Rihanna has taken to Instagram to respond to a The Daily Maileditorial that called her “poisonous.”
In the piece published on Monday, writer Liz Jones criticizes just about every aspect of Rihanna — her stage show, her personal life (specifically her relationship with Chris Brown), her fashion choices and her use of social media. The writer made references to a particular Instagram photo of Rihanna smoking two joints while traveling around Europe on her Diamonds tour.
“Of course, these little girls don’t [realize] there is anything wrong with what they are doing — they just want to copy the chart-topping star… But if only she could be a better role model for young women,” Jones writes. “I don’t care if she has the voice of an angel and is self-made, feisty and confident.”
She continues, “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… This poisonous pop princess should come with a government health warning.”
Rihanna isn’t taking Jones’ comments lightly. Early Tuesday morning (June 25), she took to Instagram and posted a lengthy response to Jones’ article, including an unflattering photograph of the writer.
“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!!!” she wrote to her nearly 8 million followers.
The singer continued, “Nobody over here acts like they’re perfect! I don’t pretend that I’m like you, i just live… My life!!” she continued. “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—ed 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!”
She concluded the statement with, “And P.S. my first American Vogue cover was in 2011…APRIL!!! #ElizabethAnnJones” (Jones wrote Rihanna made her debut on a November issue, though she did appear on British Vogue that month, marking her second cover for the publication.)
Jones has yet to respond to Rihanna’s Instagram, but Rihanna had a few more tweets. “Don’t let them fool ya! Or even try to school ya! We’ve got a mind of our own, so go to hell if what you’re thinking is not right!! Don’t let them change ya, or even rearrange ya!! We’ve got a life to live! They say only the fittest of the fittest shall survive! Stay alive!”
This is not the first time that Rihanna has used social media to take on her critics and the media. In December 2011, the singer tweeted a response to a racial slur used by Dutch fashion magazine Jackie. While the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Eva Hoeke, eventually apologized for the insensitive remark, she later resigned from her position in the wake of the controversy.
MTV News has reached out to the Daily Mail for comment but had not heard back by press time.
No Comments