Any Lana Del Rey apologists out there want to explain why this lovely headdress appropriation moment is a great step forward for subversive feminism?
Is anyone claiming that it is? Nothing about Lana Del Rey strikes me as a great step forward for subversive feminism; the opposite is true for the most part. In spite of that— and perhaps contradicting a lot of my personal values— I like her for being a step forward for a more subversive, less homogenous way of approaching pop. That’s not excusing any kind of cultural appropriation or tourism, but there are associations with indigenous cultures and tribes all over modern independent music-linked imagery that don’t get called out. Did people have a go at Natasha Khan for surrounding herself with similar imagery on her first two records? Genuine question, I don’t recall reading any myself, though I may well have missed it. Although Khan wasn’t born a rich, white American like Elizabeth Grant, she also wasn’t born a Native American Indian. It was clearly a subject that was (and remains) of interest to Khan as she talked about it at length in interviews and knew her facts; given her (assumed?) reputation, it seems to be taken as read that Del Rey could only be flirting with this look from the perspective of a dumb aesthete who doesn’t realise the implications of how it comes across. Maybe she is.
Without wanting to come off as being permissive in the wrong way (i.e., permitting prejudice), I’ve read so much this week that jumped to conclusions about an artist/director/writer’s intent without actively probing them on what they meant by something.
