Let Lorde Express Her Image In Peace

Marc Piasecki

Life online is horrorshow enough without a horde of followers dissecting any and all aspects of your appearance, let alone any microscopic shift in identity expression. Even more so for an artist who, it seems, shares images of daily life which might – emphasis on might – indicate exploration and experimentation with gender presentation.

Commenting on celebrities and the content they share, their bodies, their fashion, their style, the breadcrumb clues they might leave within the lines of their lyrics or photographs is a phenomenon that is all too common in contemporary fandom, but it’s a fine line between speculation and assumption, between analysis and assertion.

Increasingly, fans online have looked to Lorde’s social presences, primarily Instagram, for insight into not just her process for recording her upcoming record, but for a peek inside her life as she creates music. Eagle-eyed fans have noticed moments in her imagery: a microphone placed between her legs that might suggest phallic image-play, gender neutral styling with short hair and a bare face, an angled shot of her sharp jawline suggesting that her acne scars may resemble freckles instead.

Or as recently as this week, a stylishly shot flat-lay photo Lorde shared to her Instagram story of the inside her purse cluttered with items you can’t quite identify – except a pretty conspicuous box of ‘Dad Grass’ CBD pre-rolls — with the caption “Womanhood” emblazoned on top. The following slide features what looks to be Lorde in more boyish styling, holding a bouquet of pink flowers. The caption this time reads “buying pink flowers on a boy day.”

Held together, these images may suggest an exploration, or at least a tongue-in-cheek banter, with her own gender expression, a legacy she shares with artists ranging from Frida Kahlo to Lady Gaga, Janelle Monae, Emma D’Arcy and Kristen Stewart. Still, analyzing her artistry, her presentation, or her image-making is one thing, but speculation on whether or not she has embarked on medical processes is entirely another.

In a world where equitable access to gender-affirming healthcare is still far from the norm and gender fluidity in general is still widely under attack, this kind of speculation and surveillance — however well-meaning — about even hypothetical personal medical interventions can have very unintended outcomes. So until Lorde, an artist who built her career on the idea that teen voices can't simply be dismissed, shares something more concrete about her gender expression, and what it might mean to her, it’s best to let Lorde be Lorde, and lead the way.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue