Lorde vs. Selena: War of the Words

Last week, 16-year-old singer Lorde became the target of much scrutiny after making comments about Selena Gomez’s song “Come and Get It”. Lorde says the song has an anti-feminist message. Her comments even instigated singer Cher Lloyd to comment (she thinks that Lorde should learn to respect other artists.)

 

                                                  

Criticism Lorde has received is that she is picking on a celebrity that isn’t likely to rebuttal in an aggressive way- which is a valid point. There are numerous other artists that showcase much more anti-feminist messages than Selena Gomez, why not criticize them?

 

 Rihanna, for example, glamourizes sex-workers in her recent music video “Pour It Up”. The song suggests that strippers will do anything for large sums of money. Rihanna’s attempt of glamorizing this subject can be seen as reinstating gender roles and objectifying females- something feminists have protested for decades. But Rihanna has a notorious ‘Unapologetic’ attitude. With more reason to attack someone like Rihanna, could it be Lorde’s just looking for attention?

 

When asked about the feud, Selena said, "in my opinion it's not feminism if you’re tearing down another artist”. I believe her opinion is exaggerated. Lorde criticized Gomez’s lyrics, not her personally. Many young fans that idolize Selena may now consider criticism to be negative, because their role model suggests that. This limits acceptance of different opinions.

Lorde also said, "I think there's a funny culture in music that's only happened over the last 15 years… [That] you're a hater, even if you have perfectly reasonable grounds for that critique." Though I do agree with her stance on criticism in the music industry, a 16-year-old’s opinion of music in the past 15 years may be a bit inaccurate. I agree with her view of “haters” though. Just last month Ben Affleck received a lot of criticism about his new role as Batman in the upcoming movie, Batman vs. Superman. This criticism was not considered hate, however in the case of Lorde and Selena’s feud, Cher Lloyd felt she had to defend Selena from Lorde's 'hate'.

What do you think about Lorde’s criticism of Selena Gomez’s lyrics? Valid and overdue, or just an attempt to gain more attention?

Read more about the feud here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/18/lorde-selena-gomez_n_4121564.html