Thursday, February 12, 2009

Ok I'm Rhi-loaded

The brother Bajan Reporter has a very nicely put together article over at his site about Miss Rhianna and a whole heap of celebrities in the news for the wrong reason and our societies occupation with schadenfreude. Check that out!

I myself had some more to (ramble) say on this whole situation.

He said, she said, I heard it through the grapevine!


PhotobucketFor one when I first posted I really didn't realize the extent to which the alleged beating had gone. I using that word alleged cause although the man has been arrested it all still really hasn't been confirmed entirely and we're inundated with rumors, truth, slander, speculation and photoshopped jpegs all rolled up into one ball right now and being distributed as fact.

But still a discerning spectator could probably make a decent read of all the information out there and come to some valid, hopefully at least semi-factual conclusions which is what I'm trying to do right now.

For one as I was trying to say with that other sentence that started for one, the only fact, semi-fact, we know appears to be that Rhianna if she is indeed the victim (as might be concluded by her sudden cancellation of two concerts a foreign this week) was beaten pretty badly. This wasn't no two slap push thing (not that we condone those either. This was on some punks jump up to get beat down, i caught you tiefing my grandmother money or troubling my chile, pugilism 101 type ish. Punches were not pulled. There seems to be no doubt of that. Blows were shared, a young lady's face was rearranged, buss lip, black eye, contusions etc and there is possibility of cosmetic surgery to fix the damage (speculation on that last part so far though).

But what caused the incident? Speculation galore! Was it flirting with Leona Lewis, somebody sharing his and her peas (without the rice to go along with it), text messages, Rhianna's supposedly controlling and jealous nature, car keys getting tossed, the natural reaction to hearing the Umbrella song just one time too many or Chris Brown's out of control latent mutant powers flaring up nuhbody can tell and likely never will be able to say what really happened between the two of them. He say, she say!

What is fact though is that the reaction around the world, online, on radio shows etc has been varied. Now I'm not one to say guilty until proven innocent and yea I'm bajan like Rhianna (although I don really dig her music and was probably a bigger fan of Chris Brown than her prior to this) so I may be biased but could we strip this situation down to its essence, remove the celebrity statuses and the biases towards the individuals involved. If we could do that I find it difficult that anyone could justify or give a pass to a dude who would beat up his girl like that (allegedly).

But like the saying goes everybody cant hate ya and Chris Brown for all the discussion about his actions still seems to have a fair amount of fans who can justify his actions by rumours of stds (still trying to figure out what this got to do with standard deviation?), jealousy, Lamborghini keys being dashed way and feisty uncontrollable too jealous Caribbean female traits. I'm sorry I really cant understand how anything like that comes close to justifying his actions but maybe its just me.

Stop spreading rumours rumours rumours about me.

Then there are the rumours as to this not being their first battle and Chris's alleged destroying of this that and the third that belonged to Rhianna on his last trip to Barbados possibly the result of alleged jealousy as well. Who knows! But it does bring into focus a question as to whether this was his first (alleged) abuse in this relationship or whether Rhianna had already felt his wrath (allegedly).

That of course leads to the old "well how stupid is this girl that she would stick with someone who abuses her" question which has been asked of thousands of women, celebrity and non-celebrity over the years.

If this isn't the first time why did she stick with him? Should we write her off as an idiot and feel less sympathy for her and less derision for him if she didn't leave him at the first sign of trouble?

Does repeated domestic offense make it more palatable or less worthy of condemnation?

How will this affect both of their careers?

I'll leave the answers and conclusions up to you cause my brain just rambling.

9 comments:

ShellyP said...

I'm with you - looking at the alleged actions only, there could be (almost) nothing to justify them. I say almost only because I had a conversation some days ago with a a guy who killed another guy because he raped his 3 yr old daughter. I don't believe in killing, but I can't judge his actions in that case which happened to be really extreme. With that said, who knows what really went on with whom and for what reason? And again, like you said, we may never know.

Whether or not this was the first time 'she' felt his wrath shouldn't matter. I would feel sorry for her and hope she gets help, but his actions still wouldn't be justified. No, repeated offenses do not make it any less palatable or any less worthy of condemnation. Rhi may be able to get over this. If indeed she is the victim then it may actually help her career since she will have the sympathy vote. As for Chris, I don't see how he can redeem himself or save his career.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your blog. Next time I'll save my rant for my own. :s

Abeni said...

From time I heard I had a suspicion(still unconfirmed) that it wasn't his first abuse of her. I am not going to say she was stupid etc etc because people do things at their pace. I usually say we all get to the truth sooner or later.Now this abuse hit the media more than likely she will get her truth moment. Anyway,this just proves to all of us that the face of domestic abuse is more widespread than we think.

Anonymous said...

Nobody knows what happened. So why dont you guys wait for the truth and THEN voice your opinions. These speculations and petty judgements are just wasting your time and energy.

Jdid said...

anon its a free world i can speculate all i want just as you are free to comment

ruthibel said...

Like I said the other day, I have to see the real real report without 'alleged' and 'suspected' and all the wonderfully vague terminologies that only really imply that no-one knows what's happening and everyone is just hazarding their guess.

This thing is already such a mess though- when the truth comes out, it could get much worse.

And dont be too sure that Chris' career is over. You'd be surprised how gullible music lovers are. Jah Cure got his freedom in large part from his song... Chris Brown sings a few soulful, "I'm-sorry-girl-and-I-still-love-you's" or something so, and you see all his old fans crawling back into his lap.

This be the world we live in...

ruthibel said...

I going sound like devil's advocate, but what about Chris' second chance?? We condemning him to hell already? What if (for arguments' sake) he really got pissed off and hit up on Rihanna this one time but now he sorry and want to make amends and be the better man and all that?? We going stake him to a cross still??

Don't get me wrong, this is not to justify abuse or abusers. I still believe if he beat up Rihanna, or whoever the lady was- he should pay the price. But after that, then what? We starve him till he die?

YY said...

@Ruthibelle: Yes we starve him, and others like him, until the concept that this is unacceptable behaviour hits home. Domestic/physical abuse is too common, too accepted by both the parties involved and society at large.

@Jdid: I can understand the point of if he did it before why did she stick with him. Let me tell you, the dynamics of an abusive relationship extend far beyond the physical acts of abuse, and into the psyches of the persons involved. Fear of reprisal, shame and embarrassment are key factors. Also key is that "second chance" thing - "Oh I upset him and he lashed out. But I love him and I know he won't do it again". Until he does, of course.

Unknown said...

A man beating a woman is just wrong. I am interested in hearing the full story though, been hearing too much rumors.

nahmix said...

i'm just waiting for them to start doing interviews. chris released a weak ass statement a day or so ago, but nada from rhi.