Remember when Beyonce decided that Beyonce would no longer speak on behalf of Beyonce? That was so much fun! Beyonce would spend all of that time posing for these involved magazine editorials, and then she wouldn’t even deign to speak to the magazine. The message seemed to be: it’s all about the image, and everything else is elusive. Well, Beyonce eventually started speaking on behalf of Beyonce again. But now Rihanna is trying to steal that game!
Rihanna covers the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Why? No one really knows. She’s not promoting anything in particular. I assume that if Rihanna wants a magazine cover, Rihanna gets a magazine cover. No magazine editor will say no to her, and most magazines likely have a standing request with Rihanna that whenever she wants to pose, they’ll give her a 10-page editorial. Rihanna called up Bazaar and was like, “Remember when Angelina Jolie did that editorial with planes? Let’s do something like that.” And Bazaar was like, “Cool.”
What’s killing me about this is that she’s literally doing it for no reason! There’s only one quote from Rihanna and it’s about Amelia Earhart!!!
Rihanna on Amelia Earhart and her fearlessness in taking on a man’s world:
“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer. Amelia Earhart was such a dynamic force in her industry, setting multiple aviation records in her time. So it was a no-brainer for me to team up with Harper’s BAZAAR in honor of a woman who held her own with the big boys.”
Ah, so it’s more like Bazaar called up Rihanna was like, “Rih, would you like to pose in an Amelia Earhart editorial, pretty please?” And Rih was like, “cool.” Anyway… the editorial is pretty. Enjoy Rihanna with planes.
Photos courtesy of Mariano Vivanco/Harper’s Bazaar.
Love me some Rhi Rhi but she looks like Eve on the cover.
but eve is MIA since her wedding to a millionaire…
it can’t be bad to have a reminder of this beauty
She is gorgeous.
She looks gorgeous, powerful, and badass. Her face is insane, and she radiates confidence. Forever I love my Rih.
And she did do it for a reason. Her Instagram posts make it seem like this was a way to honor the lady-boss-ness of Amelia Earhart. I think it’s awesome.
So she heard about Amelia Earhart and thought to do a fashion shoot in a high end magazine? Who is her audience and what is she trying to convey about Amelia? That she wore nice clothes? Because I can think of audiences who do need to hear about Anelia and not her clothes but her intelligence, fortitude against sexism and her courage. This seems to be more about Rihanna parking herself next to a true bad ass and trying to get some shine by association. In other words PR except she isnt promoting a clothes line or new music, shes pronoting herself.
the quote she gave pretty clearly sums up what she was saying about amelia, and why she agreed to do the photoshoot.
not a word about clothes in that quote.
What the fawk. U seem either mad or jealous or both . Get a life and enjoy it.
I think she looks fantastic, as well as fun to run with.
I love that brown dress. It’s one of the few high fashion gowns I’ve seen that make me lament my limited funds. I wish more women would ear shades of brown and bronze on the red carpet, they are surprisingly flattering colors.
Been waiting for a week for this to be covered, Rih stays giving A PHOTOSHOOT and i think with her coloring/features she can really carry almost every look! ( except that Ronald MacDonald Time *shudders* )
Yeah that was her only major misstep that I can recall.
She looks A-MAZING in these photos. JFC. And that haircolor is so gorgeous on her.
@QQ her red hair during the what’s my name era? I thought she was beautiful then too lol…she’s truly one of the great beauties in my opinion and she has the confidence and personality to carry herself like a queen 👸🏽
The red hair wasn’t my fav but she is too beautiful and I didn’t hate it. Gladly it passed quickly.
Oh yeah that red her only worked inasmuch as it did cause of Ill-Nana Selling us on it with her confidence, Agreed!
I will be buying this issue. You can’t beat Rihanna for glamour and dynamism in fashion.
Pretty sure it’s because they ran an article from 150 years ago that Amelia earheart wrote about flying style. Just saying
Didn’t Amelia Earhart actually fly an airplane?
Yup. “Amelia Earhart blah blah taking on a man’s world blah blah, now here I am posing sexily while a man flies the plane.”
Nicely styled shoot, but I could’ve done without the pandering.
I remember how Amelia wasn’t too happy being known as the first woman passenger to cross the Atlantic. She said she was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes. Later, she made a successful solo crossing.
OMG – you are right! The picture seriously has a man in the pilot’s seat. That is some dumb-ass sh*t, and the exact opposite of everything gorgeous awesome Earhart was about!
This article is really interesting about Amelia’s death as a castaway:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/01/world/history-rewritten-amelia-earhart-trnd/
such a tragic end!
That first photo is gorgeous! I love all of the bronze, gold and brown hues, makes her look like an Egyptian goddess. She really is too beautiful!
I love the colors in these photos too! She is beautiful.
Nobody is complaining that she doesn’t have the right skintone to play Amelia? Why is this not offensive like Karlie Kloss dressed up like a Japanese?
Well, the main reason is she’s not playing Amelia. It’s really just a photo shoot with Amelia-era props.
Oh. My. God.
1. You are aware that there, in fact, were black aviators?
2. White people are NOT OPPRESSED FOR THEIR WHITENESS!
3. Also she is not even pulling a “white face”, she looks like herself.
aviator clothes aren’t cultural appropriation
Plus, she’s not dressed like an aviator. For some bizarre reason, she is dressed in ball gowns. Oh yes, it’s to honour the world’s first female cross-continental aviator. Makes perfect sense.
My issue with this photo shoot has nothing to do with race, and everything to do with sexism. THERE IS A MAN FLYING THE PLANE!!!
Please tell me you’re joking??
*hands on my chin* …Look at this cute dovetail to the Very point I was just making in the Serena thread
My first thought was, oh man, it would have been even cooler if she was being Bessie Coleman! Only because Bessie is awesome and doesn’t get enough love from history. Nothing wrong with her dressing as Amelia, though. And gorgeous photos.
Boop, came here to see that a comment like this would come up and THERE IT IS.
Lmaooooo hear hear
“A Japanese”?
*facepalm*
I get the point you’re trying to make. Turn it around and have a topless white woman in a banana skirt doing a tribute to Josephine Baker… yeah, I think it’s clear where that would lead. You could probably also argue, if you really wanted to, that blond hair which for the most part is a Northern European trait and not a POC trait, could be considered a form of “cultural appropriation”, assuming you really want to go down that rabbit hole.
That said, I think women celebrating the courage of other women who were trailblazers, has nothing to do with colour and everything to do about being a woman. Taken in that context, and using the Josephine Baker example, would it be offensive for a white woman to pay tribute to a black woman who basically lived her life with the sort of chutzpah and DGAF that is admirable to any woman who understands just how difficult it was to be that way in the era she lived? To me, context is important and so is intent.
POC are naturally born with blonde hair. Many aboriginal tribes have natural blonde hair. Also many people with albinism have naturally blonde hair.
Just a reminder, most “Caucasian” and “Northern European” women are descendants of Native Africa, not the other way around.
@OKSO… ok, down the rabbit hole it is. Technically, the entire population of the world originated in Africa. Which would pretty much make this entire discussion moot.
As I said above “blond hair is generally associated with northern europeans”. I didn’t say “only” because I’m perfectly aware that there are a very few tribes (and not “many”), notably the Berbers of North Africa and a certain area of the South Pacific where blondism is common. That said, Rihanna is not Berber, nor an aboriginal from the South Pacific, so technically she’s still appropriating from a culture that isn’t hers.
Look, as far as I’m concerned, skin colour, hair colour, eye colour are all the product of an evolutionary process that produced those who were the most well adapted to survive in the environment they evolved in. One is not superior to another. You put a blond, blue eyed, pale skinned person on the savannah where the Masai live, they’d be dead of heat stroke within a day or two. You put a Masai in northern europe where there is considerably less sunlight, they’re going to have problems with Vitamin D deficiency and rickets.
You take that same Masai and put them into a tribe of Pygmies, that Masai is going to be at a significant disadvantage because the Pygmies are forest dwellers and being small in that environment is an advantage. No slowing down to duck under low branches, or being taken out by one when you’re running full tilt after prey. Inversely, that same pygmy would be at a severe disadvantage on the savannah.
I’m going to leave the subject of albinos alone, for very obvious reasons.
Like a Japanese??? Wtf. Hope you stretched before that reach
*rubs Temples* a Japanese
She is stunning and the pictures are amazing
Or maybe she was honoring a black woman aviator? Bessie Coleman for example.
But she didn’t say that – she specifically says Amelia.
That’s because maybe she doesn’t know who Bessie Coleman is.
I thought of Bessie too– missed opportunity to honor a fierce historical figure who doesn’t get enough love. Love Amelia too, though.
Kind of agree. The quote is Amelia.
So where are all the people screaming that they should use a white model for this kind of shoot. Right, they would be blasted racist.
There’s nothing cultural about being a pilot
Sigh. Being a pilot is not exclusive to white culture. Pilots do not have a history of being teased, made fun of, denied employment or killed because of what they were born as.
Like I said below, Kendal Jenner was blasted for her ballerina shoot. So why is Rihanna not getting the same?
Kendal Jenner did not get accused of cultural appropriation.
Amelia Earhart was white I believe. And just btw, I’m not white like explained before. I’m mixed, and as someone that who lives between the two worlds the hypocrisy of black people pointing finger and screaming racism whenever it suits there cause, and than not holding themselves accountable to the same standards pisses me off.
Given the opportunity and a platform black people can be just as racist as white and all this *they can’t do that because of their skin color* is to me the definition of racism, but black community uses and point it out only when it’s beneficial to them.
Yes you’ve said this before. Do you care to explain what you see in this picture/post that is racist?
She’s not dressed AS Amelia Earnhardt, she’s dressed as Rihanna in period costume on an airfield.
I know it must be hard to feel that you are on the dividing lines of race. I know it must be hard to want NOT to feel like the ‘bad guy’, but you dont have to feel that way!!! No one is calling you a bad guy, no one is making you feel that way. When we point out the blatant racism that systematically keeps POC on a lower shelf than others we are pointing at a broken SYSTEM, not at ‘white ppl’ or anyone else.
I don’t think its racist at all. I’m just trying to point out that, if Amelia Earhart and Marilyn Monroe would be black, and there would be a white model posing the same way Rihanna is, the black twitter would be all up in the air and demending an apology. And anyone that would make the point that being a pilot is not exclusive to a culture would be attacked of being racist and is trying to excuse racism that is soooo obvious.
It’s the same seeing Becky thrown around on this site just so casually at everybody that doesn’t agree and is assumed white and female I suppose. That’s racist, malicious and wrong in my opinion, you don’t see them call anyone Shanikqua but I bet if someone would they would be accused racism or DELITED. Some heavy DOUBLE standards right there.
The point I’m making is that not everything is racist, that sometimes it’s just a matter of taste, and that it goes both ways, what the black community tends to ignore all together. Yes racism is a BIG problem but my point is people need to hold themselves to the standards that they preach and not just when they suits them and their race.
@okso: Bad guy? Really? Because I see what you ignore? lol
The difference is: WHITE PEOPLE STEAL FROM BLACK CULTURE ALL THE FUCKING TIME! Meanwhile black people are left in the dust. For example, Flappers, Hipsters, Blues and Rock music, Hip Hop, etc., etc., etc. — all black in their origins. Who makes the big buck and is super famous? Your Elvises, Janis Joplins, every freaking *classic rock* white dude ever, your Eminems, your Taylor Swifts and Iggy Azaleas, etc. Lifted from black culture and made ‘acceptable’ by a white varnish.
And this is just a tiny part of it — in US. We could also talk about how the actual black people were stolen and declared property by white settlers. Meaning: IT IS NOT DOUBLE STANDARD WHEN ONLY ONE SIDE BENEFITS OF OFF STEALING.
Mine? Really? Try reading again. You’ll get a stroke from screaming. I don’t listen to any of those you listed btw. What you can do, and what I can do is support black artist by buying their music and going to their concerts. What are Rihanna’s latest record sales? There are surely more black folks out there that like her. Beyonce? Not so great either. And don’t tell me that black people are supporting the artist that you listed. Aren’t Taylor’s fans like white teens? But it’s funny to me that that black people don’t support their own artist and then cry about how the white don’t.
And if someone gives credit where is due is not stealing for me. If a white singer says that he/she was/is listening, and is inspired by artists like Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Etta James… How is that not given credit to? What else can/should they do? Genuine question. Or is this a case that whites are just not allowed to do the black genres?
Because if so…All the big sports Football, Baseball, Soccer… originated in Europe, so by the logic you are sporting who started what … well then, only white people should be allowed to play them too.
Basketball was “invented” by a white guy from Canada… And who are the biggest earners in basketball? I never heard LeBron giving a shout out to the white dude from Canada. You know, where credit is due and all… but when a white person does, what was primarily created by black culture, it’s stealing, and is racist, and on an on and on….
I’m not seeing oppression is not real, I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist, I’m not saying there is no white privilege….
But based on the history of oppression black community developed some heavy double standards that count for everybody except for them. And that is what I think is wrong.
So instead of actually celebrating what Amelia actually accomplished (like flying an airplane), they have Rihanna pose in a Marilyn Monroe outfit on an airplane. Cool. What a disservice to Amerlia.
I hate to be that person, and don’t really have strong feelings about this BUT
why is this not being slammed for cultural appropriation? Rihanna is not white nor is she a pilot. So why are people not blasting her for appropriating white culture?
I’ve seen so many post blasting white people for appropriating other culture and it just seems odd that it doesn’t work both ways.
Aviation is not specific to one culture or race. Whereas geishas are very specific to Japanese culture just as braids and other protective styles are specific to back women. That’s the difference.
Idk if you needed have bother with the explanation ElleBee… It’s one of these comments that continue to crop up here that are the equivalents of #NotAllMen (but on women) and this notion of wanting to make a false equivalency fit their Discomfort with POC demanding a certain level of F*cking common sense about displays that all but use our cultures as props so that’s when the : “But Beyonce has Blonde Weave, Irish People had Dreads, But Becky is a Slur (FFS) but What about such and such not being as Classy as Amy Adams.. It’s a thread that’s been happening for a minute, unchecked and what I noticed is that no matter how many times the brown girls here try to educate, make some understand ( The Patience My god!) is an actual want and wish to NOT understand, to NOT see, to Continue on some feigned WELL BUT THIS.. so as to not validate what actual ass women are telling them is the problem, as though we are on an Oppression Olyimpics or a tit for tat instead of… Ya Know … Shutting up a second and learning and stop reviewing the dossier of BUTS for a second.
And as an FYI I’d say that’s why A LOT of chicks that used to comment here all the time and have some perspective to add to such threads have simply left, cause some of us get tired on a Y day of talking to walls
So why was Kendal Jenner was slammed for her ballerina shoot. Ballerinas are not a specific race either
I’m make my comments to be the devils advocate. I actually believe that when people ‘appropriate’ other cultures, it’s not a bad thing. Why does most of the world think that it’s racist for a white chick to have dreads or wear ‘black’ clothes or whatever the case may be. Why is it not taken as respect and a celebration of a culture different from yours.
Aviation is not for only one race. However, the woman that Riri is portraying is in fact white!
If a white woman portrayed Serena Williams as a tennis player, s**t would hit the fan and the model would never be forgiven.
I don’t care about this issue either way but what I wrote is the truth.
It’s because ONE RACE IN PARTICULAR was oppressed and owned by and suffered a genocide at the hands of the other. And the ripple effects of this FACT are still felt by half the population of America today.
Honestly, I rly don’t see how this is hard to understand.
Completely agree with what @wow said on this matter.
Ant the argument *you can’t that because of your skin color* divides races even further.
@ the Devil’s advocate.
That’s a facile position to take, and its harmful.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/09/playing-devils-advocate/
The argument *you can’t because of your skin colour* has applied to everyone except white people for a long time. Except not just in art or celebrity, everywhere. There were literal LAWS saying what certain skin colours were allowed to do.
Ignoring what our sisters are saying is what really divides us further.
There were literal LAWS saying what certain skin colours were allowed to do.— The key word to me is WERE, and that is what we are, and need to keep working on, to disappear, so no matter what skin color you have NOW it’s only your actions that count. I know we are not there yet but flipping this around makes no sense to me, and with this logic someone will always end up being oppressed.
She’s so very beautiful.
Interesting note – I was looking at a side by side this year vs 10 years ago Grammy’s slideshow and was honestly shocked to see how much darker her skin was at the beginning of her career vs now. Of course she could’ve just been really tan during the picture 10 years ago but it was a very noticeable difference.
Im curious as to how some posters just pop up on certain threads about certain celebrities spewing the same sh*t.
I comment on almost every single story on CB – i’m a regular here.
I’m not “spewing shit”. It’s something I really noticed.
Dark skin tans too, you know. She came from Barbados.
Wow so you didn’t read my comment where I said “she could’ve just been really tan”? Of course I know dark skin tans too. But her skin is noticeably lighter now vs when she first came into the industry.
Aww, babys first discovery of racism…
Sweetheart, I discovered rcisem the day I was born. By white AND black people. That’s the point I’m making true all my posts. I don’t deny it. I know it exists. And I point it out when I see it. But it goes both ways, what you can’t see from your high horse.
F you. I’m racist because I noticed that she used to be very dark at the beginning of her career and now she’s much lighter? That’s racist?
Here I was thinking I could have a conversation with thoughtful people about the possibility Rih was pressured to lighten her skin tone and these are the responses I’m getting.
Rihanna and Beyoncé will survive.
Do not make Beyoncé and Rihanna die.
Chris Brown Rihanna Katy Perry Kanye West Drake usher pitbull Trey Songz and Ne Yo and all the rap and hip-hop and all of them will survive.