Rihanna: "Woman of the Year" or selfish promotional queen?

I will start this by saying this very clearly: I do NOT condone domestic violence. The views below are of mine and not of Gossip On This as a whole. Domestic violence is never okay under any circumstance and I do not believe it is right for a man to hit a woman, or in retrospect for a woman to hit a man. In addition, I am neither a Chris Brown nor a Rihanna fan. I do listen to their music and I enjoy some of it but I do not consider myself a fan of either artists. Now that that’s out of the way…

On the night of Friday November 6th, Rihanna’s very first post-assault interview aired on ABC’s 20/20 and naturally, the Internet was buzzing before the interview, through the interview, and even after the interview. Many finally saw Rihanna as a human as she told her story of what happened the night she and her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown got into an altercation. But on the other side, many others saw her as untruthful and selfish for using this as an opportunity to promote her upcoming album. Going into the interview, I expected Rihanna to tell her side of the story. I expected her to leave information out and to make Chris Brown seem like the bad guy. I expected her to throw him under the bus, run him over, reverse, and do it all over again. Unfortunately, after the interview, I realized that all my expectations came true.

I can honestly say that I was not moved or touched by Rihanna’s interview. If anything, it made me angry for many reasons. The first is simple: I believe she did this interview simply for promotional reasons. She has an album coming out and she wants to get sympathy sales. I would have been perfectly fine if this interview had aired and she did noft have an album release in two weeks. But let’s think about the timing of it all: three singles, becoming a “Woman of the Year” for Glamour Magazine (something I will comment on later), an interview, performances, music video, promotional album stills, etc. To tell me that this was not part of her marketing campaign would be like saying she is the best female singer of our generation.

Many will say: “Well, what about Chris? He has an album coming out too!” Chris Brown made public appearances before any new information on his album started being released. On the other hand, Rihanna spent months clubbing, hitting up every “Fashion Week” event, being in the midst of numerous dating rumors, and being a feature on the songs of other artists. Yet, when her album is about to drop, she puts on the “victim” act and now we’re supposed to feel bad for her? No. She is throwing Chris Brown under the bus for her own personal gain and it is disgusting. I’m appalled that she would do this to someone that she “loved.” I 100% acknowledge that what Chris Brown did was wrong – he took it too far and for that, I am glad he has a punishment to pay and that he is learning from it.

Secondly, I do not believe that Rihanna told the whole truth. I believe there are always three sides to a story: his side, her side, and the whole truth. Rihanna did not tell the whole truth. She gave the public what they wanted to hear and expected us to take it without asking questions. But anyone with an open mind who watched this interview can tell that something is missing. Rihanna claims she “caught him in a lie and [Chris Brown] wouldn’t tell the truth and [she] wouldn’t drop it.” She couldn’t take that he kept lying to her and next thing you know “it escalated to him being violent towards [her].”

So basically what Rihanna is saying is that she told him he was lying and kept on telling him that so he shoved her into her window, put her in a headlock, bit her finger, and punched her. Does this seem right to anyone? I refuse to believe that Rihanna did not egg this situation on. There is simply no way that someone that is driving will reach over, grab the passenger and put them in a headlock and cause them to have two black eyes simply because they caught them in a lie.

In addition, how did Chris Brown bite her fingers? If we are going by Rihanna’s story that she just “wanted it to the stop [and] was not interested in hurting him back,” that means she would be leaning towards her door trying to get out of reach. So tell me, how did he manage to bite her fingers? Unless they magically appeared in his mouth, they had to be somewhere near his face or even, hitting him in his face. Again, even if somehow magically all this did happen, I still can’t believe that she did not hit him once while he was biting her fingers and having her in a headlock, all while driving.

The police report also claims that she was loosing conciousness, something that Rihanna denies. In addition, in response to people like myself who do not believe what she is saying, Rihanna says “even if I hit him first, that makes it ok for him to do that to me? They kinda give an excuse for what he did.” This exact quote proves, to me, that she was and is also guilty. Something here does not seem to add up. I believe that Rihanna provoked Chris Brown and until I receive concrete evidence that she didn’t, that belief will not die.

And to add to this, after the interview aired, Chris’ friends took to Twitter in anger, confirming what many of us believed:

Chris’ dj: (djbabeydrew)

“MAD!!!! I need the real story to come out now!!! This is sum bullcrap!!!! Uncut Bullcrap!”

Scooter (singer-chris’ friend)

“new #TT is…..#hannarihanna”?“like hannamontana is 2 people hannarihanna is her 2nd person that we saw on tv today lying!!!!

Chris’ dancer- @Only1Zstarr :

I WISH DANCER’S CAN SPEAK ABOUT THINGS THAT REALLY GO ON!!!! I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS.. LET ME JUST SAY CHRIS BROWN WAS PUSHED TO THE EXTREME!

IN CHRIS INTERVIEW THEY ASK HIM WHAT HAPPEN, HE SAID HE WANT TO KEEP THERE PRIVACY PRIVATE OUT OF RESPECT FOR HER!! (PAUSE)

BECAUSE IF HE REALLY SPOKE ON THE REAL OF THE TRUTH!!! I CANT SAY THE REST!

Need I say more?

Lastly, this is unrelated to the interview but something that irked me: Rihanna’s Woman of the Year cover for Glamour Magazine. I completely disagree with this title. What did Rihanna do in 2009? Was the award given to her for the many different outfits she donned this year? Or maybe for her new hairstyle? Oh, could it be because she is taking a stand for women who have been abused? If so, then this award does not belong to her. Rihanna has not done anything to help those who have been abused. She spoke up because she was ready to promote her album – it is pitiful that she is accepting that role when she has done nothing for it. What happened to giving this award to women who deserved it? What about Mo’Nique? Not only did she score a successful late night talk show, but she is starring in an Oscar-worthy movie in which she is already receiving buzz for an Oscar nod. Let’s face the facts. Rihanna graces the cover of the magazine as another promotional tool.

I am surprised at the lengths people will go to to be successful. I was hoping Rihanna would not sell out Chris Brown for her own gain. Yet, here I stand – disappointed. I can honestly say I will not be buying her album when it drops. If anything, I will be supporting Chris as he has had enough respect for both him and her during his public appearances. Chris’ actions, however wrong they were, do not define him. What defines him is the steps he is taking to ensure it never happens again, and unlike his ex-girlfriend, those steps do not include “screw over Rihanna to get more album sales.”

Feel free to leave your comments below, whether you agree or disagree…

(Or if you’d rather discuss this privately tweet me @ http://twitter.com/Kenni329)

By: Kenni Nwajagu
Contributing Editor for Gossip On This

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