Left: Toxic Pop Princess herself-Rihanna, Right: Daily Mail writer Liz Jones,
Few days ago, a Daily Mail Liz
Jones wrote a very interesting article titled 'Toxic Pop Princess',
complete with pictures and desciptions to elaborate her point . The
article which is a critic of Rihanna's lifestyle of drugs, alcohol and
sex insists that the 25 year old Bajan is a BAD role model for young
girls.
As expected, the singer responded to the article, insisting that Liz
Jones criticism of her as a role model was entirely unfounded, because
she has never aimed to set an example for young children. She also
hurled insults at the British writer, posting a very unpalatable pic of
her of instagram and twitter together with her reaction to the article.
The article is a must read. See it, and Rihanna's response after the
cut.
Pop's poisonous princess: Glorying in
drugs, guns and sleaze, Rihanna's toxic role model for her army of
young fans, says LIZ JONES
Rihanna in Amsterdam this week with two giant spliff. Her albums should have a government health warning
The first time I met Rihanna, the pop princess was seated next to Vogue
editor Anna Wintour wearing a demure dress, with her hair in ringlets,
for all the world as though she was Shirley Temple.She sipped at her flute of champagne throughout dinner and clearly had one thing in mind: appearing on the cover of American Vogue (she got it, too, in November last year) and possibly a high-end fashion advertising campaign of the kind Ms Wintour can facilitate.
The second encounter I had with her was during London Fashion Week last February.
Rihanna came down the catwalk at the end of the presentation of her first collection for teen label River Island, for which she was reportedly paid £800,000.
She looked pretty. She wasn’t exposing any under-boob. She certainly wasn’t pretending to ram a jewelled microphone into her nether regions, as she has been doing on stage of late.
Her teenage female fans queued around the block that night to catch a glimpse of their idol, who has sold more than 100 million records around the world.
After the beating from boyfriend Chris Brown (left) in February 2009 she had an opportunity to be a poster girl for young women escaping abusive relationships. But here she is again (right) with Brown last Christmas, all seemingly forgiven
Another social network posting, after a live show in November 2012 with the caption 'It's a wrap'. Lying topless, smoking, she looks wanton
On a video shoot on a farm in northern Ireland in September 2011, before being ejected by the baffled farmer for being too raunchy
Her collection — while undoubtedly racy enough to raise a few parental
eyebrows, with hot pants and crop tops — just about erred on the side of
decency.
Yet those same parents will have been horrified by the pictures which
emerged this week of the 25-year-old Barbadian-born star. Photographed
with two giant, phallic spliffs in her red-lipsticked mouth, Rihanna
posted the picture on Twitter for her 30 million followers to enjoy.
Most of these ‘followers’, of course, are young girls. Those same girls,
some as young as eight or nine, have been packing out her concerts at
Twickenham this month, as part of her sell-out UK tour.
They writhe and pout along to her suggestive lyrics in a disturbing mimicry of adult sexuality.
Why the fascination with guns? Here she shows the gun cover on her iPhone last July
Promoting her single, Diamonds, in December 2012 she posts a 'selfie', rolling diamond rocks in a cigarette paper. She clearly has money to burn
(Pictures of Rihanna’s dance moves were too explicit to print in a family newspaper.)
Of course, these little girls don’t realise there is anything wrong with
what they are doing — they just want to copy the chart-topping star —
who this year became the first singer ever to have had ten No.1 singles
in the U.S. Billboard Chart. But if only she could be a better role
model for young women.
I don’t care if she has the voice of an angel and is self-made, feisty and confident.
All these qualities pale to nothing when we know she went back to her
abusive boyfriend, Chris Brown, who pleaded guilty to assaulting her in
2009; that she promotes drug-taking, drinking and the sort of fashion
sense on stage that surely invites rape at worst, disrespect at least.
Showing off her gun tattoo at a
fragrance launch at House of Fraser in August 2011. I wonder what the
scent smells of? Fear? Loss? Heartache?
Is it fair that we berate female stars for being bad, when we don’t
admonish men in the same way? Yes, it is fair. Because young women are
far more impressionable than young men.
They want to be Rihanna, have her lifestyle, her clothes, her men, her habits.
I wish she’d stop infecting our High Streets with her gun tattoos, her
false nails and fake hair, her bogus bad-ass shenanigans that try to
portray her as ‘real’, as ‘street’, as her own person, as strong and
single-minded.
While Rihanna knows when to tone it down in order to pull in advertising
deals and keep her record label sweet — so much so that she has enough
dollar bills to use them as a carpet, and so many diamonds she can
pretend to smoke them in a spliff, both things she’s been pictured doing
— the message she’s sending to her young fans, through her explicit
lyrics, vile dance moves and pictures on Twitter, is utterly toxic.
This poisonous pop princess should come with a government health warning.
Even a celebration cake in April this year isn't wholesome. It's in the shape of a marijuana leaf, with an iced, spaced-out smiley face
Hitting the bottle last summer after her grandmother's funeral. She doesn't even bother with a glass...
In the south of France, two weeks after the funeral, swigging champagne on board a yacht. I was taught never to eat before swimming but she seems to think it's fine to be off your head in the water
Rihanna Reacts...
Rihanna posted Liz Jones pic, left above and said:
"LOL!!!! My money got a bad habit of pissing people off!! If you
sincerely wanna help little girls more than their own parents do, here's
a toxic tip: don't be amateur with your articles, you sound bitter!
What's all this about hair and nails and costumes and tattoos?? ....That
shit ain't clever!!! That shit ain't journalism! That's a sad sloppy
menopausal mess!!! Nobody over here acts like they're perfect! I don't
pretend that I'm like you, i just live... My life!! And I don't know why
y'all still act so surprised by any of it!! "Role Model" is not a
position or title that I have ever campaigned for, so chill wit dat! I
got my own fucked up shit to work on, I'll never portray that as
perfect, but for right now it's ME!! Call it what ya want!! Toxic was
cute, Poisonous Pop Princess had a nice ring to it, just a lil wordy!
And P.S. my first American Vogue cover was in 2011...APRIL!!!
#ElizabethAnnJones"
While I'm of the view that celebrities should decently speak their minds
and defend their intergrity when necessary, it is ridiculous for
Rihanna to hide behind the flimsy excuse of: "I never asked to be a role model".
Whether she likes it or not, Rihanna is a role model, and has an implied
sense of responsible(which she now denies) to the eight million people
follow her on Instagram, 30 mil on Twitter, and many more.
Even here in Nigeria, I know a number of girls who try very hard to emulate Riri in every way possible.
So seriously, the excuse "I never asked to be a role model" is ridiculous to say the least. She might as well say, I never want to be successful.
Even here in Nigeria, I know a number of girls who try very hard to emulate Riri in every way possible.
So seriously, the excuse "I never asked to be a role model" is ridiculous to say the least. She might as well say, I never want to be successful.
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