Abuse and Rihanna

Written by our very own Snowflake! If you have article, story, drawing, poem, etc, that you have made which you would like posted email it to gwebbies@gmail.com

Usually I'm not one to take the entertainment news seriously, but the story of Chris Brown's assault on Rihanna caught my eye. As surprised as I was at Chris Brown's actions, I was even more shocked at how teenage girls across America reacted. I was literally gaping when I read the facts: 46% of Boston students think that Rihanna is at fault for the attack, and 52% believed that both were responsible, even as Rihanna was rushed to the hospital for her injuries. So what's up with that? After doing some more research, I found out that almost 10% of teenagers report being hit or slapped by a boyfriend or girlfriend -and many teens don't report these incidents, so the numbers are likely even higher. And domestic violence isn't something that only happens in inner-city areas -it's a problem all over. Culturally, some people say, factors such as hip-hop music give an image of an aggressive male, saying that violence is the answer. I personally am not sure music is to blame, but I think that the lack of negative response on the part of teen girls in cases like this is scary. Chris Brown allegedly choked Rihanna, yet teenage girls repeatedly send the message that Rihanna somehow set him off. This may be true, but assaulting Rihanna isn't the way to solve it! The saddest part to me is that many of these girls have been victims of dating abuse, but they still think it's okay. I think this really exposes a glitch in our culture that desperately needs to be fixed.
-Snowflake