Rihanna’s practically naked dress: Why it might be one of the most powerful feminist statements the pop world has made to date

The world’s media are still talking about Rihanna and her ‘scandalous’ near-naked dress this morning.

How very dare a woman turn up to an awards ceremony looking so brazenly intimidating, the press cried? How could she possibly eschew society’s norms of how a woman should dress at such an event and look so defiantly sexy? Why isn’t she wearing a bra?

“The naughty outfit left nothing to the imagination,” wrote one publication, adding that “one wonders what Anna Wintour [another show guest and the editor of US Vogue] thought” of the attire.

“Rude girl Rihanna is trend-setter, but let’s not copy this one girls,” bemoaned another.

But few British newspapers and their online counterparts went as far as to boycott the image and not publish it at all, despite seemingly taking the ‘moral high ground’. Whether they agree with the shimmering statement or not, Rihanna succeeded in shocking everyone – which is probably exactly what she wanted.

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