The Pipeline of Melodrama to the January 6th Insurrection or How Lorde Homewrecked Her Way to the House of Congress

By: Sophie Ezrol

I’d like to say I’m a feminist in all senses of the word. I support women’s rights. But I also support women’s wrongs; especially when those wrongs result in the greatest album of all time, 2017’s Melodrama.

 On her sophomore album, veiled in the metaphor of a house party, Lorde explores themes of love, lust, secrets, and solitude following her 2015 breakup with photographer James Lowe. However, any minorly depressed teen girl with unlimited internet access will tell you the true inspiration behind Lorde’s magnum opus was the secret rendezvous between her and Simon the chipmunk reincarnate, Jack Antonoff. 

Between July 2015 and January 2017, the pair wrote, recorded, and produced the album in Antonoff’s Brooklyn apartment. The only caveat: he shared the apartment with then fiance, duchess of Twee (second to Zooey Deschanel) and the worst person alive, Lena Dunham. 

Toward the beginning of the album’s conception, the trio got along great. Dunham wrote of how she enjoyed having Lorde around and loved to “feed her little snacks”. However, as Dunham was gone for most of 2016, Lorde and Antonoff were able to get their freak on uninterrupted. 

Where was Dunham you may ask? Well whenever she wasn’t writing strange bathtub scenes between herself and Adam Driver, Dunham was trotting around the country campaigning for Hilary Clinton. Yes, you did read that correctly. Like the true FeministIcon GirlBoss SlayQueen she is, Dunham spent her 2016 in custom Hilary sweaters and “sensual pantsuits”, hot on the trail crusading for Clinton. She even spoke during a prime slot at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Such a #BossBabe. 

In her self-loathing ballad Liability (which inspired me to write many awful, awful poems at age seventeen), Lorde describes how 2016’s “Perfect summer’s eating me alive”. I can’t help but feel as though Dunham shared that same sentiment. How is Dunham supposed to devote herself fully to the campaign when the nineteen-year-old, alt-pop Kiwi queen is boning your man (creature) in your own apartment? 

The answer is that she couldn’t. Despite her strong efforts (like telling Iowa City she wore underwear that said “Feminist” on the butt), she was too wrapped up in the Melodrama of it all to focus on the campaign, resulting in Trump winning the general election. 

If Trump had never won the 2016 election, we never would’ve had the mess that was 2016-2020. And without that dumpster fire of a presidency, Trump wouldn’t have lost his re-election. If Trump had never lost the re-election, we never would’ve had rioters breach the Capitol. (Tbh this could be wrong. I am not a poli-sci major. I get my news from Twitter.)

Despite throwing her “cellular device in the water” and frolicking on the beaches of New Zealand throughout the winter of 2021, one could make the argument that Lorde is directly responsible for the January 6th insurrection. But is that a fair assessment? 

I would argue it’s not. Not because she wasn’t actually at the capitol, or because she has nothing to do with American politics. But because she was just a nineteen-year-old girl. And as a nineteen-year-old girl myself, I believe all nineteen-year-old girls should be allowed to be messy. 

Yeah, maybe she did sleep with her engaged producer which somehow spiraled into a grave assault on American democracy.  But then again, Lorde was just a nineteen-year-old girl,  and should not bear any responsibility or blame. Nineteen is the time to be a little silly, messy, and “on fire”. 

Unlike Lena Dunham, I don’t need to declare my beliefs by branding my panties. A true feminist supports a woman's right to be a little wrong, no matter what. But especially when those wrongs result in the pop bible that is Melodrama.