Ep. 247: Rihanna gets ugly for Interview magazine cover with religious symbolism but Madonna did it first!

BeautyMe with Charisse Kenion

This episode is a conversation around the new Rihanna cover for the spring issue of Interview magazine. It’s a cover that’s upset a lot of her fans for two reasons; one, apparently she's just not looking pretty enough and two, she's wearing what looks like a piece of headwear we would normally associate with a nun. It's a real deep dive of an episode, starting with Rihanna’s history as a risk-taker when it comes to fashion, before going on to briefly discuss Interview magazine’s own history as a magazine that doesn’t do safe/squeaky clean content, then I’ll break down the cover, including the team, the image that inspired the cover look, the ensuing backlash and I’ll also look at the woman who first really rattled religious groups back in the 1980s: Madonna. As always, my DMs are open if you want to talk about anything beauty related or if you want to tell me I went too far in my comments on religion – you can find me over on Instagram @beautymepodcast or you can find me on Threads @charisse_kenion or email [email protected]. As promised there is also a blog post featuring all of the imagery and art that I discuss - you can find that here: https://www.charissekenion.co/ and of course I've also made a video, which you can find on my Instagram or TikTok. If you enjoyed this episode do please leave a rating on Spotify or a review anywhere else you like to listen and make sure you're following the show so you never miss an episode! Thanks so much for being here – see you next time. Links/sources: Rihanna is ready to confess: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/rihanna-is ready-to-confess https://system-magazine.com/issues/issue-22/in-the-words-of-mel-ottenberg https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/celebrity-style/articles/a29843/a-guide-rihannas-anti-tour-wardrobe/ https://cfda.com/cfda-fashion-awards/2014/honoree/rihanna https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/instant-gratification https://hypebae.com/2023/11/skims-christmas-campaign-kim-kardashian-nadia-lee-cohen https://news.artnet.com/art-world/cindy-sherman-new-portraits-hauser-wirth-2423424 https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/rihanna-september-cover-british-vogue-2018 Ep. 246: April Covers: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6KNUJ4Weklm5ctxfzoOylK?si=b010e6aa6cd0411f Charisse on Fat Mascara: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4zxfqLLSojxWZ4B62ZJnG3?si=wS173WsGQ0ex8c2rAgBVYQ BeautyMe on X: https://x.com/beautymepodcast BeautyMe on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@charisse_kenion/ BeautyMe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beautymepodcast/ BeautyMe newsletter: https://beautymenotes.substack.com BeautyMe on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charissekenion BeautyMe on ShopMy: https://shopmy.us/beautyme