Chris Brown and Rihanna: Isn't there anything else to talk about?

Cut to Monday, February 9th, the day after the Grammy’s... my drive home from school in rush hour traffic after another stressful day of meeting deadlines, chasing stories and trying to organize my life over the next few weeks. My best friend called me and the first topic of conversation was about Chris Brown and Rihanna. Not being a mainstream, entertainment junkie who reads Perez Hilton everyday, it didn’t really mean much to me to hear the gossip about how he allegedly beat her up. Not that I’m insensitive to the fact that of course, it’s a horrible thing to hear another woman in the world has suffered domestic abuse, but more bothered by the fact that it’s gossip that the world could do without. It’s a private matter that should remain behind closed doors and yet after standing in lines at the grocery store or walking through the magazine aisles at the book store, I couldn’t help but notice magazine upon magazine with pictures of the couple, each with rumours that no one has confirmed.

The National Enquirer claims that Brown, 19, was in an under aged, “booze-fueled rage” when Rihanna confronted him about his “roving eyes” towards other women. The Enquirer went as far as saying, "There is a pretty female guitarist that she's very jealous of, and I'm sure she played into their altercation. Chris had been drinking and he went off - way off." However, no names were mentioned as to who this guitarist is.

Thepaparrazis.com posted on their website The National Enquirer also published the dramatic news that Rihanna was pregnant with Brown’s baby during their battle, and that it was in fact the pregnancy that got him all stirred up. According to this site, these weekly tabloid magazines said, Rihanna told her friends, ‘“Oh my God, I could lose the baby!”’ moments after Brown battered her. ‘“If Rihanna is pregnant, Chris could have killed the baby,”’ a “distressed insider said.”
Who knows if any of this holds truth. Celebtv.com released a story that holds none of those rumours. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6tU4JClYPA

This is what happens in Hollywood when something tragic happens; it becomes the news of every paper and magazine, rumours start flying around, and we lose concentration and energy on the real matters. What about every other woman in the world who suffers domestic abuse? Maybe we should talk about that and not how Chris Brown really did a number on his girlfriend. People make profit on the tragedies of others and with the picture that leaked on the internet of Rihanna’s bumps and bruises, I could only wish that people in this society would have more respect for humanity than to make public something so personal.

So unless Chris Brown and Rihanna’s very public dispute and downfall will somehow reduce the number of domestic abuse cases and better our society as a whole, I don’t want to hear about it because to me, it’s just Hollywood gossip that I could really do without, and that I think the world could do without. Maybe it shouldn’t be how Brown beat up Rihanna. Maybe it should be about how domestic abuse stop. Let’s stop magnifying the lives of celebrities and take a look at the real issues that lie in front of us.

- Jen Korson