Rihanna’s actions are nothing short of a betrayal

I don’t often pay attention to celebrity culture, and I definitely don’t subscribe to the view of celebrities as role models, particularly celebrities who like to sing about whips and chains, but for the Rihanna-Chris Brown debacle I’m happy to make an exception.

After the 2009 post-Grammys ‘incident’ in which Brown felt it necessary to beat his then girlfriend to a pulp, smash her head into a car window, attempt to strangle her, threaten to kill her, and finally leave her at the side of the road covered in bite marks, I felt nothing but admiration and respect for her when she prosecuted him.

Her move to take out a restraining order must have been nothing short of inspirational to the hundreds of thousands of women who suffer from domestic abuse. And now she’s taking him back.
When two women per week are killed by current or ex-partners, and when one in four women will experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetime, her actions are nothing short of a betrayal.

I don’t buy into the argument that she’s just a 24-year-old girl who is entitled to make her own mistakes. It’s one thing for Rihanna to privately forgive Brown for his behaviour, but it’s another thing entirely for her to capitalise and profit on this forgiveness. Releasing a duet to state that everything is fine and dandy, particularly a duet which includes such endearing lines from Brown as ‘Girl I wanna fuck you right now. Been a long time, I’ve been missing your body’ is sickening.

Did Rihanna retort that of his history of domestic abuse left her distinctly turned off? Did she fuck. “If you still wanna kiss it, then come and get it’ was her infuriating response.
I have something of a personal vendetta against Brown, a vendetta which wasn’t ameliorated by seeing my 15-year-old sister post a Facebook status about her adoration for Chris Brown, complete with a particularly thug-like picture of him, which attracted no fewer than 17 likes.
Sadly she seems to be in some company; a cohort of other young ‘Team Breezy’ fans have leapt to his defence, sharing disturbing comments like “Chris, you can beat me up any day” across the Twittersphere.

Rihanna is known for her attempts to appear edgy and wild and if this is another aspect of that then I feel nothing but disgust at her actions. It’s dangerous behaviour, not just for her legions of fans, but also for her. A victim is assaulted on average 35 times before she reports the offender to the authorities.

Although she was fortunate enough to survive the assault, others aren’t so lucky. Her actions depict domestic abuse as inconsequential; something which deserves a few months of the cold shoulder, but an act that is ultimately forgivable.

By implicitly condoning such behaviour Rihanna is sticking two fingers up to a world which showered her with sympathy and support; her actions display zero empathy for other victims.
Of course I am angry at Brown; his steadfast refusal to accept responsibility for his actions and his childish insistence that he has been wronged, demonstrated by his tweet after the Grammys – “HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY NOW! That’s the ultimate FUCK OFF!” – is nothing short of nauseating.

He is a repulsive, arrogant coward – and why he was ever considered for a grammy in the first place is beyond me.

But Rihanna can do better, and she should do better. She may not want to be a role model but that doesn’t stop millions seeing her as one. She has the rare ability to change people’s lives for the better should she so choose.

Regrettably, though, she has thrown it in the face of vulnerable women everywhere, betrayed the adoring fans from whom she squeezes her millions and helped to promote domestic violence everywhere.