Domestic violence is a terrible thing. Nobody should ever be subject to such physical and emotional trauma.
One would think with today’s society, which seeks further equality between men and women, that this issue would be taken seriously and looked down upon more.
It seems, however, that not everyone got the message.
American entertainer Chris Brown performed at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, and Twitter was ablaze with his fans saying many stupid things. Many of the tweets said something to the effect of, “I don’t know why Rihanna complained. Chris Brown could beat me anytime he wanted to.”
For those who do not know, Brown pleaded guilty to one count of assault with the intent of doing great bodily injury to then-girlfriend and R&B star Rihanna in 2009. Apparently, many of his female fans think there would be some sort of sexual pleasure if Brown were to do the same to them.
Anyone who read the police report would very much think otherwise. It details how he shoved her head against the passenger window of the car he was driving at the time, repeatedly punched her in the face and at one point apparently said, “Now I’m really going to kill you!”
What part of that sounds sexy?
Alongside those tweets, and to an extent including those tweets, were others making light humor of the incident between Brown and Rihanna. Some people making jokes about the abuse use the defense of, “Well it happened three years ago.” It’s good to know that time negates domestic violence.
There is nothing funny or appealing about somebody beating somebody else. Nothing. Period.
If anyone still thinks there is, go to Google and find the image of Rihanna’s face after the incident with Brown. It’s appalling that any man can do that to a woman, especially when the man is clearly physically stronger.
Apart from the physical abuse is the emotional distress victims suffer from their ordeals. Domestic violence can affect a woman’s psyche long term. According to the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, intimate partner violence results in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.
Also from the NCADV, “The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health services.”
The main point is these tweets and jokes about domestic violence are wrong, and if a victim of domestic abuse saw them, it would be offensive and upsetting.
The sad thing is that it was young women sending out the tweets saying Brown could beat them up.
One of the great things about this country is free speech, so these women have the right to say what they said. Hopefully they never have to suffer through the abuse they made jokes about.
