CHRIS BROWN

eh i really don't think there's a racial subtext here

― chilli, Sunday, February 19, 2012 7:58 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its there whether she intends it to be or not

if she hadn't used 'in his place' -- which has specific racial connotations -- then it wouldn't but that's a p loaded phrase

otherwise shes completely otm, obv

rhianna's free to do what she wants with her life, but publicly embracing her abuser does send a fucked up message. not blaming her, but i am disappointed. such is life, i guess...

^ yeah, this is what I was going for. I agree that she can "do what she wants" in the sense of interacting with/hanging out with/being friends with Chris Brown in her own life + I don't think she should have to go out of her way to do this when the paparazzi's not looking. But recording a song with him and helping to buoy his career is the kind of thing where somewhere along the line someone should have said "this is a terrible idea and shouldn't happen." it seems disgustingly exploitative to me.

"It was a wake-up call. It was a wake-up call for me. Big time," Rihanna told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Diane Sawyer in her first television interview discussing the assault. "I will say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence, don't react off of love. F love. Come out of the situation and look at it in the third person and for what it really is."

The pop star said it was "embarrassing" that Brown was the type of person she fell in love with.

"So far in love. So unconditional that I went back. It's humiliating to say this happened. To accept that? It's a traumatizing experience," she said.

Her decision to go back to Brown, she said, was a mistake.

"I stayed. I even went back after he beat me, which was wrong," she said. "But again ... I'm a human being and people put me on a very unrealistic pedestal. And all these expectations, I'm not perfect."
EXCLUSIVE: Rihanna Says Going Back to Brown 'Not Right'
ABC News
In first TV interview, Rihanna discusses abuse and her message to female fans.

The 21-year-old star acknowledged that Brown held her in a headlock twice that night and bit her on the ear and fingers. She told Sawyer that she did not try to fight back.

"I just wanted it to stop. I was not interested in hurting him back," she said.

After months of silence since the February beating, Rihanna decided to speak publicly about the ordeal so she can be a voice to help others who may be in danger of returning to abuse.

"It's completely normal to go back. It's not right. I learned the hard way, but again, this is what I want people to know," she said. "When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn't be held responsible for going back.

"Even if Chris never hit me again, who is to say that their boyfriend won't? Who's to say that they won't kill these girls?" she said. "These are young girls and I just didn't realize how much of an impact I had on these girls' lives until that happened."

pop stars shouldn't be seen as role models and rihanna can do what she wants and i agree the focus of people's anger shouldn't be her - this anger was ALREADY directed at CB and the music industry before news of this collab emerged though. i'm angry at those around her, family and friends - you don't just let a friend of yours head back into an abusive relationship with a douche and act like it's okay.

i guess i'm disappointed in her though, rather than angry, because SHE GOT IT THREE YEARS AGO; and because she seems to be giving out every impression that this is part of her ~rebelliousness~ which is ughhh on so many levels.

there's also a weird power dynamic at work here in that rihanna must surely be aware that her seal of approval is the last piece needed to fully rehabilitate CB's career, and she's granted it now.

otm

What is this "back together" business? All I saw was that he did a remix for her and wished her happy birthday on Twitter.

i guess i'm disappointed in her though, rather than angry, because SHE GOT IT THREE YEARS AGO; and because she seems to be giving out every impression that this is part of her ~rebelliousness~ which is ughhh on so many levels.
there's also a weird power dynamic at work here in that rihanna must surely be aware that her seal of approval is the last piece needed to fully rehabilitate CB's career, and she's granted it now

Exactly -- all of these dumb people who keep demanding CB be accepted will exploit this to the hilt.

"give it to her in the worst way"

they're not back together afaik, doesn't he have another girlfriend

Like that would stop him.

I'm not mad at Rihanna personally, I'm just frustrated that she lives in a world such that people are making her do things like work with Chris Brown.

idk whether this "she's gone back to him" line is true or not but whether or not it is it's 100% ok to be pissed off @ Rihanna about the whole deal imo & it weirds me out that people are taking this libertarian "people have the right to fuck themselves up & nobody should be mad"/"it's her life" line. my mom went back to her abuser time & again & it 1) fucked up me and my sister for life 2) fucked her up for life & 3) impacted every family member in our orbit very negatively: everybody involved deserved better except the abuser so fuck any "adults get to make their own choices" stuff on this, people have a responsibility to take care of themselves and not be assholes to themselves + it's otm to say that the example set by Chris Brown getting any kind of a pass is a poor one

It's not really, as I understand it, a case of "she's going back to her abuser" as one of "huge amounts of money and music biz power are being thrown at the message that you can forgive the guy that beat you and sing a song together" which is pretty fucking bad in its own right.

wait, libertarian? is the alternative getting the govt to regulate who rihanna can hang out with? in that case i guess i'm a p hardcore libertarian. imo this is about people shaming a woman for making choices dude.

the second part of what you say can certainly apply to people who actually know rihanna and what's going on in her life and love her. but masses of people on the internet who only know the details that seep through from press releases and gossip sites, that's just public shaming that she doesn't deserve.

wait, libertarian? is the alternative getting the govt to regulate who rihanna can hang out with? in that case i guess i'm a p hardcore libertarian.

i tried to find a jpg of milton friedman doing a facepalm but

imo this is about people shaming a woman for making choices dude.

I can't.

i wasn't being serious i just take some serious offense at having that word used to describe something i said xpost

well i thought aero was describing the general sense of the thread and not you specifically, but all right

imo this is about people shaming a woman for making choices dude.

lol no, Nicole otm

I think, as a society, if we are more concerned about preserving the appearance of personal agency than we are in putting out the message that associating with people who beat you up isn't a good idea, we have very wrong priorities.

lex, Matt DC, DJP all OTM. Greatly disappointed in Rhianna, but everyone else who's making money by perpetuating CB's career is a vile human being.

I'm not even disappointed in Rihanna really; I wonder how much choice she actually has in this matter.

Like, if a controlling narrative MUST be put out there, it's probably better for everyone in the long run if it's "be wary of people who beat you up" rather than "true romance overcomes all".

wait, what does Rihanna not have a choice in here? what do you think she's being told or forced to do?

That was poorly phrased but I can't reword to better express what I'm thinking.

what does Team Breezy think about this?

what really makes me think rihanna is trolling for publicity is the fact that this collab is a fucking sex jam on which CB sings about blowing out her candles and wanting her in the worst way - like it's not EVEN a doomed-romance thing, she's not trying to make a "teachable moment" about domestic abuse out of this (as she did in 2009), it's just something designed to outrage and scandalise

(I only ask because I know that most people who had Rihanna's back when everything went down are going to be dismayed/disappointed/disgusted by this turn of events, and I def got the impression that Chris Brown's army of fans had necessarily vilified her for multiple reasons. I feel like this is something that will alienate many fans and win her none, and I'm kinda concerned about her career/self-sabotaging at this point...) xp

i dunno in a way i respect that they're just doing the same kind of filthy club song they always do seperately instead of some kind of sappy cathartic ballad that they both lack the vocal ability or apparent emotional intelligence to pull off (xpost)

anyway blame your boy terius for bringing out the stupid "birthday"/"worst way" rhyme again

Good discussion about two of the dullest people on earth.

some kind of sappy cathartic ballad that they both lack the vocal ability or apparent emotional intelligence to pull off

"cold case love" and "russian roulette" were awesome :(

her label and management were completely dead set against this - it's why she put it putt out on a zshare link on twitter rather than them giving it a proper release on iTunes. She probably sees it as some great act of rebellion, with her and Chris star-crossed lovers battling against all odds, ugh.

oof.

well yeah, it's career suicide xp

her and Chris star-crossed lovers battling

wrong metaphor, no?

Rated R wasn't what i had in mind with "sappy cathartic ballad"

mmm the last time i thought "this is career suicide" was when chris brown beat rihanna's face to a pulp so i'm not rushing to make any predictions here

i don't really get why anyone thinks this is going to seriously hurt Rihanna. y'all know how many #1s she's had in the past couple years, right?

because it's going to alienate many longtime fans?

the success of her music is SO completely divorced from whether people think she's a good or smart person or a role model or whatever

like this kind of thing would alienate Kelly Clarkson's fanbase, not Rihanna's

yeah her celebrity is going to pull through this fine I think.

they are both going to come out of this with careers booming

at the risk of being repetitive:

I had never even heard of him prior to this beatdown thing and this has been such a media feeding-frenzy that of COURSE he is gonna have a comeback. Don't you guys pay any attention at all to how media narratives work? It goes - rise to stardom>>triumph>>fall from grace>>redemption/comeback

― One of the Most High Profile Comedy Directors of the 90s (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, March 6, 2009 12:49 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just because something happened and someone somewhere predicted it doesn't make it TOTALLY OBVIOUS AND PREDICTABLE

apparently CB missed out the "redemption" stage of that

Maybe for him redemption = sulking.

shakey that narrative is almost wholly about booze and drugs.

like, the fact that you hadn't even heard of Chris Brown before 2009 speaks to how tonedeaf you are to the whole cultural context of this whole thing and that your 'vindicated' accurate prediction was just a blind chicken finding a kernel of corn (xpost)