Rihanna Lashes Out at British Journalist Who Called Her a “Poisonous Pop Princess”

Plenty of unflattering stories get written about Rihanna every day, and she ignores most of them.  But when a female British journalist penned an entire editorial taking the singer to task for being a bad role model, Ri-Ri just had to answer.

The Daily Mail journalist, Liz Jones, called Rihanna "toxic" and a "poisonous pop princess" who should "come with a government health warning."  Jones slammed the star for dancing suggestively onstage, singing songs with sexually-charged lyrics, and posting photos on Instagram and Twitter that supposedly glorify guns and drugs.  She also criticized Rihanna for going back to Chris Brown and suggested that the singer's onstage outfits "surely invite rape at worst, disrespect at least."

Noting that young women "want to be Rihanna," Jones writes, "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 message she’s sending to her young fans, through her explicit lyrics, vile dance moves and pictures on Twitter, is utterly toxic."

Well, Ri-Ri wasn't going to take that lying down.  On Instagram, she posted a long response to Jones, writing, "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 sh*t ain't clever!!! That sh*t ain't journalism! That's a sad sloppy menopausal mess!!!"

The singer then went on to point out that she has no desire to be a role model, so she shouldn't be criticized for failing to be a good one.

"Nobody over here acts like they're perfect! I don't pretend that I'm like you, i just live... My life!!," she writes. "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*cked up sh*t to work on, I'll never portray that as perfect, but for right now it's ME!!"

Rihanna went on to tweet a series of lyrics from "Could You Be Loved," a song by one of her heroes, reggae legend Bob Marley. "Don't let them fool ya! Or even try to school ya! We've got a mind of our own, so go to hell if what you're thinking is not right!!" she wrote. "Don't let them change ya, or even rearrange ya!! We've got a life to live! They say only the fittest of the fittest shall survive!"