Super-ultra-pop-star Rihanna is a lot of things: model, former beauty queen, Barbadian youth cultural ambassador (!), frequent Billboard presence, wackadoo fashion icon, and a scant “score-and-one” years old. After an alleged argument that ended in alleged violence with boyfriend-singer Chris Brown a few weeks ago, however, it seems the media would like to cram a new hat on the young songstress’s head — domestic abuse poster child.
And, ok, when you step into the spotlight, you don’t always get to choose your image. I’m sure Jessica Simpson never planned on becoming a cautionary tale against reality TV marriages, or That Girl Who Jinxes Football Players. Jamie-Lynn Spears didn’t get knocked up so that she could be a role model to 
pregnant teens. “The Hills”‘ Audrina Patridge didn’t accidentally-on-purpose leak nekkid pictures of herself to provide valuable lessons on discretion to “the young girls who look up to [her]” . . . oh, no wait. She totally did.
But while fame and fortune predicate a certain lack of control, surely some things are still sacred. By now, everyone has either seen the photo of Rihanna’s battered face that TMZ allegedly scootched from the LAPD, or they have gone to great and strenuous lengths to avoid it. Shortly after the gossip site watermarked their logo across Rihanna’s puffy eyes and potentially broken nose, the photo was plastered across the front page of papers like the New York Post. Even sites that blathered on about the shame of exposing such a tragedy in this way would sneak the photo in after the jump.
No one, it seems, could keep from snagging a few more site hits at the starlet’s expense. Most were willing to accept the starlet’s silence (especially since it came at the request of police) and allow her a quiet birthday in Barbados, but recent rumors that she’s taken the bastard back have incensed, well, pretty much everyone. The face of Gucci’s fourth annual Campaign to Benefit UNICEF is now being called “the most famous face of domestic abuse” and apparently she has to answer to the world about why she would go back to a man who (allegedly) beats her.
Don’t get me wrong: I am all for being held accountable for your actions, especially if you are living off the fat of public opinion. However, this is obviously a sensitive issue, and obviously a confusing time for such a young woman, and obviously none of our collective business. I doubt that someone as savvy as Rihanna is going to waltz back into a dangerous situation without some frank analysis, but if she wants to see if she and Chris can work things out, who are we to stop her? I am neither her mother nor her manager nor her best friend. Domestic abuse is about as serious as issues go these days, and I’m not saying that Rihanna should simply disregard what happened. But as much as I didn’t have the right to creep my eyes all over her face in a vulnerable moment, I haven’t got the right to stick my nose into her personal affairs like I know what’s what. I don’t. Neither do you. Time to back off.
When you live in the public eye and make millions and millions of dollars off of your celebrity and full lack of privacy, what happens in your life is no longer private. As soon as you sign the contract to be the next face of Gucci, a fashion icon, a musical superstar, or in this case, the poster child for domestic abuse, you revoke any right to a private existence. It comes with the job, the status and the territory.
Although it may be perceived as “none of our business”, that is where this whole argument starts: it is our show business. While the circumstances that occurred between Rhianna and Chris Brown are tragic (if not alleged), it makes for great TV, great radio and a great cover of People Magazine. These stars are fully aware of their public obligations, which include being scrutinized and setting themselves up as role models for millions of people, young and old.
Websites and shows like TMZ, Perez Hilton and Entertainment Tonight are doing their duty as the news machines for all things celebrity, and I honestly don’t think there is anything wrong with them exploiting the tragic situation between the two stars to increase viewership and boost their salacious ratings. Not only do viewers love it, but it also gives some insight into what we are spending millions of dollars in supporting. The public has a right to know that the $20 they just spent on their new Chris Brown CD gives the man so much money that he feels he has to be accountable to no one for his actions, he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to, to whom ever he chooses. We feed into it, and we perpetuate the cycle. Surely we should take some accountability for buying his CD’s and putting him in such a position that he feels the rules of normal adult behaviours don’t apply to him.
What is perhaps more shameful is the fact that they are recording more songs, putting out new CD’s and carrying on with their careers, fully expecting popular culture to welcome their new artistic additions to the world with open arms. If this episode teaches us anything, it is that the public has a choice whether or not to support negative role models. Buy more Chris Brown or Rhianna records, and you are telling them that there actions are fine, that they are not setting a bad example and that the public at large condones their actions.
It is an obligation for celebrities to air their laundry in public (or for news magazines to do it for them) so the viewer has the choice whether or not to support the artist. By no means should they be left alone to deal with the issues behind closed doors. The public created the issue, funds the issue and should have an all-access pass to how the trial and subsequent sentencing unfolds itself. Rhianna is now the poster child for domestic abuse, and if she is smart, she will walk away with her head held high, tape a special about empowerment for women on the Oprah Show and pray that she can still have some semblance of her former celebrity when all of the dust settles.