Liz Phair on Why Lana Del Rey Scares Rock’s Boys Club

Rolling Stone asked me to speak about Lana Del Rey. I wanted to know how big my participation in the piece would be–was it substantial or just a quote? Just a quote, they said, to which I replied that I wasn’t super interested. Which was a lie. I have a lot to say about her, but no sound bites. You see, Lana Del Rey is exactly what I was hoping to inspire when I took on the male rock establishment almost twenty years ago with my debut record, “Exile In Guyville.”

Let me break it down for you: she’s writing herself into existence. She’s giving herself a part to play because, God knows, no one else will and she wants to matter in this life. As far as I can tell, it’s working. I went straight to iTunes and bought her new release “Born To Die” in toto (how often do I do that??) because it was more than a collection of songs or a performance, it was a phenomenon. Maybe all the more so because she’s not overwhelmingly talented. The minute I hear the whisperings of “how dare she,” I’m interested.

I don’t have to like it, it doesn’t have to be worthy. Lana Del Rey seems to be bothering everybody because she allegedly “remade” herself from a folk singing, girl-next-door type into an electro-urban kitty cat on the prowl (of course I like her), and they feel she is inauthentic. I would argue that the uncomfortable feelings she elicits are simply the by-product of watching a woman wanting and taking like a man.

I am what is called a sex-positive feminist. Or maybe a radical feminist, or, wait–this one’s cool: an anarcha-feminist! Which is to say that I don’t give a f— about your labels, I just want to hear the true voices of women self-expressing–smart ones, stupid ones, ugly ones, beautiful ones, good ones, bad ones, fat ones, thin ones, all of it–until the profound silence that has resounded throughout history is filled with a healthy chorus coming from our side of the aisle.

Can you picture our society, “one nation under The Goddess, indivisible… etc.?” If the president was always a woman and all the senators, judges and key business leaders were all female? Picture being forced to talk endlessly about your feelings and listen and care when what you needed was just to get something done. Doesn’t that sound sh–ty? Tiresome? Oppressive?

Yeah, I know the feeling .

Lana Del Rey really needs to duke it out with M.I.A. and Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Kim Gordon, The Ting Tings and Tegan and Sara. That’s where she’s relevant. It’s our sh–. You wouldn’t understand.

So how does Liz Phair feel about Lana Del Rey? Well, as a recording artist, I’ve been hated, I’ve been ridiculed, and conversely, hailed as the second coming. All that matters in the end is that I’ve been heard.

Liz Phair’s 1993 album “Exile In Guyville” was named one of the top 100 albums of all time by VH1, and one of the 500 greatest albums ever by Rolling Stone.