Rihanna wears fox fur on Twitter but it looks better on a fox. Before commenting on the image, I have to disclose that I am making the presumption that Rihanna is wearing genuine fox fur and not a substitute. If I am wrong, I take it all back.
Rihanna’s full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. She has a beauty brand called Fenty which is marketed as ‘cruelty-free’ as I understand it. Hold that thought and look at the image in which she strikes a cornily seductive pose flashing a bit of flesh wearing fox fur on Twitter where she has a flashy 101.8 million followers. She is sending mixed messages. Or perhaps the better assessment is that she is blatantly commercial and we can’t believe the PR guff about Fenty being cruelty-free.
Wearing the skin of an animal is inherently cruel. The fundamental concept is cruel and in today’s world it is crude and unthinking. On Twitter the tweets that are superficial receive the most hits. It is the nature of the beast.
If Rihanna used her fame and following to be a voice for animals as per Ricky Gervais, Brigitte Bardot and Joaquin Phoenix, she’d double her already massive Twitter following. It would be a good commercial decision. But in modeling a fox fur coat it shows the world that she is out of step with modern thoughts on animal welfare and allegedly supports the fur trade.
If you support the fur trade you are an enemy of animals as it is huge and horrendous. It is obscene. Note that the country with the biggest fur trade business is China. Note also that China has no general, overarching animal welfare laws which would protect animals whose skin is taken from them in the most brutal fashion. In Europe, Finland is the big producer.
There is no reference to animals on her Wikipedia page. Nothing. What a loss to animal welfare to have a person who is so influential particularly with today’s youth shunning the opportunity to fight for something really worthy. She could also promote wildlife conservation. Both these aspects of animal welfare need all the support they can get.
About 85 percent of the fur industry’s skins come from animals living captive in fur factory farms according to International Fur Trade Federation, “Types of Wild Fur,” (last accessed 8 Nov 2020). And that industry is indescribably cruel.
Here is a video from PETA on the fur industry:
A lot of people like myself love and feed foxes.
Free: guaranteed cure for fox mange.
“I thought we’d evolved from the stone age. Obviously not.” – tweet in response to the image above.
“Foxes live around me and they’re basically very shy canine cats. They’re very magical creatures. People need to know this is a nightmare to do this.” – comment on the pictures
Real or not, it’s a very bad encouragement to wear fur
Absolutely. Agreed. Bad influence.