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Same Old Song

Half a year after brutalizing his then-girlfriend -- by hitting, choking, biting and threatening to kill her -- Chris Brown is still following the script of domestic abusers everywhere. He loves her, he really does, it was totally unlike him and he promises to never ever do it again. That's the tune the R&B crooner sings in a clip from his pre-taped interview for "Larry King Live," which airs in full this Wednesday at 9 p.m. [. . .] CNN also reports that in as-yet-unseen footage, he announces that he still loves Rihanna. The declaration of love, the shock at being overtaken by such uncharacteristic rage and the promise to never do it again -- it's straight out of a domestic violence PSA. The only difference here is that he's telling this to us, the American public, the fans he's trying to win back, instead of his lover. I can only hope -- for his sake and that of his worshipful young fans -- that the full interview reveals Brown as being ready and willing to confront in uncensored detail what he did and begin to work at truly healing himself. (Tracy Clark-Flory, “Chris Brown: Same old dance and song,” Salon August 31 2009)

It's a bit disingenuous to set this guy up as someone who's coming pretty close to trying to get away with murder and then finish with your hopes that he come to heal himself. You write as if what you most want is for him to wake up one morning with his own dick in his mouth ("try singing that same old tune now, dickhead") and a knife-wielding ex-girlfriend grinning by his side. Only then should therapy be considered -- but, really, who's to be bothered with stitching-up when there's so many other bad boys out there to be spotted for totally awesome comeuppance.

Guys who go beat up their girlfriends are taking revenge upon them for abuse they suffered from their own mothers (who themselves were so unloved they could not help but use their boys as anti-depressants). That's where the anger originates. Feminism want to try taking on that "angle" again, so that we can stop essentializing young men as evil

Link: Salon (Tracy Clark-Flory)

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