Lana Del Rey found herself the subject of controversy last week after she shared a lengthy message, which was subsequently criticized as tone-deaf. She has since defended her comments on stifled self-expression and double standards within the music industry, although she has since been accused of racism for the original post. In her latest video addressing the situation, she has shot down the accusation her post was racist.
"I don't want to beat a dead horse and I don#t want to go on and on about this post thing, 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 opened the clip. "It’s going to be important. 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, well, look at her, she fucking deserves it' or whatever. There are a lot of people like that."
The singer has been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism since she first broke into the mainstream, but she says that the artists she mentioned in the initial post haven't received similar comments in response. "When I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when [FKA] Twigs gets on the pole, it's art," she said. "I'm reminded constantly by my friends that lyrically there are complicated psychological factors that play into some of my songwriting, but I just wanna say that the culture is super sick right now. The fact they want to turn my post, my advocacy for fragility into a race war, it's really bad."
One of the main criticisms of her message was the women she mentioned, including Doja Cat, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Kehlani, Nicki Minaj, and Beyoncé. Many perceived that she was specifically targeting women of color in the post, which is something she says was never the intention. "I'm sorry that I didn't add one 100 percent caucasian person into the mix of the women that I admire," she explained. "It really says more about you than it does me."
As she reached the end of the clip, she addressed those who didn't like her post or her defense of her comments. "I'm not the enemy," she said. "I'm not a racist, don't get it twisted. ... So fuck off if you don't like the post."
Watch her full six-minute video above.
