Oh RiRi

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From the now banned ad campaign for the Rogue perfume to the Swarovski encrusted Adam Selman dress Rihanna wore to the CFDA awards, we have known, and are constantly reminded that Rihanna does not care about social norms. Her fearless bearing it all approach to style has had people buzzing before, but when you step out in a see through dress just wearing a nude thong, people are going to talk even more. 

I would have been one of those people a few years back that said Rihanna was too much. She was hurting the feminist movement and not helping it. But you know what, she's not. I think anyone that shames her and makes statements that she is leading to the "thot culture" doesn't get what the whole feminist movement is. I think the reason people can't jump on the bandwagon of what feminism really is, is because people what everyone to fit their own brand of feminism. Whether it be Rihanna or Miley Cyrus, by being risky and taking ownership of their own bodies, they’re helping feminism. They are taking ownership and power over who they are. Just because I or you wouldn’t do the same doesn’t mean what they are doing is necessarily bad. We shouldn’t shame these people for being nude, because no one is forcing them to do it. It's their own choice, and they are consenting adults in an environment where other options exist. Many might not agree and I was a part of the many before, but just because someone doesn’t fit what you believe woman should wear or do, doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Granted we can say Rihanna is in the public eye and young children and teens are looking to her and emulating the things she does. While that may be true I think that using that argument for a reason she needs to tone down is invalid. While media and celebrities do influence children, the main influences is the family and the way a child is raised. We need to stop putting the burden of the changing social landscape on the shoulders of celebrities and put it on the parents in the household. Rihanna did not make girls slutty, she didn’t make them thots. Famous or not people are their own entities, and they should be able to do whatever they want with their own body. Rihanna works in a sector that she can be risqué without fear of repercussion, she lives in a plane many cannot. So if she wants to be free and show her tits, why not? It's her body and there’s no boss to fire her for it later.

I might not personally dress like Rihanna does, but I love how she dresses. I love her approach to style and life and how she is just Rihanna. She's not trying to be a role model, she's not trying to be a feminist leader. She's a woman living her life. While power comes with being a public figure, it isn't her job to censor herself to make other people feel comfortable.

She won the award for being a style icon at the CFDA Awards and she is. That dress the styling, the makeup, whatever you want to say about it you cant deny that it was beautiful, it was enchanting. If you care about the fashion industry, care about fashion you can't deny that it was really just something spectacular. Maybe not an elegant spectacular as a Zac Posen dress coming down the runway, but something noteworthy none the less.