Insults: Liz Jones vs Rihanna - an ugly war of words

Rihanna, left, and Liz Jones (Rex features)

Liz on Rihanna

Earlier this week, the Daily Mail’s Liz Jones wrote a take-down, sorry, article, about Rihanna. It’s fair to say that Jones didn’t pull her punches, calling the star a “poisonous pop princess”, saying that “the message she’s sending to her young fans is utterly toxic” and that the singer “should come with a government health warning”. Some of which is fair enough. Then Jonesy went nuclear: “She promotes drug-taking, drinking [not that bit] and the sort of fashion sense on stage that surely invites rape”. Pretty short on sisterhood, that, what with rapists being the reason that rape happens. As insults go, that’s not below the belt, it’s off the scale. Round one to Rihanna.

Rihanna on Liz

It’s impossible to say whether Rihanna was a fan of Liz Jones’s work before this, but she sure isn’t now. Her Instagrammed reply to the story called Jones “amateur” and “bitter”. Liz has been at it for 30 years so the former slur isn’t correct, despite what readers of her weekly diary might think about the latter. Then Rihanna went in with her own death blow, describing Jones as “a sad sloppy menopausal mess”. Ouch. But if you take on the scary girls, you’re going to get hurt. And if you suggest that any woman is responsible for her own sexual assault because of her attire, being called sad, sloppy and menopausal is, frankly, the least of your troubles. Whatever you think about Rihanna’s ways, she’s won this one.