African American Women: Sex, Nudity and Fame

Cyberspace is crackin and eyes are bulging with revelations that nude pics of sultry singer Rihanna were leaked, to the benefit of celeb junkies worldwide. This comes just days after Women becoming famous or getting exponentially more notoriety after nude pictures somehow surfaced is nothing new. Way back in the early part of the 20th Century, Josephine Baker used partial and full nudity as part of her provocative artistic expression in Paris when she was rejected in the United States. Nude pictures initially seemed to derail the promising career of the first ever African American Miss America winner, Vanessa Williams. Williams, humiliated and stripped of her crown after pictures of her nude photos with another women were plastered all over the airwaves just days after she won in 1983, simply channeled her notoriety into a very successful singing and acting career. Today, she is one of the most respected actresses in urban America, and the nude photos are but a distant memory.

Rihanna, on the other hand, needed nothing else to make her more famous than she already is. Already an international cultural icon because of a string of number one hits and because her exotic looks made her a darling of the fashion and magazine industries, saw her star quotient ratchet up meteorically because of the domestic violence quagmire with then boyfriend Chris Brown just prior to the Grammy Awards in February. Now, the provocative pics of herself electrifying the internet. From past expereince, we can easily deduce that Rihanna’s celebrity will receive yet another sharp upward trajectory. Whether or not Rihanna will be able to leverage this into a sustainable fame remains to be seen.