Rihanna's BBHMM music video has a 'feminist message

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Canadian supermodel Rachel Roberts stars in seven minute music video
Rihanna has come under fire after it features kidnap, torture and murder
Roberts says global superstar is playing a strong woman fighting back

Published: 08:59 EST, 7 July 2015 | Updated: 11:20 EST, 7 July 2015

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Rihanna's violent new video has a 'feminist message' and is about a 'strong woman fighting back,' according to the supermodel who stars in it.

The risque singer has come under fire for video which accompanies her new single B***h Better Have My Money, which features kidnap, torture and murder.

Supermodel Rachel Roberts stars as the blonde wife of an accountant who has wronged the global superstar.

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Extreme violence: Rihanna appears covered in the blood of her hapless victims in her new music video, 'B**** Better Have My Money'

Glorified: Rihanna waves a gun in the background while her victim lies naked, bound and gagged in the foreground, in the video that is freely available for the legions of 12-year-old girls who support her

Rihanna debuts controversial new music video with Tidal

During the seven minute long movie she is kidnapped, stripped naked and then tortured by the 27-year-old Umbrella singer.

Roberts, who has featured in Vogue, spoke out in support of the video.

'Whether or not you like what she's doing in the video, Rihanna is portraying a strong woman, who is fighting back, even if her methods are obviously highly questionable,' Roberts reportedly told the Guardian.

'Beyond that, I don't think it's particularly useful to argue the politics of the video – it was always meant to be over-the-top and not taken too seriously.'

One scene shows Roberts in a pool with her mouth taped shut as Rihanna fires a gun.

In another torture section, the she is seen suspended upside-down by her feet, swinging from a rope.

The gory video ends with a blood-soaked Rihanna rolling naked in a chest full of money after she kills the woman's husband.

Roberts accepts that the video is 'risque' but told how she understood exactly what she was getting into when she agreed to take part.

Unsuspecting: The video begins - after a foreboding shot on bloody legs popping out of a wooden chest - with a pretty blonde woman getting ready and leaving her apartment

Kiss goodbye: Roberts, wearing a chic suit, bids farewell to her husband

Racial stereotyping: Rihanna lurks behind Roberts in a lift before pouncing on the blonde

Rihanna drags a heavy suitcase out of the apartment, which is presumably carrying Robert's body

The model, who has walked the catwalk for Versace, Balmain, and Chloé, said that the nudity made sense.

'... yes, it is more in your face than a lot of videos but, for me, with regards to nudity, so long as it isn't gratuitous and [it is] there for a reason, then it's fine,' she told the newspaper.

She added: 'In fashion, for example, nudity is not a big thing.'

Roberts said Rihanna knew what she was doing and added that films by the likes of Quentin Tarantino are 'far more graphic and violent.'

The Daily Mail's Sarah Vine said the video contained extreme violence, torture, drug-taking, guns, negative racial stereotyping , sexual exploitation and murder.

Vine wrote: 'Actually, sorry: not just contains, but also glorifies and justifies.'

Helen Lewis in the New Statesman wrote: 'It was not very feminist — not even very hashtag feminist — of Rihanna to 'torture that poor rich lady'.

'That is because it is not very feminist to torture women. Even if they are white. Even if they are rich. Even if you are a woman yourself. Sorry if this comes as a surprise.'

Yesterday travel firm Kuoni and the Co-operative Group said they will stop their adverts playing before the singer's controversial track on video streaming website Vevo.

The song has been viewed more than 18 million times since it was uploaded last Wednesday.

To watch the video on YouTube, users must verify they are over 18 and advertisements do not appear on age-restricted content.

Rihanna has repeatedly come under fire for her skimpy clothing and lewd song lyrics.

In 2013 her song Pour It Up was labelled 'obscene' and 'vile' for its X-rated content, which featured strippers and suggestive dance moves such as 'twerking'.