It’s no secret that 90 percent of what comes out of Chris Brown’s mouth is completely idiotic. Every time someone utters his name, my first thought is always, “What did he say this time?” Honestly, his agent should just tell him to shut the fuck up already and stop picking up the phone when the press rings.
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Most recently, Chris complained about his additional 1,000 community service hours being a “bitch” (he even claimed the District Attorney had racial bias), and bragged about losing his virginity at the ripe age of 8.
Seriously, he told The Guardian UK, “At 8, being able to do it kind of preps you for the long run, so you can be beast at it.”
Truly inspiring, that boy.
But despite the numerous Chris Brown scandals over the years, and his misogyny in general, I still listen to some of his music. To clarify, this means I have exactly one Chris Brown song on my iPod and have seen a few of his music videos. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a crime.
Yet, after telling one of my roommates that I liked Brown’s new song, “Love More,” he looked at me and said, “It always really surprises me when girls say they like Chris Brown.”
As if to say, as a woman, it was my responsibility to throw a hissy fit about every single sexist thing in our culture. As if to say, that as a man, it was OK if he liked Chris Brown because Brown’s problems didn’t have anything to do with him.
Let’s just let this marinate for a second. According to my roommate (and probably a bunch of other people out there — I can’t imagine he’s alone in this thinking), women are the only ones who should be outraged by our sexist culture. While he didn’t state this explicitly, I’ve come to know him well enough to understand his thought process.
News flash: Half the music topping the charts these days contains sexist content. Eminem, Robin Thicke, Lil Wayne, all guilty of a good misogynistic song or two (or three or four).
A common offender, Lil Wayne’s lyrics in “Tapout” include, “She say I drive her crazy, I say just keep on your seatbelt / Bend it over bust it open for me / Baby bend it over bust it open for me / She say she love me she loves this dick.”
And in general, Chris Brown isn’t the only one making money off his bad-boy reputation. Justin Bieber had marijuana and monkey troubles (remember that incident at the German airport?); Kanye West can’t help but Twitter rant in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME; One Direction’s Harry Styles is an infamous womanizer; Miley Cyrus is, well, you know … Miley Cyrus.
I can’t be responsible for standing up to every single bad influence in our music industry. I just can’t. It’s too exhausting. And I honestly don’t think rebelling against Chris Brown would really do much in the long run anyway. As much as I hate to admit it, leaving all my ideological notions behind, one person just can’t change an entire industry, let alone an entire culture. No matter how much I protest Chris Brown, he will always get DUIs and mistreat women, and he will continue to be famous despite it all. In an industry where all press is considered good press, Chris Brown is the king.
Plus, putting all the violence and degradation of women aside, Chris Brown isn’t completely undeserving of fame. He’s a good singer, a really great dancer and overall, a pretty talented guy (have you seen his moves in his “Yeah 3X” video?).
And I can only imagine all the hard work it took to perform nearly every night for two months like he did for his F.A.M.E tour back in 2011. Not to mention the determination it required to make numerous comebacks, despite the plethora of bad press. Considering all the talentless schmucks out there eating up fame for no reason (Jenny McCarthy and Jessica Alba, to name a few), I’d rather give my attention to someone who earned it.
Chris Brown is certainly no role model, and he’s never going to be a saint, but at least everyone knows it. Better the devil you know than the one you don’t, right? Well, sort of.