Lana Del Ray says things she shouldn't. Twitter Acts Accordingly

Lana Del Rey should have just announced new music and moved along.

When called out on her portions of her music having themes of domestic abuse, rather than deal with that criticism directly, she penned the following:

“Now that Doja Cat, Ariana, Camila, Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, fucking, 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 — or whatever I want — without being crucified or saying that I'm glamorizing abuse??????”
Yeah, there is a lot to unpack here.

If Lana just wanted to introduce her upcoming album in September, why not, well, just do that.

If she wanted to address the critics of her music, why not, well, do that?

Why bring others into your obvious gripe with music and why pair that with your album announcement?

Why bring folks into it, namely a good amount of popular and well respected Black Women? Why seemingly thumb your nose at the music Lana later says "...This is sad to make it about a WOC issue when I’m talking about my favorite singers. I could’ve literally said anyone but I picked my favorite fucking people."?

To ignore the very blatant and obvious commentary in naming Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Kehlani, Doja Cat, and Megan Thee Stallion is something those of us who belong in the communities these women belong to don't and never had. But Lana does, and she uses it by asking us to ignore the obvious.

"Lana Del Rey erased the work of Black women and played the oppression Olympics, just to promote two poetry books and an album. The Caucasity of it all," wrote culture and entertainment director at Teen Vogue, Danielle Kwateng-Clark, while writer Ashley Reese for Jezebel says, "The optics of Lana, a white woman, complaining about feminism lacking space for her while critiquing the acclaim allotted to several black pop artists is mortifying."

Michael Blackmon, BuzzFeed News Reporter, says this:
"...her statement is arrogant and ahistorical. The idea that she ushered in a wave of women artists singing about sex and failed relationships is just absurd when there were many before her who have sung about the very same subject. And she fails to recognize that the majority of the women she named, many of whom are black or women of color, have endured a lot of the same struggles as Del Rey — and often to a greater extent because of their race. There’s an entire history of women singers and songwriters making music — the kind Del Rey seems to believe she invented — who are completely erased by her statement."
Lana writes as though she has suffered the worse criticism any woman in music ever has. This completely ignores the struggles women artists, some of whom she mentioned on her little list, endured. Did we forget that a Police Union called for a boycott of Beyoncé? That's more than just some words scrawled in magazines and on the internet.

Additionally, let's talk about this feminism thing. Saying "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," is pretty tone-deaf, considering the long and problematic history of feminism and Women of Color, specifically Black Women.

Lana's, whose name is Elizabeth Grant, statement flippantly ignores all of this, and rather than taking direct aim at her critics, she blunders, deflecting from what she's actually trying to say to draw the ire of many. She comes off as a Karen, a white woman complaining about what is a valid issue, but not seeing her role in it.

Some of us felt a way:



But most of us just came for the fun drag:




Lana may have been making valid commentary on what she believes to be the misogynistic nature of the music industry. However, it is ironic to make that point on the backs of Women of Color without acknowledging how White Women played their role in this oppression while simultaneously ignoring her own often over-sexualized and graphic lyrics. At the end of the day, Lana would have done better to just announce new music and move along.

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