Chris Brown: known for treating women like garbage, releasing uninspired 45-track albums, and hopefully soon, for getting his ass handed to him by the justice system.
Chris Brown, along with rapper Young Lo and an unnamed woman, is being sued by an anonymous woman who is going by Jane Doe in a civil lawsuit alleging rape and other instances of sexual assault. In Feb. 2017, Jane Doe and her roommate attended a nightclub in Los Angeles where Chris Brown was performing. Young Lo (Lowell Grissom Jr.) invited the two women to an after-party at a recording studio, which then moved to Brown’s house.
Throughout the course of the night, Jane Doe was held in Brown’s house against her will, intimidated, raped several times, and forced to perform sex acts on both Grissom and the unknown woman listed in the lawsuit.
https://twitter.com/brianneworth/status/1008894199242977280
Chris Brown is a known abuser.
His history of terrorizing woman dates back to at least 2009, when he infamously hit Rihanna multiple times in the face, leaving extensive bruises and cuts. He received five years of probation and six months of community service, but no jail time. Fast-forward a few years, and then-girlfriend Karrueche Tran revealed that Brown had been aggressive toward her throughout their relationship. He reportedly hit her and pushed her down the stairs, and sent her threatening text messages, telling her he would “beat the shit out of” her and that he would shoot her. She was granted a restraining order against Brown in June 2017. And then, earlier this year, photos surfaced of Brown choking a woman while partying in Miami. Both he and the woman insisted later that he was just playing around and it was harmless fun. And now,, Jane Doe has come forward with her lawsuit, once again exposing Chris Brown for exactly who he is, even though we’ve all known for years.
To top it off, news outlets report that a woman, Cassandra, was granted a restraining order against Brown after he stalked and hit her.
Brown, despite the evidence of his abuse, has stayed relatively unscathed through all his assault scandals. When he beat Rihanna almost to the point beyond recognition, people were outraged, but a few years later when he and Rihanna briefly reconciled, fans were mad at her for choosing to get back together with him. The backlash from the incident didn’t seem to affect his career, or at least not permanently: he’s had numerous hits since then and still gets plenty of airtime.
The response the public has seemed to give his continued mistreatment of women is to shrug and move on.
However, it seems that is changing with this latest lawsuit outlining horrific details of rape, assault, and trauma Jane Doe experienced. Movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up are far from perfect and are often exclusionary, but they have still helped create an environment where women are taken seriously. Where men, such as Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Bill Cosby, and R. Kelly are being put on blast, boycotted, and even sentenced to jail time.
The past year has seen women speaking up and out about men’s predatory behaviors, and recently, the public has actually been there to support them, as opposed to 2009 when Brown attacked Rihanna.
I hope that, as a society and as consumers, we are finally fed up enough with abusive men that we boycott them, support their victims, and refrain from giving them props for their “creative genius” while conveniently ignoring their terrible treatment of women. Women consistently show up and relive their traumatic experiences in front of the public; the least we can do is believe them.
I’m glad to see that the reactions to Chris Brown’s garbage behavior are angrier and less apathetic than when he assaulted Rihanna. We need to keep the pressure on men to, you know, not be violent, and we need to shut down rape and assault apologists when we encounter them. We need to keep standing up for women.
It looks like women are finally shutting the door on Chris Brown. Let’s keep the momentum going and hold all powerful and famous men accountable.
