Dunham the one interviewing her?
I guess I don’t get the connection between Dunham and Lorde, other than the Taylor Swift angle.
I like Lorde, but reading this you can tell the girl is a teenager. She sounds like she’s trying to be deep, but you can tell she has limited experience in life. Which is fine, and how it should be. But let’s not pretend she’s deep and mature.
I’m also sick of hearing about Taylor every time one of her glitter pony squad does an interview. We get it, you guys are the coolest of the cool at Hollywood High, but stop with the name dropping and kiss ass.
Yeah, the Taylor Swift mentions are annoying. Are they all in cahoots to raise each other’s brands?
Yeah, her comments about teen boys are a bit odd. And I agree about the whole Taylor and co. thing. It borderline feels like a cult these days. Everyone kisses Swift ass. Vomit.
ugh why would it have to be this calculated “friendship” crap that Taylor Swift does? alright its “supportive” in terms of Taylors image and career but not in terms of actual friendship support.
Oh and women arent “magical”, we are humans. putting someone (or an entire gender) on a pedestal does not help in any way, most often the exact opposite happens.
Meh. She’s 18. God knows what I was saying at 18 and how I felt.
actually it’s Lena who talks about magic, not Lorde
Lorde is still in her teens, 18, so still evolving as she transitions into adulthood. Lena is just a boor.
So…is there more to the interview than that?
It seems very shallow though I appreciate her trying, for instance the whole ‘confronting my whiteness’ didn’t really go anywhere. I will say the one thing that I heard recently and that I am paraphrasing as well as combining this with Obama’s comments is it’s great to be aware but what other contribution are you making? Are you bringing the information you learn back to those who are not aware? Are you using your power to try and right this balance?
I’m not expecting her to save the whole world, but it still seems insulated and ineffective to merely be aware that being white comes with benefits not seen by other racial groups or ethnicities. Still though, at least she is aware and hopefully instead of merely pushing the angle and profile on her friend ship with Swift and their coven she pushes for other things as well.
She’s only 18 at this point, though. At that age, she’s probably still trying to figure out what contributions she can make and how to do it most appropriately.
I noticed Dunham seem to be doing as much talking as Lorde, or maybe even more, which was kind of weird. I was surprised Lorde could get a word in edgewise against someone so determinedly insinuating themselves into her profile.
“…it’s great to be aware but what other contribution are you making? Are you bringing the information you learn back to those who are not aware?”
I don’t go to twitter very often but from what I do remember about Lorde’s twitter account is that she does discuss things related to race, feminism, and equality on there sometimes. And that’s good, because that means her followers and young fans are being exposed to it.
She talked about racism a lot when “Royals” came under fire.
“I mean, it’s one thing for kids who fight in the comments section of YouTube and who use ‘gay’ as an insult to take offense at what you’re doing; but when it’s highly intelligent writers, all of whom you respect, you start to question what you’re doing and if you have done something wrong. I have grown up in a time when rap music is pop music, and I do think people were maybe a little bit selective about the parts of that song they used to make those arguments, because a lot of it is examples of rock excess, or just standard pop culture ‘rich kids of Instagram’-type excess. But I’m glad that people are having discussions about it and informing me about it. Also, I wrote that song a few months into being 15, and now I’m a 17-year-old looking back on that, and I didn’t know then what I know now, so I kind of am not too hard on myself.”
She sounds a lot smarter and far more self-aware at age 18 than her supposed group of magical women friends.
Thanks for the perspective ladies.
I do agree she seems better off than her besties and I think out of all of them I see her being more able to actually make that positive effective change.
Oh wow! what a great female friendship! Swifty can “gloss over” the fact that she can’t talk about boys. I mean, how sweet, because what else could they POSSIBLY talk about?? What other female in the world but SAINT SWIFTY could be friend with a girl who can’t talk about boys??
Uhg. Not impressed at all. She sounds easily influenced. Which at 18 is probably not unexpected, or necessarily a bad thing. She’s just not the indie/free spirit/alternative girl her managers would like her to be.
Of course Swifty is DenMother.
Enough already, with the artsy-fartsy pictures of Lorde wearing one of grandma’s coats.
I’m more concerned with how nobody told her that WWI started in 1914, and second WW began on 1939.
If they (I’m including Lena) are trying to sound deep and intelligent, now knowing basic history is rather tragic.
Lorde sounds more like she’s just using buzz words rather than understanding concepts. I’m hoping she just misspoke and said First World War instead of Second, because if she doesn’t know the difference, that’s ridiculous. Especially in the centenary year of Gallipoli, which involved so many New Zealanders.
Lena Dunham, the talent-free child molester who’s only where she is because of nepotism, needs to go away.
Her understanding does strike me as a little superficial, but she’s young enough that it’s forgivable. Feminists do not have to start out perfect – they just have to be willing to grow and mature.
Dunham, on the other hand, is a jackass.
Man, this girl cannot win with some people.
Ugh. I wish Lorde would not hang with the molester.
wait my mom was born in ’65 and i’m only 20 – does that make my mom “crazy old” lol?
Lena’s show isn’t about ‘Hannah Horvath’ – it’s so transparently about Lena. What I wonder is, what after Girls ends? What happens to her. She uses the ‘the coming of age girl in NYC twenties quarter life crisis thing’ and when Girls concludes that is no longer relevant to her. I mean, her whole schtick is…..herself. Does she have any other talents besides writing about her life, her dilemmas, and just….well, herself? I saw a movie she co-wrote called Nobody Walks. HORRIBLE FILM, HORRIBLE DIALOGUE. Makes me think she isn’t good at writing except when it’s about herself.
I mean I’m sure she’s been conditioned to think she’s the most special brilliant sparkliest flower of all time, so it’s no wonder her imagination is totally limited to her own experience. Although writing from one’s own perspective isn’t always a nauseating narcissism-fest- you just have to have enough talent to create the right amount of distance between your life and your subject. With Lena, she basically changes names and just goes with it. ART.
I’m a big Lorde fan and having Lena Dunham interview her does such a huge disservice to her talent! I’m so impressed by the strength of her creative vision at such a young age- I want to hear more about that. Not Lena Dunham’s self-congratulatory all-about-Lena hour.
Totally off subject. But that picture with the orange background had me doing a double take. I thought it was Jimmy Fallon!
the interviewer should help make the interviewee sound more intelligent, not less, considering they are BFFs and feminists and magical taylor swift cub pack magical members. total interview fail.