Inquiry Paper

Lana Del Rey: The Misogynist or the Feminist?

Joel Y Peralta

City College of New York

ENGL 110: Freshman Composition

Professor Olivia Wood

May 15, 2023

Abstract

Lana Del Rey(LDR) is a popular alternative pop artist who tells rather tragic stories in her songs. She often speaks of physical and emotional abuse in a rather catchy way that makes it hard to not listen to it. She has always sparked thoughts in my mind since I have always heard her songs being played at home when I was younger and in school when I was older. There’s a Lana Del Rey song for nearly any occasion because of the range of emotions that go into every album, or era as LDR fans will call them, of her discography. This wide range creates a general story that fans can follow but many disagree on the true intentions behind the lyrics. Some critics, fans or professionals,  argue that Lana Del Rey’s work perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes by objectifying herself to cater to the male gaze. Others suggest that her use of objectification is a conscious artistic choice to express her need to remove patriarchal norms. In this paper, I will dive deeper into the themes she uses and analyze the ways in which Lana Del Rey’s work can challenge cultural messages about gender and power, and highlight the nuances of female agency and authority.

Keywords: Americana, male gaze, sexuality, complex, interpretation

The male gaze refers to how many female characters are created to be objects of desire for male audiences. This idea has infiltrated American media, where female characters often exist in relation to their male character. This can be seen in movies where the female love interest’s character has been reduced to just a desirable woman whose sole purpose is to please the male protagonist. These depictions of female characters not being actual people contribute to harmful gender stereotypes and the marginalization of women in the media.

Born To Die

Lana Del Rey’s opening track “Born to Die” on her debut album sets the tone for her complex exploration of femininity and sexuality. The lyrics “I feel so alone on a Friday night. Can you make me feel at home, if I tell you you’re mine?” make the speaker sound very desperate and alone in their begging, showing her vulnerability. However, the way in which the question is phrased suggests that there is a desire for this relationship to be transactional rather than rooted in genuine love. This foreshadows the risks and challenges that are explored throughout the album. While some critics argue that Lana Del Rey’s work perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes by objectifying herself to cater to the male gaze, others suggest that her use of objectification is a conscious artistic choice to express her need to fight against patriarchal norms. American media often portrays women that act in ways similar to Lana Del Rey’s character 

Off to the Races

Lana Del Rey’s “Off to the Races” is a very complex song that explores themes of abuse and agency inspired. A toxic relationship between the female character whose point of view LDR sings from and her partner, who she describes as a “bad man” is suggested yet despite his abusive tendencies, the woman feels comfort and appreciation in the way he holds her hand, creating a sense of emotional attachment to him. The line “he grabs me, he has me by my heart” supports this, it evokes a sense of emotional entrapment and manipulation while also furthering the idea of domestic violence being at play because that is what happens when bad men grab women. 

Lana Del Rey has the main character go back and forth between acknowledging the abusive nature of her partner and then falling back into the relationship as if nothing bad has happened, highlighting the complexity of abusive relationships and how hard it is for victims to escape them. Since she keeps putting the blindfold back on as a means to protect herself and stay happy, she may never escape the abuse. With all of that being said, there is a sense of agency and power in the way Lana Del Rey presents her. Sexuality is referenced with her “Las Vegas past” and “L.A. crass way”, challenging traditional notions of femininity and sexuality and suggesting that she is in control of her own narrative despite the abuse she is experiencing. This presents a multi-faceted and nuanced portrayal of female agency, power, and the difficulties of abusive relationships. Lana Del Rey’s use of imagery and language invites listeners to consider these themes in a deeper and more introspective way, challenging cultural messages about gender and power instead of taking it at face value and only seeing glamorized abuse.

Contributors to Genius, a popular music website where users can add their interpretation to song lyrics, too believe that Lana Del Reys’ portrayal of this female character has a purpose other than putting down women. “The patriotic colors that she embodies quickly contrast with the black associated with her lover. This could symbolize his corruption of her innocence.” (Genius, 2012). As previously stated, Lana Del Rey’s portrayal of women is rooted in stories of abuse. Throughout Off to the Races we hear many phrases that suggest the female character is being changed by her lover. Looking back on her “L.A crass way” and  “Las Vegas past” with the new information provided by Genius, then one can infer some grooming is happening. Especially with this male character having established power over the female one, he’s older, he has money and is rather violent. There are millions of reasons why this woman, the character in the song, would want not want to be near him but she stays anyways for the “gold coins” and the illusion of safety he provides, even if it harms her. On one hand, the song does reinforce harmful gender stereotypes by portraying women as objects to be traded or used for men’s pleasure. On the other, the song provides commentary on the power dynamics women sometimes have to navigate while in relationships with men. Overall, “Off to the Races” highlights the complexity of Lana Del Rey’s work, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes while also challenging traditional notions of femininity and power.

Lana Del Rey herself has stated that she does not uphold misogynistic ideas towards women and that she writes her songs taking inspiration from her own life. “Im fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse when in reality I’m just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing [is] very prevalent [in] emotionally abusive relationships all over the world” (Grant, 2020). Lana Del Reys has bajillions of female characters that are in positions of abuse at the hands of men so it is very easy for the general audience to get the wrong message. To many, it may seem obvious that Lana Del Rey has experienced at least some of the abuse she is talking about. To the few that were not getting the message as she intended it: Lana Del Rey makes sad songs that are for the masses, meaning people just love them. The sad song genre is huge and creating a false narrative that speaking of these topics, even in the way Lana Del Rey speaks of them, is harmful is not the right hill to die on.

Video Games

The song “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey is choc full of American imagery, which creates a sense of relatability for Lana Del Rey and separates her from the idea of pushing a misogynistic narrative onto her fans. Right from the start LDR is creating the idea of a perfect summer day, “Swinging in the Backyard”. She then mentions a fast car to further use American imagery to build a sense of a perfect life, contrasting what we hear in “Off to the Races”. The beer and sundress strike images of a barbecue and generally, the families that are better off host as they want to show off their success and share with their friends and family. Additionally, video games are mentioned which brings the audience to a more modern and less timeless experience. Having such a positive event take place after her earlier and sadder songs in the album creates a sort of progression of her emotional journey. Lana Del uses Americana to make a very relatable yet idealistic image of a day spent with her loving partner.

“Although Del Rey insists it’s about being in love and she’s singing about being in the throes of a loving relationship, that’s not how it comes across. Not at all. The whole record sounds elegiac – sort of a mourning song for a certain type of perceived American dream; the perfect fit for Del Rey’s aesthetic.” (Heaf, 2012)

It’s very common for critics to disagree with artists on what their work means. Everyone has different worldly views that influence how they consume media. Heaf acknowledges LDRs truth that Video Games is a love song yet still pushes his own that it’s too gloomy to be one. Commenting that Lana Del Rey is perfectly in character for mourning her dead American dream is reinforcing the box that many fans have placed Lana Del Rey in.

The love story told in Video Games contrasts with the one told in Off To The Races in the way Lana Del Rey’s character’s love is fueled and expressed. The lyrics “It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you. Everything I do. I tell you all the time Heaven is a place on Earth with you” is a very literal way for the character to express her love and willingness to keep it. Unlike the love story told in “Off to the Races”, this song is a step forward for her love life, since it is actual love. “Heaven is a place on Earth with you” raises the partner on a pedestal which might raise some eyebrows given the fact that Lana’s other songs explore toxic relationships but since the entire song can be taken as a declaration of love, it’s bound to be one-sided. The main character is willing to do anything to make her partner happy because it makes her happy while in “Off To The Races” she does it for money. Intrinsic motivation is less likely to cause burnout and stress because merely doing the action is it is own reward while extrinsic motivation is when someone is chasing a reward, it is far less effective because it causes stress. Lana Del Rey’s motivation is entirely intrinsic, she is devoted to this man and wants to see his smile and feel his arms around her.

“Tell me all the things you wanna do. I heard you like bad girls, honey, is that true? It’s better than I ever even knew” This is now where Lana Del Rey gets a little closer to the border between devotion and obsession. She is open to trying new things, breaking the mold, and exiting her comfort zone for him. Being a little bit of a social chameleon does not ruin the innocence of this new relationship and despite making sacrifices or at least just being willing to make them, Lana Del Rey does not seem to regret anything she has theoretically done. Continuing with the idea of Americana, anyone would sacrifice anything for love and family and all of that cheesy stuff that has been thrown into film and television since they have been invented. So when Lana Del Rey sings “They say that the world was built for two. Only worth living if somebody is loving you” she is expressing the newfound mutuality in her relationship. The love is shared, not given. Being in love with her partner is the only thing that matters, its the whole world for her. A more accurate description of Video Games is about how far she is willing to go for love, not how little she has been reduced by love. 

Discussion

As a long-time Lana Del Rey fan, this paper was very interesting to write. I was listening to her song “Religion” during class the day we started the paper so I proposed writing about different forms of Christianity. I am not exaggerating when I say that I felt utter despair even amusing that topic. I had no idea what to write about so I asked for help in the Zoom meeting which you provided. You did help a lot but I just had no drive to move forward. After building up the courage to ask to write about Lana Del Rey instead and then getting the okay for it I felt much better. This paper was less like some boring and lengthy assignment for my English class and more like a fun but big assignment of diving into a topic I actually care about.

As seen in my other papers, I am on social media. Some would say a lot more than the average person. Because of algorithms, numbers, and math, I am able to connect with a lot of people that share the same interest as me. Often times I see people saying that they are smoking cigarettes or sleeping with older men but do not fret because they are doing it in a Lana way. Meaning that they know they’re doing something harmful but are going to keep doing it because Lana Del Rey did something similar and she’s just so hot or whatever. My original topic was going to be dissecting what “in a Lana way” means, and how LDRs intended message gets misconstrued. After doing some research I found it more appropriate to instead provide a space and discuss how Lana Del Rey does come across as these negative words people often use to describe her but that is not the case. The difference is the acknowledgment of people calling her misogynistic, it’s not entirely nonsense. I chose her album Born to Die because it’s the one I grew up on. I briefly went over the song Born To Die, then Off to the Races, and lastly, Video Games because these songs just have so much to talk about. I ordered them in the way they appear in the album because that is just what felt natural. My arguments were expressed in a way parallel to my thesis, raising the idea that some see it as misogynistic but with “XYZ” we see that it isn’t. To make my overall paper stick I used the infamous “Question for the Culture” as this was a pretty recent controversy. Presenting my arguments was really just more about keeping it sweet and simple instead of bombarding it with information.

Establishing myself as a worthy speaker was not at the forefront of my mind as I was writing but in hindsight, it can be seen in my choice of a topic. It is a rather interesting topic, at least to me, so it must be interesting to read, hopefully for you. Other topics would have been much easier to research but just rereading my thesis makes it clearer that I won’t really rely on scholarly articles. The purpose of any assignment is to get a good grade but this one also had the purpose of being a good read for my peers. The intended audience is anyone interested in Lana Del Rey. I appealed to emotion with all of the talk of abuse and misogyny, those topics generally strike a bit of it into people. Specifically, I appealed to bring out people’s sympathy and try to see things from her point of view. 

Rhetorical Devices

Parallelism:

1.  I intentionally placed this in here because I wanted to show the really large range in the duration of my listening experience and how it creates a contrast. Parallelism was  also used to make the information easier to digest as the abstract sets up the entire paper
2. There was a lot of parallelism in my paper since I am talking about two sides of a controversial person. I specifically chose this one to expand on since it was just so obvious to me. The parallelism is in “on one hand” and “gender stereotypes” with “on the other hand” and “power dynamics”. This device was used because these sentences are paired and contrast each other. Gender stereotypes are something being pushed onto one party while power dynamics is something being shared between the two.

Hyperbole

3. “The song video games has a lot of American imagery” just doesn’t sound nearly as interesting as using “choc-full”.  Using such a phrase also makes the paragraph sound a little more playful which was intended since the previous section is a little gloomy. As a rhetorical device, hyperbole is used as a more playful and interesting way of saying “a lot” that allows my readers to not be so bored while reading.
4. I wanted to soften the blow of LDR making a lot of misogynistic portrayals of women so I used hyperbole. By using a pinch of comedy instead of being serious it makes it easier for readers to see her in the way the rest of my paper describes her. Hyperbole was used so that the section was more coherent with the rest of the paper’s portrayal of Lana Del Rey.

Antithesis

5. Antithesis is being used to show how the ideas contrast with each other. Separating it from parallelism was a challenge but antithesis focuses more on a denial of something rather than creating a balance. I used antithesis here as a way to just flat out say that the opposing view on Video Games is incorrect.

Bibliography

1. Grant, E. (2020). Question for the Culture. Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/sociolojay/status/1660197590032596992/photo/1. 
2. Heaf, J. (2012, October 1). Woman of the year: Lana Del Rey. British GQ. https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/woman-of-the-year-lana-del-rey 
3. Lana Del Rey. (n.d.-a). Off to the races. On Born to die – The paradise edition deluxe. Polydor UK. 
4. Lana Del Rey. (n.d.-b). Video games. On Born to die – The paradise edition deluxe. Polydor UK. 
5. Lana Del Rey. (n.d.-b). Born to Die. On Born to die – The paradise edition deluxe. Polydor UK. 
6. Lana Del Rey – off to the races. Genius. (2012). https://genius.com/Lana-del-rey-off-to-the-races-lyrics