Lana Del Rey: For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept
Lana Del Rey covers the summer music issue of Fader magazine. She’s revving up to release her second studio album, Ultraviolence. The Fader journo trips all over himself for Lana. He describes the record as “a sprawling American desert, devastatingly huge, windswept by shrieking electric guitars. Lana Del Rey is surrounded by ghosts and completely alone.” Is Lana’s music really that profound? There is a song on this album called “F—ed My Way Up to the Top.”
Lana’s apathy towards matters of importance reaches a fever pitch with this interview. She famously doesn’t give a crap about some big issues. Now she doesn’t care about feminism. She doesn’t come out and say she isn’t a feminist. She simply doesn’t give a sh-t. Is that better or worse than denouncing feminism altogether? We’ve already heard about feminism this week from Keira Knightley (who gets it) and Shailene Woodley (who doesn’t get it). Let’s hear from Lizzie Grant:
She burst into tears at her Dublin show: “I’d been sick on tour for about two years with this medical anomaly that doctors couldn’t figure out. That’s a big part of my life: I just feel really sick a lot of the time and can’t figure out why. I’d gotten these shots in Russia, where we’d just been. It was just heavy. It’s just heavy performing for people who really care about you, and you don’t really care that much about yourself sometimes. I thought it was sad. I thought my position was sad. I thought it was sad to be in Ireland singing for people who really cared when I wasn’t sure if I did.”
Changing from her Lizzie to Lana persona: “Honestly, I feel like it’s more of a girl thing. I was just kind of playing, and, literally, I’m still playing. For me, being this way and dressed like this isn’t different than being out in a wig. It’s all the same to me. It’s all nothing, it’s all everything. I could really go any way. I’ve lived a lot of different lives. I lived down in Alabama with my boyfriend, I lived here in Brooklyn and in Jersey. I’ve been a lot of different people, I guess. I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m trying to do what feels right. I tried a lot of different ways of life, you know, things I never really talk about, just because they are kind of different.”
She doesn’t care about the f-word: “For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept. I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.”
Does she know what ‘feminism’ means? “My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants.”
Why is she always being choked in her videos? “I like a little hardcore love.”
On critical attacks: “My career isn’t about me. My career is a reflection of journalism, current-day journalism. My public persona and career has nothing to do with my internal process or my personal life. It is actually just a reflection on writers’ creative processes and where they’re at in 2014. Literally has nothing to do with me. Most of anything you’ve ever read is not true.”
[From The Fader]
Lana throws some excellent shade towards her critics with her mention of “writers’ creative process.” She’s saying that everyone makes stuff up about her. I assume she’s talking about her allegedly fake lips and her overnight transformation into retro torch singer. People also claim that her dad bought her a record contract, which yeah, she has a point there. No company would invest in an artist for that reason. That rumor is just mean.
On the feminism part, Lana doesn’t give a sh-t. Fine. She could have at least paid some lip service to the women who paved the way. Lana can afford the luxury of apathy because of the feminist movement. Lana should at least care enough to know that much, but she acts like it’s just so boring and beneath her. I’m not saying Lana has to be super passionate about feminism. Nobody is asking her to recite Mary Wollstonecraft passages, but some awareness would be nice.
Photos courtesy of Fader
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