As we discussed, Lana del Rey’s Big Gemini Season Energy has turned into something confusing and nonsensical. She started out by making a poorly made argument about how all female artists should be able to sing or rap about abusive relationships without everyone yelling at them, but the whole thing has devolved into Lana claiming that her critics are trying to make her the centerpiece of a race war. At no point has Lana said “you know what, my original point was poorly made, I’m sorry for the miscommunication.” At no point has Lana said “maybe I shouldn’t speak over women of color to whitesplain what I really mean.” Well, guess what. Lana has more sh-t to say. This is truly her fourth public statement in less than a week.
Lana Del Rey took to Instagram early Monday morning to further defend comments that made her the subject of racism accusations.
“I don’t want to beat a dead horse and I don’t want to go on and on about this post, but I just want to remind you that in that post — my one and only personal declaration I’ve ever made, thanks for being so warm and welcoming — was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement,” she said in a new, six-minute video shared Monday morning. “And when I mentioned women who 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 look at her, she f–king deserves it’ or whatever,” she said. “There’s a lot of people like that.”
“I just think it’s sad the women I mentioned, whether they sing about dancing for money or whatever — the same stuff, by the way, I’ve been singing about and chronicling for 13 years,” she said. “The difference is, when I get on the pole people call me a whore, but when Twigs gets on the pole, it’s art. I’m reminded constantly by my friends that lyrically there are layers and complicated psychological factors that play into some of my songwriting. But I just want to say the culture is super sick right now. And the fact that they want to turn my post, my advocacy from fragility into a race war, it’s really bad.”
The 34-year-old went on to say she has long been an advocate for reparations and considers herself a “girl’s girl.”
“To all of the other women out there who are like me, good girls, good intentioned, who get f–ked up the ass constantly by the culture just because you say what you really mean, I’m with you, I’m here for you and I know that you feel for me. I’m sorry I didn’t add one caucasian, one 100% caucasian woman into the mix of women that I admire, but it really says more about you than it does about me,” she continued, before saying she’s been the target of “hateful” comments, has been called “f–king white bitch” and even had her phone number leaked during the controversy.
Without mentioning other names, she then addressed her relationship with the women she previously mentioned. “I’m sorry that some of the girls I talked to that I mentioned in that post have a super different opinion of my insight, especially because we’ve been so close for so long,” said the singer. “But it really, again, makes you reach into the depth of your own heart and say, ‘Am I good intentioned?’ Of course, for me, the answer is always yes. 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.”
One, FKA Twigs dances on the pole and sings about damaged, abusive relationships and now it just sounds like Lana is jealous of Twigs’ authenticity on the pole AND authenticity in speaking about abuse and violence. Two, how many women contacted Lana privately? It sounds like a lot of them. Beyonce probably wouldn’t, but I could definitely see Ariana, Cardi, maybe Kehlani trying to talk to Lana and tell her she’s being a white feminist. And, by the way, Ariana is 100% caucasian and Lana is 100% ridiculous. I honestly had no idea she was like this? I thought she was so much cooler than this.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Why does she keep going? Like she’s just digging that hole deeper and deeper. She just keeps reiterating that her white girl fragility.
Was the fragile, glamourous girl ever under attack? Have I missed something? As I said in my entry, I have 100% fallen of the wagon in trying to decipher what she is saying.
She’s digging up old drama. Her latest album was her most critically acclaimed but she’s still hung up on critics that called her fake in 2012.
She also thinks she deserves to have hit songs because there needs to be a place for fragility or something.
@farah
She was garbage in 2012, and she remains garbage in 2020.
She has always been a talent-less hack! I called her “crazy” out in 2012. She is proving me correct. She needs to have several seats and probably some therapy too.
It’s as if Billie Eilish never existed or something
Is she trying to out-LenaDunham Lena Dunham?
Buuuuuuurrrrrrrrnnnnnnn!
Dude.
She should just go home now.
I’m so confused. I’ve tried to follow this, but I just don’t understand her posts at all. English isn’t my first language, so I think thats why I don’t get it. But it seems like native english speakers struggles to? Her posts just reads AS fever dreams to me.
I also don’t understand much of what she is trying to say
I’m a native English speaker and I have literally no idea what she’s talking about.
I don’t understand her either. Confused thinking, confused speaking.
Native understanding wouldn’t help you. She’s wrong, deep down she knows she’s wrong, so she’s talking in circles to try and confuse the point.
Same here.
But my feeling is: STOP TALKING.
I don’t think she knows what she is saying either. What a mess.
Don’t worry, I’m a college educated, native English speaker and I’m just as lost. She’s reading like a quasi-coherent version of a Trump ramble at this point.
She said in a previous statement that Ariana and Doja reached out to her. She also unfollowed Ariana on IG.
This made me laugh “I’m sorry I didn’t add one caucasian, one 100% caucasian woman into the mix of women that I admire, but it really says more about you than it does about me”
She just confirmed she doesn’t know Ariana is white lmaooooo.
And we had some people here in Celebitchy saying it wasn’t a case of “white female fragility”, just you know, a delicate woman in her feefees! The hell it wasn’t.
The fact that she sees Ariana as a WOC and brings it up now seems to show her first comment was really meant to target women of colour. And now , Lana adds Twigs to her cocktail of entitlement, self-loathing and bigotry.
Lana just making use of her white privilege.
Asking for a friend, where is Lana’s agent?
She needs to sit down and read a damn newspaper or watch some news. She needs to watch that video of the woman calling police on a Black man in Central Park’s bramble. She needs to watch video of the homeless Black women who protested a lack of housing in Oakland by squatting in abandoned houses, and then she needs to read about how it got to be that way. She needs to see real poverty, real pain, the consequences of how the way she thinks plays out for other people.
She needs to get out of her head and look outward. She sounds selfish and like she needs the last word instead of being open to other people’s pain. She’s showing how immature she is.
a friend of mine works in the music industry in the UK, on the promotion/marketing side of things, and she says when she worked to promote Lana’s album, there was no manager or agent or publicist or anything. They had to communicate with Lana directly. So I don’t think she has anybody around her to do damage control.
She needs to put her phone down and go to bed. Sleep-off whatever she’s been on.
Exactly. Time to put that phone down, Karen.
I don’t know why I’m shocked that a white woman who’s whole image revolves around the 50s/60s acts like this.
Good point. *sad sigh* I was never super into LDR, but I did like some of her songs. This is just sad now. Girl, stooooooop.
I wonder if anybody is talking to Lana because she keeps making these self inflicted wounds worse and it seems to be costing her friendships in the music community. All she has to do is stop talking and this will die down.
Or to say “Sorry I was wrong but I’m willing to listen and learn”. Boom. Magic.
There’s a difference between singing about abuse and romanticizing/normalizing it. I think that’s the point critics have tried to make about Lana in the past.
Are they justified? Yes and no.
Lana’s early music straddled the line of making abuse sound romantic but it seemed to me she was singing about her perspective when she was in that relationship. Her later music has talked about escaping that toxicity and being free and no longer being sad. Women shouldn’t only be praised for making music about female empowerment, but also about when they don’t have power because that’s also part of the female experience.
*If* this was Lana’s argument it’s fair. But she went about it the complete wrong way, didn’t articulate herself well and sounds like an idiot by equating her experience to women of colour (and Ariana Grande). Lana is also critically acclaimed. The criticism she’s referring to is years old and not reflective of what I’ve seen written about her.
I agree but critical praise has to be earned and you can’t make a critic agree with you or like your work… like she doesn’t deserve praise unless she actually makes something good. I like her songs but she is coming off like a racist crackpot. She’s gotten lots of critical acclaim and success, but she for some reason wants to play the victim and pretend “feminism” in general is the problem rather than “I demand to be adored by everyone”… it doesn’t make sense.
The way she keeps going and going, she has to be stirring up controversy and interest for her album right?? There’s no way she can’t know she’s only making things worse with every note she posts. Also, the fact that she thinks Ariana isn’t white probably thrilled her…you don’t blackfish the way Ariana does unless you want people to be mistaken.
“The difference is, when I get on the pole people call me a whore, but when Twigs gets on the pole, it’s art.”
When FKA Twigs gets on the pole IT IS art.
Seriously. Twigs posted an entire journey showing her progress with pole dancing after serious surgery that involved removing uterine fibroids and it was for a video for a song about dealing with racist fans of her boyfriend who sat back and DID NOTHING. It was literally art.
Even taking out the artistic aspect there are plenty of actual strippers particularly in Atlanta who are more athletic and skilled than Lana lazily spinning around a pole and work very hard to make money off of it. Moreso than some white woman who has always been wealthy and only did it to cosplay being poor for her white trash aesthetic.
I’ve followed Lana for a long time because her music is fun and puts me in a sugar baby mood, but I’m not surprised she’s one of *those* white women.
If you are interested, you can hear the boyfriend talk about this with Howard Stern in 2017. They as a couple really struggled with how to deal with and react to the horrific racist attacks, and thought that any acknowledgement of these people would just embolden them and give them a sense of “power”, then escalating the attacks. He said it felt like punching at a reflection – anything they could do would have no effect at all. So I don’t think it’s altogether fair to say he just “sat back” and didn’t care. He has talked the guilt of bringing this type of thing into someone’s life in past interviews as well.
Funny that Prince Harry wrote a letter addressing racist ppl abusing his then girlfriend and it made it clear that behavior from both media members and the public alike were unacceptable and showed a sense of his protecting and caring for his then girl friend. We don’t know if he convinced her it would only get worse to say anything about it public ally bc even when Twigs tried to defend herself the backlash was always she was using and dating him to make a name for herself and her career. Him not addressing the legions of racist fans that his inaction and lack of public statement gave them power to continue abusing her without them also turning on him. Fuck him and his cowardice! I was one his ultimate stans and will never forget how he left Talia out to dry at the mercy of those contemptible bitches. He was a pussy. And that’s why Twigs latest record speaks about how it all affected it her. And cellophane in particularly gives Twigs own perspective that He allowed his cowardice and inaction of dealing with ppl trying to tear them apart, to effectively tear them apart. They were dehumanizing her and his silence gave them that license to continue.
When Harry wrote that letter, did it help? Nope, the hate continued unabated. Also, Harry’s letter was addressed to the tabloid press and comment sections. Twigs was not getting hateful press, she was getting attacked by mostly South American Twilight fans on her social media.
If you listen to him talk about it instead of assuming Rob was a complete a–hole to the woman he loved, you can hear how he describes the situation, the frustration, the inability to control it, and how hurtful it was for both of them. She got the hate, and he had the guilt for bringing it into her life. He didn’t choose to stay silent out of cowardice, but because they thought speaking out would make it worse. Half those racists didn’t even like Rob, they were just mad that their fantasy Twilight couple weren’t together anymore.
Clearly you have a different opinion, but quite honestly I don’t see how he had any control over it. It certainly wan’t about keeping the Twilight fans interested in him – he fled that type of fame as quickly as he could.
My take on their relationship – they got engaged and spent oodles of time together when Rob’s career was slow (2014-2016). Once Good Time hit and he started working more, they grew apart. She had her career, he had his, and they stopped growing together. Like she said in an interview, untangling your life from someone you thought you were going to marry is awful. Rob went through that too, we just don’t know his side because he hasn’t shared it.
Something similar happened with Jaz Sinclair and Ross Lynch from that Sabrina show. He ended up calling out the racist stans.
Also, this is always very telling: “even when Twigs tried to defend herself the backlash was always she was using and dating him to make a name for herself and her career. ” People really expose their priorities more than they think with that kind of excuse, whether they’re the ones being called out or just enabling.
@Chica My thoughts exactly! It was such a disappointment and disheartening when he didn’t come to her defense. Just threw her to the wolves.
If what she said the first time had been thought out and meaningful, she would not feel the need to word vomit every few hours about her intentions. When you step in it, stop and clean it up. Right now she’s just tracking it everything like a mischievous puppy.
people are too judgy and expect others to be divine when they’re not that way themselves. she’s a mess. everybody’s a mess in a way. let’s not be too harsh on her.
Thank you. Lana is a fallible human like all of us. She’s not yet able to have the necessary perspective to see her missteps. She’s reactive and defensive because she feels attacked. How about granting her a little grace and empathy?
Normally I’d agree, however she seems to be digging deeper with every reply
Lana’s a 35 year old woman, not a toddler. Adults clean up their “messes” without having to be “divine” by resorting to basic decency.
Why are some people always asking to let some adults remain unaccountable for their actions? Has she apologized in any manner during this days long saga, even once? No.
“It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility.”
Del Ray’s comments genuinely hurt people and further strengthened systematic attitudes that are racist and actively work to destroy people’s lives and careers. Did she mean to do it? Hopefully not. But refusing to take responsibility for her mistakes, and instead doubling down on how she never made any, relying on those same attitudes to shield her from criticism, is not being a mess. It’s complicity.
No. She minimized the struggles of WOC in the industry while focusing on her own, as if she were the only female artist to ever have her work be criticized. She then doubled down and threw in yet another WOC to favorably compare herself to. And in all cases she’s minimizing their talent while acting like she f*cking Mozart. She’s a ignorant, spoiled white woman who feels entitled to the mainstream success that many of these WOC have, and that should always be called out. The fact that she ‘forgets’/doesn’t seem to realize that Ariana is white is even more damning regarding her intentions.
we all focus more on our struggles and not other people’s. that’s the most natural thing ever. our problems always feel like first world problems because they are ours. she talked about her feelings. she may not be the most mature person ever, but people shouldn’t be criticized this much for that. people feel how they feel. also, we all are sometimes salty and immature and think we deserve more than our ‘competitors’ and stuff like that. I reallllly don’t think this has anything to do with race in her head.
” I reallllly don’t think this has anything to do with race in her head ” Maybe not in her head, but in the real world it “reallllly” does. And why does se only see WOC as her competition then?
I’m a dark skinned Afro Latina, and I understood what Lana was saying from the jump. This recreational outrage is tiresome, frankly I hate how much the media “others” us. I think it’s well intentioned, but misses the mark completely. WOC are people like everyone else, and deserve to be set next to white women in praise and criticism, we are just people, after all…
I was willing to overlook her first post because Covid Crazies are real for everyone; stress, quarantine, etc… is messing with all of our minds, but she just keeps digging herself deeper! She has not taken responsibility for anything she’s said nor has she made the effort to examine her racial biases or even look at things from the perspective of a WOC.
This is just a mess and she needs to stop. Of course, nobody should still be getting called things like wh*re or victim-blamed (which, I’m guessing is what she meant by “the kind of women who other people might not believe, because they think, ‘Oh look at her, she f–king deserves it’ or whatever,”). That kind of misogyny, even when directed at women and girls with money, can’t be separated from how girls and women with less privilege are treated online and offline any more than homophobia can. We still have a way to go. But she’s acting like she’s had it worse than all those other women (mostly woc) when she hasn’t. She, like a lot of white women, also doesn’t seem to get that being any woman of color often comes with all races expecting you to automatically be more willing to accept people’s misogyny, and to center men. She doesn’t see the different ways people on both sides try to use, manipulate, and pressure women who are anything other than white when they want to either promote misogyny, or sweep it under the rug. That’s another thing Elizabeth needs to think about before saying she’s given less room to be “delicate” than a bunch of women of color, and it’s something western white women in general need to think about when they’re tempted to tone-police in those kinds of discussions.
Sure, Kajaren.
I’ve made a similar comment to her initial ones, about the content of a lot of female artists’ music being about sleeping with dudes just so they’ll buy them shit, or other some such things.
But I didn’t double down on my bullshit and here’s some things I’ve learned or realized since,
-Artists, of any gender, create based on what they know. Many female artists have been assaulted or coerced sexually because that is the nature of the industry. Almost all female artists have to sell based on their sexual appeal, again, because the music world wouldn’t give them a voice otherwise.
-If it seems like African heritage artists disproportionately sing about lives in the sex industry, there’s two reasons. One, POC are more likely to be in those industries because of multigenerational poverty, institutional racism and lack of opportunities. Second reason, that is what the music industry EXPECTS from them. White girls play guitar and sing about heartbreak, dark skinned woman are supposed to sing about baby daddies and the pole. That is their roll and the people with the money won’t accept anything else.
-Ariana Grande, who is NOT a person of color but is smack dab in the middle of this, has specifically talked about wanting to create music and release music “the way men do”. She was referring to dropping singles whenever she felt like it, and having a quick turn around. But also, if a woman wants to sing about being sexual or being a little trashy or using her sexuality, she should. Men are constantly singing about bitches and sex. So it’s kind of a good for the goose, good for the gander kind of thing.
Also, Lizzie Grant seems like she doesn’t know when to quit. I don’t mean that as a compliment.
Very well put and it’s awesome that you took the time for self-reflection! 🙂
Girl, SHUT UP!
She just keeps showing her a$$, it’s not a good look
I really need for her to stop policing black women’s bodies and sexuality. She is a talentless hack and needs to STOP. I’m glad Black Titter is ripping into her. She deserves it.
Exactly this.
So…she name checks ANOTHER WOC to defend herself against name-checking WOC. Girl…just stfu.
I don’t like her winged-out eyeliner. That’s all I’ve got.
*sigh* with the way she keeps name checking WOC the only good thing that can come out of this mess is a Nicki Minaj diss. Do it Nicki! End ha!
Her publicist must be having a nervous breakdown by now. She’s dug herself into such a deep hole…and yet she keeps digging!
She just keeps talking, holy shit. Go away, Elizabeth.
The thing that’s sad is that no one cares if LDR wants to sing about abuse or sex work, no one is comparing her to other female artists’ songs on those topics, like maybe 2 or 3 critics max ever said she shouldn’t write songs about those life experiences, most people think artists have a right to make whatever art they want to. What people are writing about LDR now is all about the way she is writing about race in this slew of recent public statements. Her original point is long lost. The trouble is her discourse, tinged with dog whistles and white postfeminism (which is not feminism). She needs to take several seats.
I find it quite interesting that as she continues to throw out names of WOC artists, she repeatedly complains about “female critics” and “female alternative singers” that have criticized her and yet she refuses to name THEM (and those women are almost certainly white). She doesn’t have a word for the many male critics that criticized her either. Lana revealed A LOT about herself this weekend, and it ain’t pretty.
No Lana, women shouldn’t be “fragile”, they should be and are strong. Much stronger than men because we’ve had to put up with male patriarchy and violence for centuries. Women don’t have to hide behind “we’re the more delicate sex” or tamp down our strength the way you are suggesting we should like you’re some kind of special role model.
To quote Monty Pyton…”Shut your festering gob you twit”.
And here’s the thing–even if women are fragile, and show themselves as such, that doesn’t make them weak either.
It takes strength to be vulnerable. Great strength. It’s not something I’ve been able to do in my own life and I struggle with it every day. Vulnerability requires you to be truthful. You have to hold up the mirror to your own self even if you don’t like what you see. Being honest is the most difficult, most courageous thing in the world. You put yourself on the front line when you do that but you have to.
It’s easy to deny and turn away from the truth. That’s what’s weak.
Lana Del Reycist is the epitome of white fragility. It honestly sounds like she’s on drugs or going through some sort of mental issues right now. Like lockdown is tough but that’s what therapy is for.
Or maybe she’s just an asshole, I’ve never followed her music so I can’t really say
Lana isn’t fragile. She’s a passive aggressive woman who can’t seem to form a cogent thought or think critically. She’s an idiot.
She seems not smart.
What is going on with this woman? Why does she keep slagging on other artists? FKA Twigs is a professionally trained dancer/ choreographer. Her work really pushes artistic boundaries, and she also directs a lot of her own videos. Love her music, and she does a hell of a lot more than dance on a pole. I like Del Rays music sometimes but she is a mess. All this just because one critic didn’t like her album. She needs to get a grip and get a clue.
Eh, I don’t think the reaction to this is warranted. It seems like hyper sensitive cancel culture to me. LDR was just saying that being a certain flavor of sexualized boss bitch gets a round of applause and when she’s sexy in a different (bleaker, more noir) context, she gets called out for glamorizing dysfunction. It is a double standard.
Then she should just say that. She did not need to use other artists and frame herself as the poor, misunderstood victim, in comparison to their oh-so-easily-accepted art.
The “delicate” one.
Most of the women in her original statement receive just as much if-not more criticism as she does. Are we going to pretend that Cardi, Nicki etc. aren’t called whores?
Lana can call out her critics without presenting herself as the “delicate” victim, who is treated so much worse than the woc.
So many things to unpack and examine in Lizzie’s latest statement, but what is going on with her repeatedly calling grown women (and herself) “girls”? I’m a “girl’s girl” (whatever the hell that means), “I’m a good girl.” Examining her constant self-infantilization could make some lucky therapist really rich.
She’s going through some sh*t and should really go to therapy to reclaim her power.
It’s obvious that she victimizes herself. She’s talking about being abused and not believed when she talks or sings about it. That people think: oh she deserved it.
But “girl” that’s the story of every woman alive and dead who’s been through abuse.
She’s claiming its fragility, but it’s her not taking responsibility for her mental health and well being and, like I said, claim her power. She wants people to feel sorry for her.
So she is definitely going through something that should be on social media, but in a therapy room.
And I read her post as she didn’t mentioned any white women because she only looks up to non-white women. How ever, bad the formulation of that message, that’s what I took from it.
“And I read her post as she didn’t mentioned any white women because she only looks up to non-white women. How ever, bad the formulation of that message, that’s what I took from it.”
She’s definitely cited white women as inspirational figures to her before (Amy Winehouse, Stevie Nicks, Britney for instance). In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard her talk about most of the women on her list until her recent rants. I think several people also noted that she only followed Ariana and Camila Cabello on social media. It’s a rather superficial metric, but Lana’s certainly shown how vapid she is over time.
If anyone has not seen FKA Twigs on the pole for her video, I recommend that you do. Her dance is essentially ballet with a pole. Liz is “dancing” as a stripper in a club, or trying to. I was a dancer for five years, and Liz’s “dancing” is nothing close to what I ever did.
FKA Twigs has incredible fragility (and strength) for the record.
I’d like to thank Lana for opening her mouth because I wasn’t aware of the videos of FKA Twigs dancing…so I went and watched them. They are are art! Loved Cellophane and the practice video. She is such a talented woman!
I just want to point out, what in the world is Lana smoking that she genuinely think FKA Twigs isn’t called a whore? She was trashed up and down social media and Twitter by rabid Robert Pattinson stans who are still diehard in their delusional belief that him and Kristen Stewart never broke up, that she’s not a real lesbian, that they’re secretly married and have two kids together.
Literally none of those women have escaped any amount of hate, ever. Not for their art, certainly not for their personal life. I still remember people having meltdowns all over Twitter when Lemonade was first released, and they progressed through the album and realized that Beyonce wouldn’t be dumping Jay Z and how that makes her a fake feminist for having a complicated marriage and relationship and creating art about how she worked through it. I get that she’s bitter about the unfair criticism she’s received over the course of her career, but she needs to calm tf down and talk about that rather than drag in women who have nothing to do with it and don’t need to be compared.