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Monday, July 20, 2009

File under "things that piss me off"

First, I want to apologize for the scant postings recently. My fiance had the weekend off, and trying to write anything of worth while he's in my face is...difficult (seriously--last night he made me watch "He's just not that into you." I spent the duration of the movie banging my head on the floor, screaming "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??" and trying to get the cat to play with me, just so I wouldn't have to watch that shit-fest--the only good thing about that movie was I got to stare at Jennifer Connelly here and there. Needless to say, I will not be writing my usual review, since I've deemed it not worth so much of my precious precious time).

Anyway, here are a few things I thought I'd share with my readership in place of an actual post.

First, Chris Brown apologizes, but...it's less than convincing:



While I'm all about men seeking help and guidance to correct their behavior so that they do not lay hand upon a woman again (though it shouldn't happen in the first place), I have mixed feelings about this apology. Now, I don't know Chris Brown, so I have no idea how sincere any of this is; but I am intimidated by him when he says "I told Rihanna..." Even without that, I still feel like this is lacking. He talks about how all of this has affected him; not once does he acknowledge that what he did to Rihanna was wrong, that she didn't deserve such treatment from him. He instead says that his "mother and spiritual teachers" have taught him better than that without really acknowledging why these people might have taught him not to hit a woman. He's interested in maintaining regaining his status as a role model without delving into what that means. He's just apologizing, but isn't doing his audience any favor by not going into the whys. I don't know; perhaps I'm expecting more from him. A 2-minute video just doesn't seem like enough.

H/T to PostBourgie

Trigger warning for this next one:

Yet another example of victim-blaming when a woman has the audacity to leave her husband. Thanks to CaitieCat for the link, who also offers this:

Next time someone says "Why didn't she just leave?", send them this link.
Seriously. I know I'm sick of some man telling me how stupid women are for staying in abusive relationships, absolving the man of any semblance of responsibility for his own actions. Not to mention that women are well-aware of these consequences of leaving a man in a patriarchal society that unthinkingly engages in victim-blaming, and clearly doesn't give a shit about our lives.

I'm done. I will get back on track this week, I promise.

2 comments:

Sabertooth Screaming Lemur said...

That guy freaks me out, no matter what he says or does.
And thank you (sort of) for that link. Now I have something to show people who ask the "why didn't/doesn't she leave?" question... although I wish it wasn't the case.

Lisa said...

I don't happen to know Chris Brown personally either, and I agree that that appology seemed insincere. However, I'd like to offer a few suggestions in his defense (I'm not sure that I believe these myself, just playing devil's advocate here):
1) That's just sort of the way he talks, and he's incapable of showing much emotion in his face or voice.
2) He was reading off of something and isn't very good at reading aloud. Since this public statement was very important, it makes sense that he (and most likely his lawyer) would write up his words beforehand to make sure that he didn't mess it up.