A Brown Smear on Love

It is with a foul taste in my mouth that I read the various publicity articles regarding 20-year-old “singing sensation” Chris Brown, and how he’s now coming out and talking about his abuse of his ex-girlfriend Rihanna. The interview on Larry King is perhaps the most distasteful, as he sits there in pastel blue, a collared shirt and his mother by his side and tries to justify his actions by claiming they were “just a blur”.

His mother states in the interview that she knows her son “has never, ever been a violent person”. Umm. Yes, he was. He bit his girlfriend’s face. There was blood left in the car. He punched her repeatedly. Her face, as we all know, was almost unrecognisable. He had that violence inside him all along, thus making him a violent person. Please get off my television. Please get out of my magazine.

In an interview with People magazine, Brown claims of his love for Rihanna that, ”I never fell out of love with her,” much the same as the stereotypical abusive husband. I have a bombshell for you, Mr. Brown. You were never in love with her. Love is that which makes us step back from a dispute before it goes too far. It is that which offers respect, trust and admiration to the people we share our lives with. It is that which prevents ugliness occurring inside the isolated world couples tend to live in.  You did not respect her when you beat her, you do not admire her or you wouldn’t be out there now, insulting her with your justification of what happened. You broke her trust. You do not love her.

Love does not hit. It does not bite. It does not make you a pathetic little man begging for one more chance to make things right. There is a reason why the judge is making you stay away from her until the year 2014. There is a reason your lawyers told you to plead guilty. There is a reason you’re now insulting the airwaves with your attempts at improving your image. It’s because your idea of love is selfish, and brutal, which means it isn’t “love” at all.

This public display of humility is perhaps one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. Everyone’s expressing their shock and disbelief, even Brown himself, at what he did. No one is mentioning disgust, or anger. No one, it seems, is really making him accountable outside the courts for what happened. Even when it happened, there were some who speculated that Rihanna deserved to be beaten. There were reports that she hit him, too. Well, yes, so would I. I would fight back.

 Let’s not forget that he committed horrible, horrible violence. That he is a convicted criminal. That he is still young, and has a lot to learn, yes, but that he should not be lauded. Or, indeed, given any airtime or celebrity until he has served his sentence and learned his lesson.

As Rihanna remains silent in the face of this PR circus, I hope she fights back again.