Stupid Girl
I’ve been mulling over the incident between Rihanna and her boyfriend, Chris Brown.
Rihanna is a young singer from Barbados. I don’t like her music and I don’t know anything about her as a person but after watching her in video director Chris Applebaum’s Umbrella I viewed her as a work of art, or at least artifice. You’ve probably seen the video. In it Rhianna prances around on point carrying an umbrella. She’s a pretty girl. I didn’t pay much attention to the reports that her boyfriend had beaten her up until the pictures surfaced. He clearly went after her face with his fists, trying to break her beauty. I hoped he’d go to jail.
Rihanna, Before and After
According to the cops the incident went like this:
Rihanna reportedly discovered a three-page text — from a woman — that was on Chris’ phone and an argument ensued. He tried to force her out of the Lamborghini, but failed because she was wearing her seat belt. So he allegedly shoved her head against the passenger window, then — when she turned to face him — punched her. He continued to punch her while he was driving as blood spattered all over her clothes and the car. Her mouth was filled with blood.
According to the report, Chris then told Rihanna: “I’m going to beat the —- out of you when we get home. You wait and see.”
So she called her assistant and left a message saying, “I am on my way home. Make sure the cops are there when I get there.”
Brown replied: “You just did the stupidest thing ever. I’m going to kill you.”
Chris continued to punch Rihanna, he bit her on her ear and fingers and put her in a headlock, which caused her to nearly lose consciousness.
A resident of L.A.’s Hancock Park, the neighborhood where this took place, [said] that Rihanna’s shriek’s pierced the usually quiet streets. “I actually heard her screams,” Roseann Diana said. “They were horrible, wrenching.”
Now, much more disturbingly, a report has come out that Rhianna’s gotten back together with him. He brutally beat her and, not only has she reconciled with him, she’s trying to get him off on the assault charges filed against him. I can’t understand that. It’s bad enough that many women live in situations where they literally have no right to flee from abusers but this young woman is free, rich and successful. Is she mentally deranged?
I think the tolerance that some women have for their abusers is a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, a behavior to keep them alive when they are unable to flee from abuse. It’s almost as if they have amnesia, can no longer remember the pain or the fear.
Why would Rihanna go back to that thug? I’ve read studies that say most women in Western societies that stay with abusive men do so for financial reasons.
“After divorce, the income of the custodial single-parent mother falls an average 73 percent and that of the non-custodial father rises 41 percent”.
That’s a pretty big cut, particularly for a woman with children. Women stay with abusers not just to save themselves and their children from poverty but sometimes stay to maintain a standard of living they can never achieve for themselves. This doesn’t apply to Rihanna. She has a successful career. But there is a rumor that money is involved here as well. Supposedly Chris Brown will have to pay Rihanna $10 million if he hits her again. Exactly how she’s going to make him pay I don’t know. In fact, the loss of that kind of money hanging over his head might make Brown decide to kill her the next time rather than just beat her bloody.
When I see Brown’s smirking face on TV I’m reminded of Michael Vick. When it first came out that Vick was involved in fighting, torturing and killing dogs, it looked as though Vick was going to slide out from under any serious charges. When the local cops were confronted by protesters the cops showed a combination of annoyance and shame that made me think they been bribed. Then the protests grew until Vick’s football team finally realized they couldn’t keep on making money from him. It was protests that brought justice to Michael Vick. Maybe there needs to be protests every time Chris Brown shows up in public.
Sean Puffy Combs, already responsible for nine deaths, is said to be behind the makeup, which took place at his house. If Brown kills Rhianna some night that will mean Comb is culpable for an even ten. I wonder what financial interests got Puffy involved in this matter. Sony records, Chris Brown’s label? This reminds me of the stories of old Hollywood, old and new Hollywood, claims that studios and record companies protect the talented people that make money for them. When a star gets into trouble the lawyers come out, and they handle the cops and try to keep the story out of the press. Popular performers were and are often able to escape punishment. Just one of the perks of lining the pockets of the wealthy. Maybe the same thing happened here. Maybe Sony Records got Combs to persuade Rihanna to overlook the beating Chris Brown gave her and to take him back in the hope that Chris Brown can keep on making money for them. Will it work? Time will tell.
One thing we don’t need a crystal ball to know, though, is that Rihanna will be beaten again. Abusers don’t stop.
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To comment email alllie at alllie@newsgarden.org
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© Alllie 2009
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