Rihanna Silences Body Shamers With a Perfect Gucci Mane Meme
Rihanna had a characteristically cavalier response to those commenting on her body in recent days: with a meme featuring none other than rapper Gucci Mane.
The singer took to Instagram on Monday, June 5th, to let body shamers know exactly how she feels about their comments. “If you can’t handle me at my 2007 Gucci Mane you don’t deserve me at my 2017 Gucci Mane,” the meme reads, along with two images of Gucci Mane – one heavier set, the other trim and muscular.
Rihanna’s fans responded with praise (and over 600,000 likes) for her devil-may-care attitude, with one user commenting, “You’re so beautiful @badgalriri you’re a strong and wonderful woman, no matter what those stupid people say, they are jealous!”
Another added: “You are beautiful no matter your size @badgalriri so let them hate all they want??.”
Last week, sports blog Barstool Sports angered many with an article that fat-shamed the star with the headline: “Is Rihanna Going to Make Being Fat the Hot New Trend?” The piece veered into misogynistic territory as it suggested that Rihanna had been “enjoying that good room service a bit too long.” Following backlash from Rihanna’s fans, the article was taken down, with Barstool founder David Portnoy publishing a statement to explain his decision.
“To be honest I don’t think the blog was as bad as many are making it out to be, but I’ll tell you this. It wasn’t that funny either and I could have told you with absolute certainty that feminists would hate it and use it as an example of ‘there goes Barstool being Barstool again,'” Portnoy wrote. He did not apologize for the article.
Barstool writer Chris Spags seemed less remorseful over the piece, taking to Twitter to joke about the controversy. “Rihanna fans did not like my blog calling her fat and now I’m being cyberbullied,” he tweeted, along with several screenshots of threatening messages he’d received since the article was published.