Lana Del Rey is getting backlash for 'tearing down' other female artists as she complains about her own critical success

• Lana Del Rey shared an open letter on Instagram early Thursday morning, which roundly addressed criticism she's gotten for "glamorizing abuse" in her music.
• The letter begins with the header, "Question for the culture," and goes on to name-drop successful female artists who "have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f---ing, cheating etc."
• "I'm fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse," Del Rey writes, "when in reality I'm just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world."
• She goes on to announce that she's releasing a new album in September that will likely address "what I've been pondering."
• Del Rey has received backlash for "tearing down" other women to make her point, especially given that she explicitly names seven women — six of whom are women of color.

Lana Del Rey is being newly criticized for an open letter that was meant to address and nullify criticism she's gotten over the years.

Del Rey posted a lengthy note on Instagram early Thursday morning, which begins with the header, "Question for the culture."

"Now that Doja Cat, Ariana [Grande], Camila [Cabello], Cardi B, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé have had number ones with songs about being sexy, wearing no clothes, f---ing, cheating etc," she writes, "can I please go back to singing about being embodied, feeling beautiful by being in love even if the relationship is not perfect, or dancing for money, or whatever I want, without being crucified or saying that I'm glamorizing abuse?"

"I'm fed up with female writers and alt singers saying that I glamorize abuse," she continues, "when in reality I'm just a glamorous person singing about the realities of what we are all now seeing are very prevalent emotionally abusive relationships all over the world."

Del Rey goes on to clarify that she is a feminist, but believes, "there has to be a place in feminism for women who look and act like me," adding, "the kind of women who get their own stories and voices taken away from them by stronger women or by men who hate women."

Del Rey broadly defends her "minor lyrical exploration" of being "submissive" in "the challenging relationships I've had," and claims she's been unfairly accused of setting women back "hundreds of years."

"I just want to say it's been a long 10 years of bulls--- reviews up until recently and I've learned a lot from them," she writes.

"But I also feel it really paved the way for other women to stop 'putting on a happy face' and to just be able to say whatever the hell they wanted to in their music — unlike my experience where if I even expressed a note of sadness in my first two records I was deemed literally hysterical as though it was literally the 1920s."

Finally, the 34-year-old singer announces her plan to release a new album on September 5, which will likely address "what I've been pondering."

It's true that Del Rey's debut album, 2012's "Born to Die," was infamously panned by critics, including those at Pitchfork and Rolling Stone — though neither review mentions the word "abuse" even once.

It's also true that Del Rey has become something of a critical darling since then. Her 2019 album "Norman F---ing Rockwell!" was arguably the best-reviewed project of the year, and was nominated for album of the year at the 2020 Grammy Awards. Many writers, including here at Insider, celebrated Del Rey as one of the most influential artists of the decade.

Indeed, many people condemned — or even mocked — Del Rey for seeming to randomly lash out at music journalists.

"Never a good start to the day when a white pop star posts a typewriter font letter that boils down to '*gestures vaguely* critics,'" Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos wrote on Twitter.

Many others took issue with Del Rey's explicit mention of other female artists — especially considering six of the seven people she named are women of color.

"I don't know who was giving Lana Del Rey a hard time but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Black women. Girl, sing your little cocaine carols and leave us alone," advice columnist and critic Jamilah Lemieux wrote on Twitter.

Singer Jessy Wilson implored Del Rey to consider the history of black women singing about "sex, abuse, being submissive and aggressive in relationships, and being glamorous."

"you were far from the first to write and sing from these places," Wilson wrote. "this post sounds very much like a privileged white girl who is mad because she 'feels' like she hasn't had the freedom to be herself and say what she wants. no one is stopping you. so stop the damsel in distress routine."

It's also important to note that many if not all of the women Del Rey mentioned have also received criticism — both from professionals and from trolls online — for their music.

Black women in particular are frequently subjected to racist criticism when they're seen as "too sexual" or too confident.

Del Rey's letter also inspired a trend of tweets, citing lyrics from the women she named and then mocking Del Rey's imagined reaction.