I is for... "I'd Let Chris Brown Beat Me"

Chris Brown's tattoo. Where to start... I figure you've all seen it already, but if not, here you go:



When I first saw it, I sort of dismissed it as I have no respect for him (or Rihanna, but I'll come to that), as far as I was concerned it was just another outrageous publicity stunt that I had to time for. But then I stumbled across a really interesting article on it by American blogger Amanda Marcotte. I think you guys should read the whole thing, but it really made me stop and think and played on my mind quite a lot (which I don't ever get from any celeb culture articles), so I'm going to go into it here...

You all know that Chris Brown beat up Rihanna when they were dating, I won't focus on the story... No doubt you've all seen this picture:


So Amanda Marcotte reflects in her article my thoughts exactly: that this tattoo is Chris Brown's way of publicly bragging about what he did.

"Men who beat and rape women want to feel powerful. They want to feel manly. And because hitting women and raping women makes them feel these things, they want to brag about it… A tattoo commemorating beating down your girlfriend is a trophy."

She cites research by David Lisak, who found that certain men will happily tell stories about successful sexual assaults, Marcotte argues that batterers and rapists are proud of what they've done because they believe that they are right: 

"[Many perpetrators] are defiant. They believe they are entitled to dominate women, and they feel victimized by a world that doesn't give them what they believe is theirs. They act out, looking for little ways to assert the right to dominate they believe is theirs."

Because they believe that they are in the right, they aren't troubled by other people's outrage:

"…telling others about it and watching them recoil basically means reliving the power trip… Not only did they dominate the victim, but they have provoked anger and disgust in you, and that makes them feel powerful all over again."

As a further example, she includes a two-minute clip of TV evangelist Pat Robertson recommending, that a man beat his wife into submission:


Robertson's advice here is plain: Women should be subordinate to their husbands and, if they are not, husbands have a right to beat them into subordination.

And he's not the only one, is he, Sean Connery?



David Lisak:

"It might seem like it would be hard for a researcher to get these men to admit to something that fits the definition of rape. But Lisak says it’s not. “They are very forthcoming,” he says. “In fact, they are eager to talk about their experiences. They’re quite narcissistic as a group — the offenders — and they view this as an opportunity, essentially, to brag.”

Insane!

Anyway, to sum up my thoughts on Chris Brown's tattoo, it's clear to me that it is just a massive "f*** you!" to anyone who was opposed to him beating his girlfriend, and a consistent reminder that he is 'ard. Congrats.

But, his actions have been more than condoned by female fans on Twitter. I'm sure you're all aware of the story after the Grammys, when in support of Chris Brown his fans took to the social network to show him just how far they would go to support him. Here are a few examples:














My favourite: "I don't know why Rhihanna complained..." - Did she?! Because from where I was sitting, yeah, ok, she felt sorry for herself for a bit, but she didn't actually do anything to make an example of Brown's behaviour. As a celebrity, she's in a great position to be able to speak out publicly about domestic violence and, I think, has a responsibility to do so.

She is a young woman who has been through domestic violence. There are unfortunately thousands of young girls out there who go through the same thing and are too scared to speak out speak out. Wouldn't it be a massive vote of support if one of their role models became a spokesperson for people in their situation? I know she's young, like, I forget how young she is sometimes (24), but if she spoke out, it would be ridiculously powerful.

Obviously we all have our own problems that we all deal with in our own way. However, more recently, I think she's been actually irresponsible about the whole thing...

I mean, there's rumours flying around that they're getting back together, they kissed at the VMAs, they're having secret sex sessions on their yachts... blah, blah blah... She even said very recently on Oprah, "We're very, very close friends. We built a trust again and that's it. We love each other and we probably always will."

So really, she's setting the example of forgiving, and ergo condoning, such behaviour.

I don't know, maybe I'm too hard to judge. But, for reasons I won't go into, I think I am in a better position than most to encourage people to speak out about hard issues. If it stops just one person going through the same thing - is it not worth it?

Anyway, I don't think Chris Brown should have been able to continue his music career let alone been given the opportunity to build back positive publicity. But here he is, parading his trophy woman-beating tattoo around and everyone's apparently loving him all over the world.

It's a mystery to me. If anyone has any thoughts, please help me out?

L.