Millions of Americans were shocked when the news broke in February that rapper Chris Brown allegedly beat up his girlfriend, pop singer Rihanna. Photos of the badly beaten star exploded across the Internet. Americans were even more shocked when Rihanna said she would go back to her boyfriend.
Sounds like a high-profile case of domestic violence, right? But in a case of pop culture and politics intersecting, the Boston Health Commission conducted an informal survey of the city's teens, ages 12 to 19, about violence in relationships and got some troubling results. Nearly half of those teens said the pop star was responsible for beating she took. Another 44 percent said such fighting was a common occurrence among their peers.
Some critics don't blame Brown, or Rihanna, but the culture of feminism. "We've so confused ourselves that now many teenagers in Boston are excusing Chris Brown. Why wouldn't they?" writes National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez. "He and Rihanna are equal, and we expect no more from men -- in fact, we've conditioned a generation or two now to expect less."
Is Rihanna the product of feminism, or a victim of it? RedBlueAmerica columnists Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk weigh in.
BEN BOYCHUK
Anything a man can do, a woman can do, too. Even take a beating. That's what I took away from that Boston Public Health Commission Poll of youngsters about the Brown-Rihanna altercation.
Clearly, something is wrong with the culture when young people say that the young woman had it coming. There can be no doubt, however, that feminism's futile effort to deny the differences between the sexes has had consequences.
Among those consequences is the widely accepted belief that girls can and should be a sexually aggressive (i.e. promiscuous) as boys. Another is the popular idea, born out by a national illegitimacy rate approaching 40 percent, that fathers aren't necessary. Yet another is the trend among a subset of women to leave their husbands for other women.
But pointing the finger at feminism in the case of a pampered, entitled celebrity beating on another young celebrity almost half his size probably misses the point. Savagery is savagery. It was ever thus. No ideology can change human nature, but laws can help keep it in check.
Savagery endorsed by the younger generation and a seemingly wider popular culture, however, is the truly troubling trend here.
JOEL MATHIS
I don't know why those Boston teens blame Rihanna for her beating. I know they're wrong. And I know that feminists -- informed by feminism -- are the first to say so.
To agree with Kathryn Jean Lopez and others who pine for a return to the days of yore, one must believe pre-feminist America was a halcyon place populated only by big manly men who nobly protected gentle and nurturing women. But we know that wasn't really the case. Then as now, lots of men -- by no means all or most -- hit their wives and girlfriends.
But to a much greater extent than now, they got away with it. It's not that society approved of domestic abuse, exactly; but there was a general unwillingness to punish a man for violence he committed within a relationship.
Feminism showed us the beginning of a way out. It insisted that abuse victims not be blamed for violence done to them. It insisted that "no means no." It insisted that a woman doesn't give up her rights to safety and dignity once she signs a marriage license. And it insisted, most importantly, that women are not secondary, inferior beings. That last assertion, in particular, seems an obvious truth -- and yet it has set off two generations of howling outrage from those who see the empowerment of women as the neutering of men. That anger, in turn, has been channeled into a bizarre effort to blame all of society's ills on feminism.
Which is how we arrived at the survey of teen attitudes about the Chris Brown-Rihanna incident. It most certainly wasn't feminism that taught the Boston teenagers that Rihanna deserved the violence she suffered. Instead, their attitudes prove that there's still much work for feminism to do.
(Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis blog daily at www.infinitemonkeysblog.com and joelmathis.blogspot.com.)
columnREDBLUEAMERICA
chris brown is a singer NOT
chris brown is a singer NOT a rapper
Get real
Lets get real. The phenomenology of feminism is saturated with hatred of males. Deny it if you like, but most everyone full well sees it.
All this rubbish about "much still to be done" could be equally echoed by the defunct Nazism defenders, but thier calls for "much more" has been eclipsed by the demise of thier hate group. Same could be said if the KKK, and same is being said of feminism.
People on the street are not stupid, and we take homour in the diminishing voices of those calling for a revitalization of feminism.
Women are voilent..... open your eyes like the person on the street has!
Power and Respect
One summer that I was a camp counselor, one of my male campers punched a female camper. I told him that it was unacceptable to hit women, and this 12 year old responded, "That's so sexist! If I can't hit her, she can't vote!"
He was right about the "sexist" part, if "sexist" means any double standard for men and women, which he had always been taught was wrong. Because he truly believed men and women to be equal, he couldn't see why he should feel any differently about punching a girl than a boy.
I have long thought that emphasizing the "power" of women worsens the problems feminism is meant to address. I'm a student of political science, so when I hear "power," I think "potential for domination." Power and domination don't play a role in healthy relationships, and I get uncomfortable always hearing gender relations described in those terms. The emphasis should not be on power, but on communication and mutual respect.
I told my camper that he was right, that the double standard on violence is sexist. But I also explained that if he hits a girl, he's digging up a very ugly past in which women weren't treated with the respect they deserve, and that's why it's worse, in a way, than hitting a boy. Also, he was bigger and probably stronger than the girl. But really, I told him, it was unacceptable that he was hitting anyone at all, male or female, and that he should have enough respect for anyone to solve his problems without violence.
That kid turned out to be a real pain in the ass. I got a huge bonus at the end of that summer.
The feminism I know
One of the major goals of contemporary feminism is to alter the stereotypes of masculinity that encourage men to believe that they must use physical violence to be considered "true men" (and this would extend to any women who feel the need to prove their toughness through physically hurting others). This goal is not only to protect women and men who are victims of violence, but also to free men from harmful and limiting stereotypes. Plus, every feminist I know supports organizations that help victims of domestic violence and educate people about warning signs and the cycle of violence, so victims will be more likely to recognize the empty promises that abusers offer.
Needless to say, I don't believe this article holds any water.
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