Ermagahd Rihanna is Naked: The Dress That Got You Talking

I don’t really care what Rihanna wore to the CFDA but as someone who works in the web, I couldn’t miss it as it was EVERYWHERE. You know how folks–media and civilians (yes, civilians)–like to blow everything out of proportion right?

Basically, she channeled Josephine Baker in a sheer dress on top of nipple pasties and a thong. I noticed two sides to this spectrum in terms of public response. There were the judgy pants who were so outraged that she was nearly naked (but probably secretly lurked every photo they could find despite the fact) and then the Navy (which I am not a part of)–you know how they do when it comes to defending their leader. It went viral because, nakedness, and Rihanna. As someone who has covered pop culture, I cannot stress enough how well any posts about Rihanna perform from a traffic standpoint (this is also why she covers whatever magazine every other month), even when it’s the same stuff she always does like smoke weed, date boys and be naked. This time around, even TLC added their own commentary on the matter.

Check it out:

“Every time I see you, you don’t have to be naked,” T-Boz said about Rihanna on Channel 7′s Sunrise, a morning show in Australia. The R&B duo explained that they didn’t need to use sex appeal to help their group sell records. “We became the biggest girl selling group of all time with our clothes on and that says a lot,” Chilli said adding, “We could go around too with booby cakes [breasts] out all day long.”

T-Boz followed up with, “It’s hard for us to say anything because any time we do, they say ‘Oh TLC must be jealous,’ but I call a spade a spade.”

I’m surprised that they allowed themselves to get roped into this. As we know, TLC is the iconic group that represents girl power and women being comfortable in their skin and with their sexuality. They’ve also played around with their own version of the naked thing (keep scrolling). The other part to this is that not long ago, T-Boz went on record defending Miley Cyrus!

She tweeted:

“I think people should lay off Miley a little. Yes she goes hard BUT what top female artist out now popular do u know with their clothes on?”

Hypocritical much? Why the double standard? Why is it okay for Miley to gallivant in a similar fashion and even gyrate and pretend to lick a giant phallus on stage yet Rihanna being comfortable with her body isn’t ok?

I get that not everyone is openly okay with nudity. I say openly because again, media analytics tends to show that nudity wins when it comes to numbers. So yeah, people can feign discomfort but I think it does boil down to jealousy, and subconsciously (or maybe consciously in some cases) that a Black woman, of all people, has the nerve to be comfortable with her body. Rihanna is definitely someone who likes attention and constantly reaches for it because people always give her. That’s the case with any egregious personality. When they employ attention-seeking devices and get a massive reaction then they repeat them. She wanted to shock people and she did. She knows that her nudity makes people gawk and talk without fail, every time.

Personally, I’m not uncomfortable with nudity but I seem to be in the minority. As far as Rihanna’s CFDA dress, I neither like nor dislike it but I’m fascinated by the amount of women in particular who are attempting to slut-shame and/or criticize her for a dress, or net, or whatever.  If you don’t like these sort of antics then promote someone who dresses and behaves more in align with what you want to see.

In related news, you can bet that TLC’s commentary got back to Rihanna and started a feud (because egos are fragile). Here’s Rihanna’s response:

Petty but makes a valid point. Rihanna found the following photo from a teen magazine:

So yeah, maybe they forgot about that.

Thoughts?

Tags: CFDA Dress, Featured, Josephine Baker, Rihanna, T Boz, TLC

Category: Pop Culture