Melanie C of Spice Girls Blasts Rihanna: She Has a Responsibility Towards Girls

Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice of the now-defunct Spice Girls, is taking issue with the way Rihanna dresses and behaves in concert. Regardless of what RiRi says, she has a responsibility towards her audience – and she’s a negative role model because she doesn’t want to see that, Mel C says.

Once criticized herself for her and the other Spice Girls’ skimpy outfits and sometimes suggestive lyrics, Melanie says her perspective has changed a lot since she became a mother.

Perhaps Rihanna too will understand this when she becomes a mom as well, says Melanie in an interview cited by the Daily Mail.

“Rihanna has responsibility and although culture’s always changing, it’s changed too much. It needs to be dealt with. It’s reached saturation point, we owe it to our kids to protect them,” Melanie says.

She thinks Rihanna and many other powerful and successful women need to make their image about their music and not their body, if they want to send a positive message to kids.

The Barbadian beauty, for one, has many young fans and the way they see her is “inappropriate.”

“Rihanna’s free to do as she pleases, of course, but I think her take on the criticism she’s had is interesting,” Melanie says.

Mind it, Melanie is not disputing that Rihanna is a good performer or singer, she’s just saying that she needs to tone down the vamp image and imagery for the sake of her younger fans, she insists.

“I love Rihanna, I think she’s a [expletive]-ing brilliant artist, with great songs, a great record and she looks fantastic… but she’s not a mum. Maybe if she becomes one she’ll feel different. I hope so anyway,” the former Spice Girl says.

As it happens, the criticism of Rihanna’s outfits and behavior on stage comes just as Melanie C is promoting her brand new album, though she says this has nothing to do with it.

More on what she thinks Rihanna does wrong here.