To Rihanna:
I don’t care about the status of your current relationship with Breezy, or the reports about his attendance at your birthday party (happy 24th, by the way!), or how many seconds his voice will appear on the “Birthday Cake” remix. Those could be facts, or fabrications. What I do know, however, is that, in the three years and nine days since that infamous, brutal, incredibly disturbing Grammy night attack in 2009, there has never been a point where you’ve publicly proclaimed, “Go f*** yourself, Chris Brown; you will never speak to me again.” Not in the months after the attack occurred, when everything felt raw to everyone. Not when your fans freaked out when you two following each other on Twitter again last year. And not when Us Weekly ran a report that you were still harboring a romantic relationship with him – Brown’s camp denied the report, but you and your camp did not. Because that “f*** yourself” moment has never occurred, we can only deduce that, whether or not your current relationship with Brown is even slightly romantic, there is something holding you back from cursing this dude out of your life forever.
But, in all honesty… you can’t do you, Rihanna. Not here. Not with Chris Brown. Because like it or not, millions of people are paying attention to you, trying to be as cool as you, attempting to find love in a hopeless place and wondering if it’s okay to walk down the same dark alleyway twice. Young girls look up to people like you to guide them through circumstances too complex for them to tackle on their own, and by granting Chris Brown an iota of tolerance, you implicitly encourage others to consider doing the same. “With great power comes great responsibility” is a schmaltzy sentiment, but it’s fitting here — like it or not, you have a different level of power than most of us schmoes because of your pop superstardom, and a different level of responsibility in your personal life than in your music because of the tabloid-infected culture we live in. It’s a burden that is not fair to you, or anyone in pop culture, but it’s one you have to accept.
To Chris Brown:
One minute you’re crying at the closing of a Michael Jackson tribute at the 2010 BET Music Awards and the next you’re throwing chairs out the “Good Morning America” window. One minute you’re grabbing your first Grammy for your first No. 1 album. The next you’re cursing everybody and their mothers on Twitter AND reportedly saying it was someone who controls your tweets. Really? You can’t get mad at us for not forgetting. It happened, it’s written. But when you get aggressive and act out, what do you think people are going to reference? For every person that is waiting for your fall, there are those cheering for you to win, but it’s hard for those who want you to thrive because when you take one step forward, you inevitably take two steps back.
Me:
Honestly, if Rihanna can live with herself and forgive Chris Brown, who are we to judge what this young lady wants for herself. Does she have a responsibility to teenagers, yes, but so do their parents. Do teens idolize Rihanna, and want to be her every day, absolutely. Does it make it ok for your man, boyfriend, husband, to pound you out, apologize, pay the price, and then curse everyone out showing that he still has a little bit of aggression no. But these two are human... and sometimes humans are so imperfect. I really wish them the best and hope that this plays out for the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment