A Student Newspaper Wondered Whether Lana Del Rey Should Be ‘Cancelled’, And She Votes No
She also defended that mesh mask.
Last month, Lana Del Rey was widely criticised for wearing a mesh mask to a meet and greet event with fans. In response, a US student newspaper journalist wrote this week on Del Rey and ‘cancel culture’, which the singer took the time to respond to.
University of Michigan’s The Michigan Daily‘s op-ed, entitled “Lana Del Rey wore a mesh mask. What now?”, looks at the singer’s many controversies in the past year — from the mask to rumours she’s a secret Trump supporter to the criticism she’s ‘glamourising toxic relationships’, the latter of two she’s denied repeatedly. The article is largely a Bradshaw-esque levelling up of rhetorical questions about the enjoyment derived from ‘cancel culture’.
“Should Del Rey be deemed “problematic” by the “high courts” of the internet?,” it reads. “Do we abandon her completely? Do we shun her music and her poetry? Does this become a hard break-up, with deleted phone numbers and zero contact?”
Del Rey stumbled upon the measured take, responding directly on Twitter to call it a ‘great article’ before addressing a few of the points raised, albeit without the ‘fuck you’s she’s previously used for ‘fans’ who kept saying she voted for Trump. She then posted a screenshot of her own tweets, to make sure everyone would see them.
— Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) November 17, 2020
In her reply, firstly points out that her mesh mask has a piece of plastic behind it.
“Great article. The mask had plastic on the inside,” she wrote. “They’re commonly sewn in by stylists these days. I don’t generally respond to articles because I don’t care. But there ya go. Same goes for everyone’s masks in my video. I’m lucky enough to have a team of people who can do that”.
This, unfortunately, probably doesn’t make it an effective mask — as per WHO guidelines, masks should ideally have three layers of variant material to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In Del Rey’s defense, this means her mostly useless mask is in company with many used across the world.
Still, perhaps the optics of having a meet and greet/poetry book launch in LA during a pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans speaks to the larger issue Lana’s had this year, after she made public statements that centre herself and her own career while claiming her contemporaries (largely women of colour, too) don’t face the same struggles.
While responding, Del Rey also denied she voted for Trump, and said she didn’t ‘glamorise tough relationships’, as mentioned as other cancellable offenses in the article.
“Again not that I believe it’s anyone’s business at all-but I made it clear who I voted for. And I don’t glamorize tough relationships. Relationships can just be tough. Period. Every other singer sings about the same damn thing. Always have, Probably always will. Thanks stay tuned”.
In addition to her debut poetry collection Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass (of which half of the proceeds go to the Navajo Water Project) Del Rey recently released ‘Let Me Love You Like A Woman’, the first single from her upcoming sixth album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club.
With Chemtrails… now delayed until March 2021, Del Rey also plans to release an album of American standards on Christmas Day. Listen to ‘Let Me Love You Like A Woman’ below.