I have spent the past three years of my degree, feeling like because I like a bit of MAC I am buying into the sexist regimes created to keep women in their place, never truly believing they are good enough, always competing against each other to be the focus of male attention. How about BULL SHIT.
Yes, thank you, thank you kindly. Saying that I feel pretty conflicted buying a Kit Kat nowadays like I'm part of a corporate commercial machine, damn you Thinking About Culture modules! The point is, I've come to the conclusion if I buy nail polish it's not because its how I've been programmed to think by men (they are not that smart) it's because I want it! I am for equality, I am aware that women still get paid less than men, I am aware that with money comes power, I am aware that men have been given the opportunity to run the world because they are at an advantage and until we rectify that we will never have equality. And I am aware of all this wearing my fabulous Revlon nail polish in 'Vixen' whilst listening to Beyonce 'Upgrade You'. DEAL WITH IT. For a long time I didn't want to be called a feminist, I didn't think I qualified, but there is of course a simple test to see if you are indeed a feminist. Do you agree that women should have all the same rights as men? Do you think women should have complete control of their lives, be it at home, in the work place or in the Houses of Parliament? Yes? Then your a feminist. For me it's as simple as that, being a feminist means being able to do whatever you choose with your life without restrictions or restraints.
So, yeah. That turned into a bit more of a feminist rant than I had hoped but there you go. I love Hello Giggles. Did I say that? If you haven't already checked it out just click here , and if you need any more encouragement than my good word (why would you?) it is co-founded by the glorious Zooey Deschanel! What more could you bloody want!?
Now after a slightly excessive introduction I shall begin the main article. As I was browsing the website I came across an article that had had a lot of hits, the most on the website in fact and it was this, "I’m Not Okay with Chris Brown Performing at the Grammys and I’m Not Sure Why You Are" by Sasha Pasulka. Read it here.
The article had been highlighted as it was Chris Browns birthday that day (May 5th). I read the article with interest as it confirmed everything I had suspected for a long time, Chris Brown sucks.
Sasha Pasulka, a digital analyst and freelance writer, calls out the Grammys for letting him perform at the show just three years after he brutally attacked Rihanna at a pre party for the same event. After making out that Brown had served his time for the crime, not being allowed at the Grammy Awards for the past two shows, he was allowed back to perform and welcomed like an "exiled prince returning to his former glory."
After addressing the initial "media storm" that surrounded the incident in 2009, and the lack of support for Rihanna, Pasulka quotes the executive producer of the Grammys Ken Ehrlich as he said this of Brown's return to the show:
“We’re glad to have him back, I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”Now. I had never heard this statement before, being in the UK the Grammys aren't on TV or anything so it might have been missed by our media. But the impression I get from Pasulka's article is that this comment was completely disregarded by the US media too. Now to say the Usher had to apologise to Chris Brown and his fans after he called out Brown for frolicking in the ocean on a jet ski mere weeks after he had abused his girlfriend but this comment is over looked is worrying. The tone of the whole thing is hideous, "if you'll note he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years". No, Ken, that had completely surpassed me thank you for bringing it to my attention you absolute twot. Ken also goes a way to alert us to the fact the they, the Grammys, were the victim of this whole disaster. I'm sorry Ken but are you for real? A woman was beaten up by her boyfriend to the point of hospitalisation, and you're a victim?
Pasulka goes on the say this,
"By blacklisting Chris Brown from the Grammys for a “few” years (actually, a grand total of TWO Grammy Awards), the Grammys have gone above and beyond expectations for the social exile of an adult man who hit his girlfriend so hard she went to the hospital, and honestly it was really, really hard for them to show even that much support for victims of domestic violence worldwide."It's all just so true, and I don't understand how anybody in their right mind could dispute or ignore it. This article goes a long way to shine a big fat spot light on all the things that are not being said about Chris Brown and domestic violence. The fact that there was a so called "media storm" at the time but in fact very little was being said in Rihanna's defence more in the way of ambiguous comments by fellow celebs and accusing comments by the public.
At the time of the event I was 16 years old and thought I had an idea about what's what but this made me think again. When I initially heard what happened I found it hard to believe, but then that picture came out and it was horrific and I was disgusted and ready for Chris Brown's career to be over. And then it just wasn't in fact it wasn't anything that I expected it to be. There seemed to be a lot of discussion about what happened that night, on the news people tried to understand how it could have happened but no one expressing their opinion. On the internet the immediate response that I saw was a lot of people defending Chris Brown asking what Rihanna must have done to provoke such an attack and I thought, why does that have any relevance? It doesn't, it has no relevance at all because no matter what there is no reason for domestic violence, it's that simple.
At home, watching the news and reading comments on the internet I knew that what was happening was nuts, and I knew what I thought but when I went to college the day after that I was forced to question what I believed. People weren't defending Rihanna they were blaming her for the hard time that Chris Brown was having, they said she had been cheating on him and that she was high and that she was a bitch and that they loved Chris Brown. What was happening? It was like the whole world had gone insane and anyone who stood up for Rihanna and shamed Chris Brown was a weirdo and just plain wrong. People were defending Chris Brown because they preferred him to Rihanna.
Four years on and it is still a topic of some heated discussion, but why. There shouldn't be any need for discussion Chris Brown hit a woman, slammed her head against a car window until her mouth filled with blood and she went in to hospital to be treated for her wounds. That's fact. Imagine if it was your mother or sister would you be so quick to dismiss those facts, to defend him even?
What all this says to me is that there is a long way to go before domestic violence is treated with the kind of respect it deserves, whilst people are still trying to defend Chris Brown and blame Rihanna it is a massive kick in the teeth to women who have suffered domestic violence.
Sasha Pasulka's article and its reappearance on the Hello Giggles website is beacon of hope if it isn't to cliché to say, representing the right and the honest to the masses.
All that's left to say is that there should be no place in this world for violence of any kind, but it creeps in like poison and infects the lives of so many. When it occurs we should offer support and sympathy to it's victims, the real victims.
Peace and Love
Catherine
