In the September issue of Italian Vogue, cover model Rihanna — the pop star most recently famous for the beating she received at the hands of then-boyfriend Chris Brown — poses for a photo wearing a lip-shaped gag. Another shot shows the singer half-naked, with only a pair of pasties to cover her nipples. I have to admit, my first thoughts, as I paged through the images, were of exploitation. How could Vogue have asked a domestic violence victim to be photographed in bondage gear? And how could Rihanna have allowed the magazine to turn her ordeal into a kinky, controversial spread calculated to sell copies? But maybe this wasn’t about exploitation at all — or, at least, not primarily. In fact, photographer Steven Klein’s images seem constructed to make Rihanna look powerful. These are stark, gothy, ’80s-inspired shots, all clean lines and sharp angles, and all but one is in black-and-white. In what the Huffington Post refers to as Rihanna’s “topless” shot, the singer stands tall and proud, holding what looks like a riding crop and wearing an enormous black coat, her pointy, manicured fingers resting confidently at her hip. While another image has her on all fours, Rihanna’s spiked hair and steely eyes insist that she’s no victim. Even the meaning behind the gagged shot is ambiguous. I mean, there’s no getting around it: The woman who stayed mum throughout Brown’s trial is certainly muzzled. And, honestly, I’m not sure what kind of apparatus she’s perched on there; it could be Pilates equipment or a supersize BDSM toy. But Rihanna is also staring straight into the camera, defying us to judge her.
