The level of detail disgraced rapper Chris Brown has recently gone into regarding the night he assaulted Rihanna in will actually make you feel unwell. As we wake up to news of another terror attack, this time in Barcelona, Spain, celebrity news post such a tragic event usually falls to the wayside to make way for what is truly important.
To recap: Eight years ago, Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna in a Lamborghini the night prior to the Grammys. The picture of the latter — a busted lip, a black eye and bruising on her face — spread like cyber wildfire around the world. In addition to fawning over his music, they track him and one another across social media, defend him tirelessly and threaten his critics.
This sort of mega fandom, or stan culture , thrives on social media, where fans feel as though they have greater access to, and eventually intimacy with, their favorite celebrities. The internet blurs real friends virtual friends, and fake friends. This, in turn, can undermine efforts to hold certain celebrities accountable for abusive behavior. In , when Spotify announced it would remove music from R. Kelly and XXXTentacion , artists like Kendrick Lamar threatened to pull their music unless the streaming service reconsidered.
Lamar said the rule unfairly targeted artists of color. Black men already face harsher sentences and are overrepresented in prison, and plenty of white musicians like Marilyn Manson have been as allegedly reckless and predatory as Chris Brown. These are fair concerns, but we ought not use legitimate concerns about the over-incarceration of Black men to excuse the real abusers in our midst.
The MeToo movement is not a zero sum game. Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was charged in the shooting last summer, but it is Stallion who has faced regular ridicule , suspicion and trivialization. Her celebrity does not shield her from the expectation that women be silent about their emotional and physical abuse.
Her choice to perform was apparently considered more shocking, more of a betrayal than allegedly raping and attacking women. Until we face this inescapably gendered discrepancy about what is considered unacceptable behavior from men and women, punishment will never be meted out equally. These labels are thrown around liberally by its supporters, including celebrities and pliable news anchors, every time someone raises their voice against the government's policies. Needless to say, if the dissenting voices are female, they are subjected to vicious slandering of another kind.
Sometimes, the harassment even shocks the women supporters of such groups. From rape threats to moral policing them for their clothes or lifestyle, the abuse exposes the ugly misogyny that pervades our society. Lebanese-American media personality Mia Khalifa, who is a former porn actor, has also tweeted on the farmers' protest following Rihanna's tweet.
Predictably, right wing supporters have been tweeting her earlier photographs with sexually coloured remarks to discredit her political views. Following Rihanna's tweet, several other prominent voices have followed suit, and the displeased Ministry of External Affairs has released a press statement about 'vested interest groups' trying to mobilise 'international support against India'.
They're fooling nobody. For those outside India who wish to understand what's happening here, the corrosive language and violent reactions of those supporting the government is enough to know, they're all under the same umbrella-ella-ella.
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