In Defence of Rihanna

Rihanna has the most confrontational vagina in pop music. I know because with the release of the video for “Pour It Up” I had it repeatedly slammed into my face. My immediate thoughts after watching it were…

My reaction wasn’t uncommon and like most of my friends all I wanted to do was make jokes about stank pums, scrutinise her body and scan Twitter for retweet bait jokes about Rihanna being a happy hoe, all to take the edge off how awkward the first viewing made me. If you’ve not watched it (seriously, what are you doing with your day?) it’s part gynecological examination and part rave in a flooded GTA strip club. It’s shocking because it lacks the nudge nudge wink wink “hey, I thought she consented ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” cheekiness of “Blurred Lines” or the ridiculousness of Miley licking a sledgehammer. It is literally Rihanna alternating between working a pole and dry-fucking a chair.

But as much as Rihanna will subvert only to reaffirm patriarchal norms; one day she’ll have bloggers falling over themselves to bill her as empowering and the next she’ll have them SMHing as she rolls round kitten like inviting to be objectified, the one constant is that there’s never anything clumsy or premeditated about her sexuality. Rihanna does what she likes and is supremely in control. It’s that confidence, the temerity of a woman wanting to smash rather than ~make love~, that still makes us uncomfortable.

The flipside is Rihanna’s ongoing drama with Chris Brown, the man who once beat the shit out of her. When she walked out on him and emerged the otherside with another hit album, it was perceived as a demonstration of her power and control and it was celebrated. For a brief period, Rihanna was a lot of girls’ power animal. But when she returned to Chris Brown, she was met with a wave of catty disapproval levelled at her by misguided feminists who’ve never been in an abusive relationship. Rihanna went from being a confident bad bitch to being a vulnerable mess, just by admitting that she didn’t just want to be banged by anyone and thought there was something salvageable with Brown. She can’t win.

I’m not excluding myself from this global judgement. The side of the Rihanna fence I fall on changes almost daily. My knee-jerk reaction is that, yeah, Rihanna is a fucking terrible role model to the girls who idolise her and if I had a daughter who I caught twerkteaming to the “Pour It Up” video I would have her spayed. But I feel like entering into a culture where it’s okay to be as reductive to brand Rihanna, or any pop starlet, a slut whore from hell is as dangerous. If access to every media outlet was taken away from her, Rihanna would still be Rihanna, it should not be her job to regulate herself, it should be that of the music industry’s. But rather than challenge the industry’s mechanics we demonise the women who self-sexualise, in turn just saying to girls that being in control and having sex for pleasure is something to be ashamed of.

Follow Jo on Twitter @FUERTESKNIGHT

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