Supplemental Post #2: Lana Del Rey, (White) Womanhood, and Nihilism

In class today we began to discuss the notion of femininity and how whiteness plays into the construction of it. This discussion reminded me a great deal of the discourse around Lana Del Rey. She is often labeled one of the whitest and most feminine pop stars in American pop culture and pop music. Her mysteriousness and sex kitten characteristics embody the virgin and whore dichotomy. Her videos exemplify this with her brooding about older men dressed often in flower crowns and white lacy dresses echoing The Virgin Suicides. 

However, at the same time she is often characterized by her embracing of death and the morbid. This dichotomy of feminine and nihilism often confuses many media critics. I found this article by Salon to be of particular interest in this discussion because it poses that we as a culture are accustomed to this nihilism characterizing our male cultural figures.