New Protests Against Chris Brown Make Me Feel All Warm And Fuzzy Inside
Chris Brown won’t be traveling to Guyana for a planned December 26 concert. Local protests by women’s groups and lawmakers led the organizers of the tour to opt out of performing in what could potentially be a hostile environment. It’s really nice to see some people place the seriousness of domestic violence over the importance of pop super-stardom. Young women everywhere should hear the message that their well-being is important.
Maybe I should accept his apology like so many others seem too – but I can’t. He has too much fame and too much influence over millions of young people around the world. He has over 11 million followers on Twitter alone. I just can’t accept the fact that after his brutal beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 so much of the public embraced him with open arms. The music industry rewarded him with a Grammy the following year. With all of these messages telling young women, “your safety doesn’t matter,” I’m glad there are still a few people out there who are relaying the message, “we won’t forget.”
How many teenage girls idolize this young man, and rush to his defense every time his past indiscretions are brought up? They are being conditioned to believe that violence is okay. Some have even gone as far as claiming it’s “sexy.” I remember after the news of the Brown’s Grammy win, there was more of a backlash against these young women than against Brown himself. The only text in a Buzzfeed article about the disturbing tweets of young women basically lining up to be beat-up by Chris Brown was this, “Yikes. Looks like we have a really big problem here, society.”
So, is the problem that young women are so conditioned to believe this behavior is forgivable, or that domestic violence is a plague on our country that doesn’t seem to be taken seriously by anyone – let alone the entertainment industry? Chris Brown’s upsetting Grammy win – as timing would have it- came on the heels of major tragedy for women everywhere. Topeka Kansas actually decriminalized domestic violence a few months before Brown took home is trophy. Ugh.
Every 9 seconds in the US a woman is assaulted or beaten. Everyday in the US, more than 3 women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. This is a plague on our country – and a hell that women can not escape. I’ll stop gloating over the backlash that an abuser like Chris Brown receives when women stop living in fear. It may lack maturity, but with statistics like these – it’s all I got.
(photo: Helga Esteb/ Shutterstock.com)