A little while ago, I mentioned how confused I was that celebrities were role models, and yet role models were not celebrities. As I have been scouring the internet for other opinions on the subjects, I am quite happy to note that more people than expected agree, one of the being EW’s Mark Harris:

Maybe we could all take a minute off from clucking ”Don’t do it, girl!” alongside Oprah to ask ourselves what on earth made any of us think Rihanna was a role model in the first place. She is a singer — after all, only a singer — who became famous as a teenager because a couple of years ago, she sang one song in which she found new and interesting things to do to the word umbrella, and another (”Don’t Stop the Music”) in which she expressed her desire to blow off steam by going to a club and hooking up with a stranger. There’s nothing wrong with that. The songs are catchy and sexy, she performed them well, and people liked them, so she became a big success. Good for her! (…)

But role model? Have we lost our minds? If we really think that being famous now automatically qualifies you as someone whose example should be imitated and followed by young people, then that can only mean we now believe that fame in itself represents a form of moral superiority.

Or perhaps we’re all just looking for new ways to beat up Rihanna and get away with it.

Read the rest of the article here.