Response to Liz Jones' disgusting article about Rihanna

I know nothing about this Liz Jones except from seeing her on 'This Morning' a couple of times, but this recent article she's wrote for Daily Mail - surprise surprise - has really pissed me off.  It's titled 'Pop's poisonous princess: Glorying in drugs, guns and sleaze, Rihanna's  toxic role model for her army of young fans'  and basically slates her - or at least tries to.

Now before I get started, let's clear up one thing: every other freaking person thinks Rihanna is 'vile' and a 'terrible influence', I'm sure people who read this will think it, but there's no such thing as a 'bad role model', really.  A bad role model implies we come into this world and EVERYONE must be looked up to, and EVERYONE must have someone to look up to.  Oh puh-lease, a celebrity is either a role model, or they aren't.  If they're 'bad' then they're not a fricking role model in the first place, are they?!  If your child(ren) don't feel like they can make THEIR OWN DECISIONS, then the issue isn't who they're looking to for guidance on how to act, the issue isn't Rihanna, but it's your parenting.  

The problem with so many parents these days is they immediately want to shift the responsible on to other parties, be it celebrities, TV, music lyrics or games, but can we all just take a minute to think of how incredibly pathetic this is?  YOU'RE THE PARENT TO YOUR CHILD, not Rihanna, YOU.  It is YOUR job, YOUR responsibility to take care of your child, to guard it from what it needs to be guarded from.  If your child has seen one of Rihanna's Instagram pictures - in many of which she's smoking marijuana - then 1) they shouldn't be on the internet if they're that young that they see a spliff and think  'Oh what's that? That looks fun!' and 2) you, as a parent, should have already taught your child about drugs.  FUNNY THAT.  She wrote 'Most of these ‘followers’, of course, are young girls... They writhe and pout along to her suggestive lyrics in a disturbing mimicry of adult sexuality.  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', y'know Liz it's funny that because when I was a young girl I loved Christina Aguilera - especially the song 'Dirrty', but I never felt the desire to 'write' and 'pout'.  I also loved Britney Spears but I never felt the need to make my school skirt really short and and tie my shirt into a crop top.  Unbelievable, isn't it?  No, I was just brought up well.

Now not only is this article an attack on Rihanna, but it's an attack on practically nearly every parent - probably even herself.  My parents - and I hope they won't mind me saying this because they've literally been the best parents a child can ask for - have done numerous things during my childhood: swore sometimes, smoked, drank, got drunk, listened to explicit lyrics in the car, and you know what?  Me and my brother have been GOOD KIDS.  Never smoked, never got drunk whilst being underage, never did drugs, heck I rarely swear even now!  And I don't like drinking.  This isn't because I've seen someone who doesn't drink and I've decided to imitate their actions, this is because I've grown up being told that I'm MY OWN PERSON and have the ability to use MY OWN MIND.  So please, Liz, don't insult my parents and even children just because you have this big old problem with Rihanna living her life as she wants to.  You call that fricking journalism?  Yeah, okay.  Hm, I wonder why I don't have a sudden urge to read any other articles you've written?  Bummer.

She clearly has a big issue with Rihanna's choice to go back to Chris Brown when she did, because apparently this means if we're ever unfortunate enough to be in an abusive relationship, that we'd just go running back.  Ive seen SO MANY PEOPLE criticise this decision, but why on earth we all focus on Rihanna's decisions rather than Chris Brown - the one who actually did the crime - I don't know.  

Now on to the fucking worst bits of the article, when perfect little Liz talks about Rihanna's fashion sense, she said it 'invites', INVITES, 'rape at worst, disrespect at least'.  Now hold the fucking phone, WOMEN'S CLOTHES DO NOT INVITE RAPE.  IF WE WERE TO WALK THE STREETS NAKED HOLDING A SIGN SAYING 'I LIKE SEX', WE WOULD NOT BE INVITING RAPE.  Women should NOT have to base their outfit choices on some men's fucking inability to control themselves.  This is the reason why so many cases of rape go undetected - because women, WHO ARE THE VICTIMS, are scared of being blamed and not being taken seriously.  Pat on the back Liz, you're doing really well with this article so far.

Oh wait, it gets better.

She goes on to say: '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. '  Absolutely beautiful, what a wonderful opinion to have on things.  I feel like I don't even need to explain why these comments are disgusting, as every woman reading this will already have a clear idea of how insulting it is.

To conclude, people need to take a seat and think hard about whether Rihanna's decisions are really making your life more difficult to live, because it's getting really pathetic and disgusting how so many women slate her for, let's face it, being a strong woman and making her own choices.  I have a lot of respect for myself, and that doesn't mean I wouldn't take my clothes off and post pictures of it on the internet, and that doesn't mean I wouldn't dance around a pole, self respect is about making decisions which you're doing for YOU because they make YOU happy.  So I can safely say Rihanna has heaps of self-respect, in fact I'd say basing your life choices on what everyone else wants you to do, actually isn't very respectful of yourself at all...

Oh, and if lovely Liz actually thinks young ladies are impressionable, then she needs to have a little chat with me, as I've spent my whole life fighting against what people want me to be like, simply so I can be me.

You can read Rihanna's response to the article here.