Lana Del Ray slammed for wearing mesh face mask to fan meet-and-greet

Lana Del Ray has been slammed on social media for wearing a rhinestone-encrusted mesh face mask for a meet-and-greet with fans over the weekend in Los Angeles, California.

The singer made an unplanned trip to Barnes & Noble at The Grove to promote her new poetry book, Violent Bent Backwards Over the Grass, when she wore the mask that didn't appear to protect herself or others from Covid-19.

The Born to Die singer also wore this particular mask on the cover of Interview magazine.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CF260mXpmbP/]]

Fans were not impressed with the singer's use of the mesh mask, with some calling her "irresponsible".

"Lana Del Rey wearing a net mask during the Covid-19 pandemic because according to her: We were born to die," wrote one Twitter user, in reference to her first album.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/lanasmysoulmate/status/1312275388970696705]]

"Lana del rey took the wrap off the fruit at the store and used it as a face mask," wrote another.

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/aotdts/status/1312276540298682368]]

A third added: "lana del rey turning into a mesh mask wearing, cop dating, live laugh love middle aged white woman is not surprising but highly disappointing. excuse me while i play born to die and MOURN [sic]."

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/allhailtiny_/status/1312222707585515522]]

The Video Games singer's sister, Caroline Grant, has since responded to the backlash and told The Independent that her sister has "tested negative" and was standing "more than six feet away" at the signing.

Earlier this year, Del Rey was criticized when she took to Instagram to claim that she had been depicted as anti-feminist, despite singing about similar themes to other female artists. In it, she listed Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, Ariana Grande and Beyoncé as examples, stating that they had all sung about "being sexy, wearing no clothes... cheating, etc," without facing the same backlash.

Del Rey responded to the backlash in a six-minute video, discussing "the need for fragility in the feminist movement", and once again refuted claims that she's racist.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/B6TgiiTJCa9/]]

"Hey, so I don’t wanna beat a dead horse, and I don’t wanna go on and on about this post thing," she asserts in the new message. "But I just wanna remind you that in that post, my one and only personal declaration that I’ve ever made – thanks for being so warm and welcoming – was about the need for fragility in the feminist movement. It’s gonna be important."

“When I mentioned women that look like me, I didn’t mean white like me. I mean the kind of women who other people might not believe, because they think, ‘Oh, well look at her, she fucking deserves it’ or whatever. There are a lot of people like that.

"I think it’s sad that the women I mentioned, and that they’d sing about dancing for money or whatever… the same stuff by the way that I’ve been singing about and chronicling for 13 years. That’s why I’m in that echelon. Yes, they are my friends and peers and contemporaries.

"The difference is, when I get on the pole, people call me a whore, but when [FKA] twigs gets on the pole, it’s art. I’m reminded constantly by my friends that, lyrically, there are complicated psychological factors that play into some of my songwriting, but I just wanna say that the culture is super sick right now, and the fact they want to turn my post, my advocacy for fragility into a race war, it’s really bad."

Watch the video below:

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CAmxUDpgO8Y/]]

"I’m super strong… you can call me whatever. I’m sorry that I didn’t add one 100% caucasian person into the mix of the women that I admire. It really says more about you than it does about me," she continued.

“What’s interesting is that the very first time I decide to tell you anything about my life, or that I’m writing books that chronicle that fragility, that 200,000 hateful, spiteful comments come in, and my phone number leaked, and comments like, ‘You fucking white bitch’. It’s the opposite of the spirit of an advocate. It’s what causes fragility, but it’s not gonna stop me. Period.”

"I’m not the enemy, and I’m definitely not racist, so don’t get it twisted. Nobody gets to tell your story except for you, and that’s what I’m gonna do in the next couple of books. So god bless, and, yeah, fuck off if you don’t like the post," Del Rey concluded.

The 34-year-old originally took to the photo-sharing platform to address longstanding accusations that her music romanticises abusive relationships.

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

The post can be read in its entirety here.

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CAcQPuBJdir/?utm_source=ig_embed]]