Why Rihanna’s Baby Bump Matters so Much
If you find yourself spending a little more time sharing and passing around pictures of Rihanna’s fashion-forward baby bump, wondering if there is something deeper going on here, maybe you’re right.
Maybe there is.
It’s fun to think of Rihanna, who has been seen all over in clothes specially designed to showcase every beautiful stage of her pregnancy, giving a book of all these photos to her child when they grow up a little saying, “this is when we first started hanging,” then looking through it and laughing about the joy and anticipation you see in every one. It’s a great way to show a child they were wanted, even before they were born.
But there is an even bigger message here. And maybe it’s just something I’m reading into it, but it stands nonetheless.
The trend amongst black parents, celebrities and regular people alike, to elevate and celebrate their children is a powerfully emotive and joyful expression of the idea that Black lives matter.
Family, and the possibility of newborn life in the middle of it, was vitally important to the Black men and women who were brought here, enslaved, from Africa. It’s one of the dynamics that white culture worked so hard to minimize, to defeat, to hammer down. Children were taken, family bonds broken, the hardships of slavery even made the thought of childbirth into something more fearful than joyful. Rape, physical abuse, a lack of bodily autonomy, the family suffered from all of the mechanisms used to enslave people.
Today, when we see Rihanna, jewels and silver chains around her exposed belly, dressed beautifully, walking proudly, smiling, we feel like we’re looking at the preparations for the birth of a king, or a queen. We see presaged examples of her joy and physical commitment to not just parent an average child, but to create a beautiful space in the universe for her family.
We’re watching the birth of a life that matters.
And yes, that is, today, right now, in a country where a black child is six times more likely to be killed by the police, a political statement. All the beauty, the elegance, the fashion sense drawn from her award winning design line, her imposing presence, not just as an accomplished artist but as one of the most beautiful women in the world, all of it, is part of a statement, and it’s a powerful one.
To celebrate black children, to elevate them, to prepare for a future where there is no doubt their lives truly matter, this is an act of political bravery and substance.
Black Lives Matter is now, officially, the largest social movement, in terms of both events and participants, in the history of the world. And we are all going to have to figure out what that means. What does it mean to live a life that matters, beyond the response of the police and penal system here, beyond the challenges, past the institutionalized gates that keep people of color from feeling as though they DO matter.
What we see from Rihanna is that there are still powerful ways to tell this story everywhere, to commit to an afro-futurist world where black identities powerfully shape black futures and help define the beautiful possibilities that belong to all of us.
So, today, when you find yourself nodding your head a little when you see a picture of Rihanna pass by your newsfeed, and click “love,” maybe consider sharing it.
Maybe it’s a message you can get behind.
