Lana Del Rey is in hot water with fans after posting a lengthy rant on Instagram, taking credit for paving the way for bigger names in the industry such as, Beyonce, Ariana Grande , Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Camila Cabello, and Kehlani.
Furthermore, she declared herself to be not not a feminist…?
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There’s a lot to unpack here. But understandably, people are not impressed.
Good morning and happy Friday! What better way to kick off the day than with some piping hot tea, amirite?
If you’ve been online in the last 24 hours, then you probably already know that singer, Lana Del Rey , is being dragged across all corners of the Internet.
After sharing a lengthy speech on Instagram — seemingly out of the blue — slamming the success of other women in the music industry and unabashedly calling herself “not not a feminist”, she has been receiving major backlash.
Lana, sis, WYD?
That’s so unclear.
“Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had numbers ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, [expletive], 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,” she wrote.
“Or whatever I want — without being crucified or saying that I’m glamorizing abuse??????”
“I’m fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse,” she went on.
“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 .”
Side note: The glamorizing of abuse that Lana is referring to comes from an older song of hers that contains the lyrics, “He hit me and it felt like a kiss.” She has since taken those lyrics out of the song when she sings it live, and has stated she no longer likes that part of the song.
She received a justified amount of backlash over that song.
Anyway, I digress.
“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 roles in my relationships has often made people say I’ve set women back hundreds of years,” she wrote.
“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 stories and voices taken away from them by stronger women or by men who hate women “.
After all that (leaving fans confused about what she meant by being “not not” a feminist, she then said something just as controversial.
“So I just want to say it’s been a long 10 years of [expletive] reviews up until recently and I’ve learned a lot from them,” she wrote .
“But I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop ‘putting on a happy face’ and to just say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music”.
Her statement was quickly met with a lot of reactions like this one.
Most of the names Lana listed are women of color, who face many difficulties of their own in the industry and in life , that she diminished, and then tried to take credit for giving them the freedom to sing sexually explicit lyrics.
Some people think that if Lana hadn’t mostly compared herself to a group of black women, she wouldn’t be facing so much backlash right now.
It definitely seems unfair that she is trying to suggest that she has been treated less fairly than they have when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Others couldn’t believe that Beyonce was one of the names that Lana listed and insinuated she “paved the way” for.
I mean, considering that Beyonce has been successfully singing liberated, female-friendly music since Destiny’s Child, I think she paved the way for Lana — not the other way around!
In response to the controversy, she updated the caption of her post — attempting to better explain herself.
“Bro. This is sad to make it about a WOC issue when I’m talking about my favorite singers,” she wrote.
“I could’ve literally said anyone but I picked my favorite [expletive] people,” she continued. “And this is the problem with society today, not everything is about whatever you want it to be.”
She then explained that by dragging her for this post , fans are proving the very point that she was trying to make in the first place, which is that she doesn’t have a “voice”.
“It’s exactly the point of my post,” she wrote, stating that race has nothing to do with it.
“There are certain women that culture doesn’t want to have a voice it may not have to do with race I don’t know what it has to do with .”
“I don’t care anymore but don’t ever ever ever ever bro- call me racist because that is [expletive],” she concluded.
While fans might not think she is racist, they certainly think that her privilege has peered its ugly head.
What do you think of Lana Del Rey’s latest statement on Instagram — claiming that she is “not not” a feminist and that she paved the way for artists like Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and many more?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
