Yesterday, Liz Jones, a journalist at the Daily Mail, posted a lengthy article on Rihanna and her lifestyle. Now we all know that Rihanna is very edgy and at times can be a little extreme, but Liz Jones went in pretty harsh on the pop star.
The article is titled, “Pop’s poisonous princess: Glorifying in drugs, guns and sleaze, Rihanna’s toxic role model for her army of young fans.” In this article, Liz Jones writes that Rihanna is a terrible influence and role model for girls. She used many of Rihanna’s Instagram photos as evidence to make her case.
Liz Jones referred to Rihanna’s weed-smoking and almost nude photos to make her point. She also brought Chris Brown into the mix and talked about how Rihanna taking him back after he assaulted her was bad for girls that looked up to her. Read some of the highlights from Liz’s article below:
“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.”
“I wish she’d stop infecting out 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.”
Click here to read the full article.
It’s no surprise that Rihanna caught wind of the article and had something to say about it. This morning, she took to social media and posted a long response, along with a terrible photo of journalist Liz Jones. Rihanna responded:
“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 s*** ain’t clever!!! That s*** 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 f***** up s*** 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”
I must admit that I understand both sides of this battle. However, in Rihanna’s defense, Liz Jones went about getting her message across the wrong way. Insulting Rihanna and throwing her relationship with Chris Brown in her face was not the way to handle your disappointment in her as a pop star. Also, in Rihanna’s defense, she has never claimed to be a role model for girls. She’s always said that she doesn’t want to be that so she behaves the way she does.
Now on the flip side… Even though Rihanna doesn’t want to be a role model for young girls, she is. She has no way of controlling that her fans do indeed look up to her and at times may mimic her behavior. Yes, it’s on the parents to monitor their children and what music they listen to and who they’re following on Twitter. However, at some point celebrities have to take responsibility for some of their actions.
Check out some of the photos that Liz posted with her article, along with the captions below:
What are your thoughts on Liz Jones’ article and Rihanna’s response?
Source: Daily Mail
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I agree whole heartedly with Liz. Rihanna does not get to decide if she is a positive role model or not. When she decided that she watned to go into a career where your success is based off people’s feelings about you as a person and your craft, you take the good and the bad that comes with it.
Rihanna’s childish response to the article just further proves Liz’s point. When will Rihanna change her behavior? None of the photos Liz posted were taken out of context and they were released by the artist herself. If Rihanna doesn’t want people commenting on her lifestyle, she need to keep it to herself. People only know and see what she puts out there.
When Rihanna decided to release those pics she should have been ready for the consequences they brought about. Clearly she still has a lot of growing up to do.