Last year, Lana Del Rey sparked controversy when she dismissed feminism in an interview with The Fader, leading Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon to subsequently bash Lana in her memoir. Now, Lana has expanded on her comments, and she has offered a more balanced perspective about feminism.
Speaking with her friend James Franco for V Magazine [via Huffington Post], Lana clarified her views. She acknowledged the importance of feminism, but said that her interests lie elsewhere. She said:
The luxury we have as a younger generation is being able to figure out where we want to go from here, which is why I've said things like, 'I don't focus on feminism, I focus on the future.' It's not to say that there's not more to do in that area. I've gotten to witness through history the evolution of so many movements and now I'm standing at the forefront of new technological movements. I'm not undermining other issues. But I feel like that's obvious, like I shouldn't even have to bring that up.
This is a change from her previous comments, when she said, "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."
Those past remarks led Kim Gordon to write, "Today we have someone like Lana Del Rey, who doesn't even know what feminism is, who believes women can do whatever they want, which, in her world, tilts toward self-destruction, whether it's sleeping with gross old men or getting gang raped by bikers."
Del Rey's new album Honeymoon will be out on September 18 via Interscope/Polydor.
Meanwhile, Franco has reportedly penned a book called Flip-Side: Real and Imaginary Conversations with Lana Del Rey. Its release date has been listed as March 15 of next year, but the vocalist has said that she doesn't expect that it will actually be released.
Speaking with her friend James Franco for V Magazine [via Huffington Post], Lana clarified her views. She acknowledged the importance of feminism, but said that her interests lie elsewhere. She said:
The luxury we have as a younger generation is being able to figure out where we want to go from here, which is why I've said things like, 'I don't focus on feminism, I focus on the future.' It's not to say that there's not more to do in that area. I've gotten to witness through history the evolution of so many movements and now I'm standing at the forefront of new technological movements. I'm not undermining other issues. But I feel like that's obvious, like I shouldn't even have to bring that up.
This is a change from her previous comments, when she said, "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."
Those past remarks led Kim Gordon to write, "Today we have someone like Lana Del Rey, who doesn't even know what feminism is, who believes women can do whatever they want, which, in her world, tilts toward self-destruction, whether it's sleeping with gross old men or getting gang raped by bikers."
Del Rey's new album Honeymoon will be out on September 18 via Interscope/Polydor.
Meanwhile, Franco has reportedly penned a book called Flip-Side: Real and Imaginary Conversations with Lana Del Rey. Its release date has been listed as March 15 of next year, but the vocalist has said that she doesn't expect that it will actually be released.
