Rhianna has shown that she came to reign supreme in the year 2017, from releasing 40 shades of foundation all at once and blessing us with trophy wife highlighter(she literally launched a full beauty brand that would always remain in our hearths), to getting a street named after her and also being rewarded for her philanthropy and impact on pop culture.
With all the buzz the 29 year old has been getting, a fan seems to have noticed something most people did not take note of, which is the lack of trans models in any of Fenty Beauty Campaigns. @ibertootero took to twitter to publish a screen shot of his conversation with the music star .
Rihanna responded in a very polite manner and also being very blunt about her opinion and reason for not using transgender models in any of her campaigns. Rihanna began by saying how grateful she was to have worked among-st many gifted trans women over the years but she made it known that notwithstanding, she did not go about doing trans castings. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with many gifted trans women throughout the years, but I don’t go around doing trans castings! Just like I don’t do straight non trans women castings.” see full message below:
Rihanna went further to explain that trans men and women are often used as marketing strategies by brands, which makes these models look like a piece of token for companies to appear cool. “Too often I see companies doing this to trans and black women alike. There’s always just that one spot in the campaign for the token ‘we look mad diverse’ girl/guy! It’s sad!”
We totally agree with Rihanna’s answer as it clearly reminds of us of how we felt when the list of top earning models for the year 2017 was released and not a single black model made it on the list, the only model of color who managed to show face was Lui Wen coming up at number 8 on the list.
It only shows that statistics showing for involvement of models of color in the fashion industry does not add up to their earnings.
The twitter user expressed his delight in Rihanna’s response, stating how enlightened he was by the songstress honest words.
