White Coat Underground

MTV news is reporting that Bow Wow is coming to Chris Brown’s defense. For those of you who have been too busy worrying about the economy to follow the personal lives of celebrities, Chris Brown is a young singer who beat the shit out of his girlfriend Rihanna, another young singer (I’m sorry–”allegedly” beat the shit out of). The up side of this is that it may actually affect his livelihood—he has reportedly lost some advertising deals. But as Kobe Bryant showed us, if you’re a celebrity you can rape whomever you wish and you will probably not end up in jail or the poor house.

So another entertainer, Bow Wow, is asking us to pray for Chris. You see, apparently singers are only human:

“We’re not perfect,” Bow said. “We put our pants on the same way everybody else puts their pants on.”

Except that after Brown puts on his pants, he beats up his girlfriend. Is Bow saying that we should cut him some slack because domestic violence is just like any other “normal” behavior?

Maybe it’s time to stop worrying about how this will affect Brown’s career and talk about how it affects Rihanna’s, and what larger message it sends the public. Perhaps if Bow were to use is hight-priced mouth to denounce domestic violence instead of telling us that it’s just part of being human, then he could actually do some good. Otherwise, he’s just another famous, misogynist prick.

Comments

#1 Denice Walter
February 27, 2009

Rihanna is often featured in women’s fashion magazines and is a “face” for a cosmetics company. I’m wondering how they’ll deal with the issue.
#2 Fitz
February 27, 2009

Some of the comments on the site are awful, saying things like “he didn’t do it for no reason” or “he shouldn’t have his career ruined over this”. What reason could justify it and yes he should. Dammit, what the hell is wrong with some people?
#3 PalMD
February 27, 2009

It’s not “some people”–it’s us. Our society is concerned with how things affect the man. If he is a rapist or abuser, we care how his violence will affect him, rather than his victims.
#4 leigh
February 27, 2009

this makes me angry. nobody should come to his defense, he should be ostracized for pulling that kind of awful behavior. but i swear, someone will always come to the defense of a bastard like that. i’ve seen it happen over and over. because really and truly, he’s a good guy who just got a little confused or something. and we’re supposed to believe that?
#5 Donna B.
February 28, 2009

I think there’s more to this than our society, PalMD. Oh well, nevermind. I was going to give examples of why I thought that, and frankly could not find any.

All of I could think of were more examples of where it should have hurt the man’s career, but didn’t. I feel a bit queasy right now.

One problem that women face is the reluctance to file charges when something like this happens. Rihanna is in a better position than most women, because her face is well-known and she would not have to fear (I hope) a lack of support from the law enforcement community. Her social support network should be better than that of most battered women.

I’m pretty sure her emotions are the same.

And, had they not both been scheduled to appear at the Oscars would it have been such a big deal?

The whole thing pisses me off on many levels.
#6 Danio
February 28, 2009

I’ve been wondering lately why the horrific plight of Congolese women/girls doesn’t seem to have much staying power in our national media coverage. Then stories like these appear and answer my question for me.
#7 jc
February 28, 2009

3 words: fucking. male. privilege.
#8 rnb
March 1, 2009

I’ve never understood either how people can say spanking isn’t using pain and fear to control a small child.
#9 The Perky Skeptic
March 2, 2009

I’m rather concerned that she chose to go back to her abuser. What kind of message does that send our youth?
#10 Ben
March 3, 2009

In case you need some more WTF, they’re apparently back together, too:

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/32748569.html
#11 Michelle
March 4, 2009

Whoopi was defending him on the view as well. She doesn’t know for sure that he did anything.