“Baby put on heart-shaped sunglasses, ‘cos we’re going to take a ride.”
“Diet Mountain Dew” by Lana Del Rey
If you ever held a Tumblr blog during 2012-2014, it is incredibly likely that you witnessed the mass enthusiasm for the work and opulent glamour of the musician Lana Del Rey. From the 2012 chart-topping indie pop song “Summertime Sadness” to the 2013 soundtrack song “Young and Beautiful,” (as part of the 2013 adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” starring Leonardo DiCaprio) Lana Del Rey made waves with her crooning melancholy ballads and lavishly vintage style. She was the epitome of nonpareil glamour, a revitalised Priscilla Presley with hand tattoos and fringed white jackets, and in combination with her musical abilities, she soon became one of the most heavily exalted celebrities within the Tumblr social sphere. Throughout the course of her musical career, her art was borne through a stream of literary inspirations spanning from Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire” to Walt Whitman’s poem “I Sing The Body Electric” — however, one of the more controversial references was her frequent allusion to Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel “Lolita,” a fictional tale that recounted the life and actions of a pedophile who groomed and molested his step-daughter. The story followed the character of Humbert Humbert (a narratively constructed pseudonym) as he detailed his love and affection for his 12 year-old victim Dolores “Lolita” Haze, artificially alluding to the premise of romance in lieu of abuse through his unreliable narration.
The true glamorisation of this otherwise disturbing premise is based on the 1997 film adaption of the same name, directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Dominique Swain, Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith. The film takes the admittedly controversial technique of staying true to the novel by using aestheticised iconography to represent Humbert’s “love” for Lolita, including the visual symbol of cherries, bubblegum and the infamous red heart-shaped sunglasses that reflected his warped perspective of romance. The unreliable narration of the original novel was one of the key elements in demonstrating the immorality of Humbert’s character, as his manipulation of the audience was a tool used in attempt to represent the content as a tragic love story, rather than a traumatising case of grooming and child abuse; however, due to the film’s natural third person perspective, the events (and therefore the subsequent aestheticisation) could be misconstrued as factual, rather than through the pedophilic lens of a child abuser. Lana Del Rey has alluded to and directly referenced the character of Lolita repeatedly throughout her musical career, especially in reference to her song “Cola,” where she describes a romantic relationship with a “Harvey Weinstein/Harry Winston type of character.” It is understandable why a young fan would become enraptured with the aesthetic presentation of the movie and Lana Del Rey herself, and unintentionally miss the nuance.
“Light of my life, fire of my loins, be a good baby, do what I want,”
“Off To The Races” by Lana Del Rey
At first glance, the frequent references to “Lolita” doesn’t seem inherently problematic. In fact, it’s widely debated whether or not Lana Del Rey’s intentions were to glamorise the disturbing narrative behind the book, or just to pay homage to an important modern classic — after all, she has the words “Nabokov Whitman” tattooed across her right arm, in reference to two of her favourite authors, Vladimir Nabokov and Walt Whitman. In fact, she somewhat contentiously stated, “I have tattooed on my arm the names of my favorite authors, Whitman and Nabokov. Whenever I look at it, I remember that life can be great.” However, the troubling development of “nymphet culture” on sites like Tumblr as a partial byproduct of Lana Del Rey’s perceived endorsement of the novel posed a risk of normalising or even glorifying rape and pedophilic culture. The character Humbert in “Lolita” described the nymphet phenomenon as “Between the age limits of nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic,” which many Tumblr users seemingly felt was an appropriate and glamorous lifestyle to adopt.
Upon searching “Lolita” or “Dolores Haze” on Tumblr, an assemblage of material was presented, most of which was hand-written life advice, “aesthetically pleasing” photographs of adolescent girls or hardcore pornography, the name “Lana Del Rey” frequently shoved into the hashtags and the meaning of the novel seemingly lost on those who chose to romanticise it. One of the most obvious manifestations of this trend was a post entitled, “Why I’m a Good Nymphet,” a note handwritten on a piece of pink paper with a Hello Kitty pen that contained a list of seemingly “desirable” qualities for a “nymphet” to have, a few of which were: “I don’t laugh, I giggle. I have milky skin, long smooth legs and a flat stomach. I love being dolled up and dressed up. I look pure. I’m barely legal.”
As is apparent, this way of thinking runs the risk of normalising child abuse and perpetuates the misogynistic ideal that Lolita was in control of her exploitation, and by default, that underage girls could consent to being groomed and sexually abused in lieu of their role as “nymphets.” While emotionally relating to a character is an understandable concept, especially in cases of trauma, the glamorisation of assaulting children is unacceptable even if it is being perpetuated by children. This sentimentalisation of Humbert and inexplicable maturation of Lolita (either as a consenting party or the “true manipulator” in the situation) was one of the key criticisms of the 1997 adaptation, as the media of film often fails at demonstrating perspective or unreliable narrators. As put by Twitter user @ratheaven666, “[I am] in my therapist’s office explaining how my relationship to sex was negatively influenced by ‘She’s saying no, but wants it’ media and the rise of Lana Del Rey Lolita aesthetics at age 14.” Fundamentally, whether or not the intentions behind the glamorisation of “Lolita” and by default rape culture were pure, the consequences of the music created by Lana Del Rey, including her unreleased but publicly exposed albums (an example being her unreleased song, “Be My Daddy,” which had lyrics like, “Sitting on your lap, singing you my song, got a lollipop, I’ll give you some … You can be my daddy tonight.”) meant that women and girls were negatively affected and potentially even victimised due to the singer-songwriter’s lyrical decisions.
“Come on, you know you like little girls, you can be my daddy.”
“Put Me in a Movie” by Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey herself has never been a stranger to controversy. Even going so far as to controversially describe herself as “Lolita [that] got lost in the hood” she repeatedly references and seems to seek pleasure in discussing her relationships to older men, even at the costs to the young girls who (appropriately or not) idolise her. While it is unreasonable to demand generalised censorship over the content that artists produce, paying attention to the negative consequences especially in relation to already vulnerable communities is a key element of harm reduction. However, Lana Del Rey should also not be held solely accountable for the romanticisation of “Lolita,” as the effects of rape and pedophilia culture are rampant even in reference to the choice of cover for the large majority of the printed books, predominantly displaying depictions of little girls in their underwear or sucking on red lollipops. Fundamentally, it is also misogynistic to only be focusing on Lana Del Rey’s impact in normalising pedophilia, given that male songwriters have written more overtly sexually abusive lyrics but haven’t been expected to shoulder the responsibility of endangering young people to the same extent — an example being Brian McFadden’s 2012 song, “Just The Way You Are (Drunk At The Bar)” which had lyrics like: “I like you just the way you are / Drunk as shit dancing at the bar / I like it and I can’t wait to get you home so I can do some damage / I can’t wait to get you home so I can take advantage.”
Conclusively, the normalisation and misunderstanding of “Lolita” has been an issue since its original release in 1955. Lana Del Rey’s lyrical fascination was not the sole source in analysing the development of the “nymphet” Tumblr trend, as is the general issue with the misinterpretation of unreliable narrators, but it should be publicly acknowledged that the majority of young women who were taken in by the narrative were vulnerable and put at increased risk of sexual abuse and grooming. It is unfair to sweep the damage done under the rug as simply “an aesthetic,” as it was previously referred to by both witnesses and active participants in the “nymphet” trend, due to the real life consequences involved in fetishization of sexual abuse amongst young people who may not have all the context to critically assess the immoral actions of Humbert. Fundamentally, the key themes discussed in the book were prominent then and and remain prominent in the modern day, and it is the responsibility of adults to push past weakly conveyed movies in order to protect vulnerable young people and take steps toward disenfranchising the standardised culture of sexual abuse.