Rihanna calls out UK journalist in Instagram rant

RiRi is unapologetic indeed: Taking a page out of M.I.A.’s playbook, the outspoken pop star reacted to an unfavorable article written about her in the UK’s Daily Mail by taking swipes at the author via social media.

It all began when journalist Liz Jones took Rihanna to task in the Mail for being a “toxic role model,” admonishing the multiplatinum singer for, in Jones’ opinion, regularly promoting sex- and drug-laden imagery, publicly continuing her relationship with abusive beau Chris Brown, and flaunting “the sort of fashion sense on stage that surely invites rape at worst.” Hmm.

It goes on: “Is it fair that we berate female stars for being bad, when we don’t admonish men in the same way?” Jones asked, before quickly answering herself: ”Yes, it is fair. Because young women are far more impressionable than young men.”

“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,” the writer continued saying of Rihanna while reminding readers that the singer graced the cover of Vogue last fall. Jones (or perhaps her editor) also felt the need to include the following warning in the online post: ”Pictures of Rihanna’s dance moves were too explicit to print in a family newspaper” — because, you know, the venerable British tab is well known for avoiding sensationalism at all costs.

At any rate, Rihanna did not take kindly to the paper’s criticisms; the singer resorted to Instagram to not only issue a written response to the author, but also post an unflatteringly low-res picture of her. Here’s the full text of Rihanna’s message:

    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—ed 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