Lorde opens up about gender identity in Rolling Stone

In recent interviews, Lorde‘s hinted at an expansion of her gender identity. She opens up about that in her new Rolling Stone interview, explaining how overcoming an eating disorder and going off birth control led to her redefining herself. “It sounds crazy, but I felt that all […]

In recent interviews, Lorde‘s hinted at an expansion of her gender identity. She opens up about that in her new Rolling Stone interview, explaining how overcoming an eating disorder and going off birth control led to her redefining herself.

“It sounds crazy, but I felt that all of a sudden, I was off the map of femininity,” she says. “And I totally believed that that allowed things to open up.”

When asked how she identifies now, Lorde replies, “[Chappell Roan] asked me this. She was like, ‘So, are you nonbinary now?’ And I was like, ‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.’ I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”

Lorde still calls herself a cis woman and hasn’t changed her pronouns; she says she’s “in the middle gender-wise.” But in the current political climate, she notes, “I don’t think that [my identity] is radical. … I see these incredibly brave young people, and … I want to make very clear that I’m not trying to take any space from anyone who has more on the line than me.” 

Lorde’s Met Gala outfit featured a top that was a strip of silver material across her chest, which she described as an “Easter egg.” Tellingly, Lorde explains in Rolling Stone that while trying to visualize “a version of herself that was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment,” she saw herself in men’s jeans, topless except for a strip of silver duct tape across her chest.

“I went to the cupboard, and I got the tape out, and I did it to myself,” she says. “I have this picture staring at myself. … It scared me what I saw. … But I felt something bursting out of me. It was crazy.”

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