Farmer Graham was right to stand up to Rihanna's antics

We should applaud his principled objection to a celebrity culture that trades on crude and demeaning sexuality

Alan Graham must be bemused to find himself standing in the celebrity circus ring, suddenly lit up by the blinding light of publicity.

An unassuming 61-year-old farmer from Bangor in Northern Ireland, he had given permission for a film crew to shoot a video of the pop idol Rihanna on his land.

Mr Graham had no idea who Rihanna was, but he did not like what she was doing in his fields. Just as he was passing by on his tractor, she threw off her top and bra for the benefit of the rolling cameras.

Just not on! Democratic Unionist Party Alderman Alan Graham said he was fetching his tractor when he saw Rihanna cavorting in his field and thought it was unacceptable

Being a Christian of deep faith, he was unhappy the crew were  filming what he believed to be pornographic images.

So he politely asked them to leave his field — and they did.

The story has spread around the world and, despite the fact Mr Graham insists he parted amicably with Rihanna and her crew, there seems to be disbelief that this principled farmer did not prostrate himself before the half-naked diva rather than evict her from his land.

Country girl: Rihanna gets down to business in farmer Graham's field

For such effrontery he has been pilloried by the show business world, the media and ardent Rihanna fans.

On Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show yesterday, a brash and brassy journalist from the Belfast Telegraph accused Mr Graham of dragging her people back to the joyless days of terrorism, of putting back recovery and progress.

She wailed that everyone around the world would look down again on Northern Ireland and see its people as backward. 

Po-faced? Message on a barn close to where the shoot was taking place

A local woman called in to complain farmer Graham had fatally wounded their tourism industry with his  po-faced Christian belief.

She said that, because the filming had been stopped, the province would miss all those visitors who would have visited the area to see the field where Rihanna jiggled her stuff in her new video.

Elsewhere, Mr Graham has been attacked for being a fundamentalist Christian and Ulster Unionist — as if such allegiances automatically mean he has no place in an advanced societies.

Rude girl: Rihanna is filming scenes for her latest video at several locations in Northern Ireland

As a liberal and a Muslim who lives in London, I confess it is unlikely I would have much in common with farmer Graham, with his faith or his politics. It is possible I wouldn’t even like the man much.

But that’s not the point. I hugely admire what he did. In his small, humble way, this farmer demonstrated a kind of strength and conviction that used to be commonplace in society — and which, to our shame, has almost disappeared.  He had the chance to make a tidy sum of money from one of the most successful pop singers on the planet, but was not prepared to sell out his principles for a fat cheque from anyone — however famous or important they might be.

Instead, Mr Graham made a brave stand against two of the worst excesses of modern life: the sexualisation of society and our celebrity culture.
Rihanna is a good singer and performer, but that is not enough for the mindless followers of popular culture.

Semi-pornographic: More controversy from Rihanna as she danced topless in the field on the video shoot

So she acts out the semi-pornographic and self-demeaning behaviour that is expected of so many female celebrities today; behaviour the music industry cynically tries to pass off as stylish.

The truth is the pop world has become a contaminated landscape where young women — even those born with exceptional talents — act suggestively to sell records and encourage their worship by fans.

What Mr Graham did in standing up to Rihanna’s antics is unthinkable for most people, so overpowering is the pressure to conform to fashion.

 

For more than 40 years, those who have urged caution against the rise of the permissive society have been subject to such ridicule by the progressive media establishment that they have all but been silenced.  A depressing, fatalistic acceptance of the ruinous values represented by Rihanna, Britney, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Madonna has become  the norm.

Most feminists, too, have given up the struggle. Where once they protested against Page Three girls, many today perversely see raunchy,  semi-naked celebrities — whose adoring fans often haven’t even reached their teens — as heroines of a new feminist movement.

A once-militant objector to Page Three girls tried to explain this movement to me.

Lights, camera, action: Extra lighting is set up to capture the Bajan beauty before Mr Graham's protestation

‘Women have seized their own sexuality,’ she claimed. ‘Now they own it, they can do what they want with it. That is completely different from when men were exploiting them.’

Call me stupid, but I don’t get what she was talking about.

What I do know is Madonna protected her own daughter, as far as she could, from the dissolute ‘new feminism’ that she and those who came after her peddled to millions of credulous girls.

Such singers as Rihanna are obviously convinced they must turn themselves into sex toys.

Human sex toy, or heroine of the feminist movement?

Some people argue it has been ever thus, that Diana Ross and almost all the Motown female stars, as well as Lulu and many others, were erotic performers on stage and cultivated allure.

I completely disagree. These women never pushed the boundaries of good taste, nor did they did turn themselves into pornographically arousing merchandise.

Their voices were what we loved them for and they had an inner dignity.

Dignity: Adele is one singing sensation who hasn't been turned into a sexual fantasy

Of course, there are some singers today who have retained their dignity, too. The British sensation Adele is one of them and her records sell in their millions. Her message is clear and strong. She is a singer — not a sexual fantasy. 

But everywhere else you look — from the way female winners of The X Factor are processed to MTV pop videos — you see nothing but a meat market much more degrading than those beauty contests of yesteryear, which so many of  us abhorred.
Those of us who are parents of young girls know how much time and energy has to go into protecting them from the tides of smut that comes at them through TV screens, magazines and billboards, and, of course, the unregulated internet.

Tragically, it is a battle we cannot win unless we lock away our daughters.

The filming caught the attention of locals including a group of girls. There's little we can do to protect our children from the sexualised media

How terrible for them that they were born into a world where there are no limits, no way to say ‘No’ or to step away from the in-your-face raciness that Rihanna and others have made their trademark.

I spent so many years stopping my daughter from dressing inappropriately, teaching her that our clothes give messages about how we see ourselves and how we want to be seen by others.

Why is it that the national conversation about the degradation of our natural world and physical environment is considered so respectable and urgent, while anyone who questions the degradation of our moral and social environment is treated like a leper or a lunatic?
There was a glimmer of hope yesterday. Unexpectedly, some callers to radio stations talking about Rihanna and Mr Graham were supportive of the farmer.

Even the busty Carry On girl Barbara Windsor said he was right to do what he did.

On a train from Liverpool, I talked about the incident to a young couple, Laurence and Sal, final year university students. He said the singer was ‘over the top’ and ‘attention seeking’.

Sal added: ‘I wonder whether she would want her daughter to behave as she does.’

We all know what farmer Graham would say to that

Posted in world star pictures