Chris Brown, Rihanna, and Keira Knightley: Celebrities and Domestic Violence
Yesterday, I opened my email to find a video that had been forwarded to me of a PSA filmed by actress Keira Knightley (See video here, TRIGGER WARNING) . The video is shocking but effective and adds Keira Knightley to a list of celebrities that have spoken out against domestic violence. Celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Bonnie Raitt, Harrison Ford, Tori Amos, Salma Hayek, and Christina Aguilera have used their celebrity status to send a message of anti-abuse to the public.
Unfortunately, celebrities are not always linked with domestic violence because of their positive, proactive work on the issue. R&B artist Chris Brown may be the most recent celebrity charged with domestic violence, but he is not alone. Mike Tyson, Sean Penn, Dennis Rodman, and Bobby Brown are just a few of our most famed who have been arrested for domestic violence or rape at some point in their life. The list goes on and on. But what happens to these celebrities?
- Mike Tyson’s first fight after being released from a 3-year prison sentence for a felony rape charge grossed $96 million worldwide and set a record for PPV viewership.
- Sean Penn has been nominated for an Academy Award 5 times (and won twice), all after he was charged with felony domestic assault against Madonna (and after several violent incidents with paparazzi).
- Dennis Rodman appears on Celebrity Apprentice in 2009, months after he is arrested for domestic violence and pleads no contest to spousal battery.
- Bobby Brown gets his own show, “Being Bobby Brown”, 2 years after being arrested and charged for spousal battery.
What do you think SHOULD happen to celebrities that are found guilty of domestic violence or admit to abusive behavior? Should they be pulled from shows, advertisements, suspended from games, etc.? Do you think current punishments are enough or should more/less happen?
Also, how would you like to see the public react to celebrity domestic violence? Do you think people should refuse to support abusive celebrities (not buying albums, etc.) or do you think the personal life of a celebrity is separate from their career?
April 5th, 2009 at 8:42 am
DV is an incident, not a lifestyle.
To label people that have had DV incidents as something other than real humans that have made mistakes is a typical Text-Book response from an industry that sets itself apart from the realities of relationship dynamics.
I would never excuse violence against anybody for any reason,
but since the Number One DV strategy is abuse of the system through false claims, false advocacy and false arrests, it might make sense to stop profiling victims and the ‘abusers’ alike.
Every man I know that has ever had to undergo a divorce, a breakup or a family dispute
has had to deal with the onslaught of false and vindictive abuse allegations from his angry ex.
And guess what?
There is never an advocate for the accused.
Never.
April 5th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
citizen, you have obviously never had to deal with DV firsthand.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Thanks for your input. One of the common misconceptions about domestic violence is that it is a stand-alone “incident” that happens without explanation or accidentally. Domestic violence is bigger than an “incident”. Domestic violence is a cycle, a pattern, an environmental context. They are, as you pointed out, real humans. They have jobs and families and are often not abusive in most other areas of their life.
We recognize that an “abuser” and “victim” are much more than this identifier. However, when we are talking about domestic violence, it is appropriate to refer to people as “abuser” and “victim”. If we were talking about these people in a different context (say, we were talking about employees of a workplace), it wouldn’t be appropriate to refer to someone as the “abuser in accounting”.
I recognize that an “abuser” is more than the abuse. I advocate for education and counseling to help to NOT become abusive in their relationships. In many cases, abusers have grown up in a family where they have seen abuse, been abused themselves, and/or not had appropriate socialization to create healthy relationships. When this has been a person’s life experience, we can see why they may have chosen to be abusive in their own relationships. But does it justify it? Never.
False reporting will be the topic of a future post. Many people believe that false reports are rampant; however, domestic violence overall is one of the most under-reported crimes in the U.S. I’ll address this more with references and statistics at a later date.
Lastly, I would like to point out that DVSAS does provide support for victim-defendants. Victim-defendants are victims who have been misidentified as an abuser. The agency absolutely provides support for victims in these cases.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Obviously!
April 17th, 2009 at 9:21 am
[...] helpful articles on how to deal with someone in an abusive relationship was a post entitled “Chris Brown, Rihanna, and Keira Knightley: Celebrities and Domestic Violence.” I am not one to keep up with celebrity culture, but I know who the three people mentioned in [...]
April 26th, 2009 at 9:22 am
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