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Don't be a "Rihanna"
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We all heard about Rihanna’s beating from Chris Brown back in February. On Tuesday, Chris Brown pleaded guilty in order to receive the plea bargain for 180 days of labor work, counseling on domestic abuse, five years probation, and to stay away from Rihanna. He will be back in court in August.
Most people are disappointed in Rihanna; no one has heard anything come from her mouth since the incident. She’s been under the radar, but a bit too much. As tragic and hurtful as the incident, you would think by now she would come out and speak on some of it. I would not’t be surprised if she end’s up on Oprah next year to “speak out on violence against women”.
Though most people would agree it is a bit late to try to salvage her reputation. She certainly to most people and organizations no longer represents a strong woman. Not that she is weak, but she has definitely not handled this well. Even Perez Hilton this past week, after being hit supposedly by the manager of The Black Eye Peas, spoke out on violence on a video blog.
This incident shows that no matter whom you are, women’s voices are still being silenced. Not only do we need to end violence on women, but we need to strengthen women’s voices. What caused Rihanna’s silence, who knows, but whether it’s a psychological thing, or society’s role on her life, she did not’t speak. Rihanna could also be in shock that it happened to her. Not to knock on celebrities, but the general society and the celebrity world tend to think that celebrities are immune to human issues. As history has repeated itself, celebrities are not invincible.
Women do have strong voices; it’s a matter of if you are ever taught to use it. Sometimes it takes several times of bad things to happen to you to say enough is enough, which is unfortunate. What women need to do early on is have their children, particularly girls, to learn to stand up for themselves. When we raise our boys, we tell them to “take it like a man”. But we don’t do the same for women. When was the last time you told your daughter to “take it like a woman”?
We toughen up our sons, it’s time to toughen up our daughters; the right way of course. We can’t have girls being bullies or become violent. But we do need to teach to speak up when something is wrong, and how to defend themselves. They also need to learn not to be ashamed when they become a victim, but rather find it in themselves that they are a stronger woman because of it. Also, that they say “yes I may be a victim, but I’m taking a stand against it”. And when women go through this, we need to stretch our hand every single time, not just when certain girls or women become a victim. We can’t pick and choose what girl will stand up and speak out on violence and just help the stronger girl or woman. We need to be a backbone for every single time a girl or woman gets abused: physically, emotionally, and mentally, or a combination.
The United States women lack solidarity. We rise to some occasion but not to all. We have pockets of groups across the nation, and national organizations, but not all are on aboard. The women in Iran right now during this tragic time of government control are doing a better job coming together to protest against a regime. Is it our fault that Rihanna did not’t speak up, because we assumed that if she did not’t speak up, that she can’t be a role model? Is it Rihanna’s upbringing that made her seem weak? We won’t know until she tells us, or maybe we’ll never know. But what we do know is that we need to start rising to the occasion, all the time.
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