Earlier this year, everyone from fans to parents to Oprah expressed utter outrage and disapproval at reports that pop star Rihanna had been violently beaten by her boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, in a car after a Grammy Awards party. Indeed, this obviously traumatic event received attention from virtually every media outlet as gory details and images of the night leaked and many people publicly voiced their thoughts and opinions on the matter. The only voice missing from this sea of judgment, sympathy and advice was that of Rihanna. 

In fact, many people seemed genuinely confused about her silence. Why wasn’t Rihanna speaking out about her experience? Why wasn’t she appearing on every "Oprah," "Dr. Phil," or any other television show to give us her side of the story, displaying her strength and resilience and asserting her willingness to be a role model to girls and women everywhere?

But instead of seeing her on television talk shows, we saw photos of her in Miami, sitting behind Chris Brown on his jet ski and smiling gleefully. And so a whole new round of judgment and speculation commenced. How could she be foolish go back to and give him another chance?

But even after Rihanna left Brown for good, her failure to make a public statement on the attack frustrated the many people eager to make her a spokeswomen, a real life survivor or the next highly anticipated guest on their show. But only days ago, she finally broke her silence.

In the days proceeding the airing of Diane Sawyer’s interview of Rihanna, the internet was aflame was controversy, many bloggers and commenters claiming the sit-down was nothing more than a highly-orchestrated strategic move. There was speculation that Rihanna’s legal and publicity teams, more concerned about promoting her image and upcoming album than protecting her privacy or emotions, had forced the pop star into talking.

Yet after watching that interview, I can honestly say I didn’t doubt that Rihanna was being genuine. Her candid answers did not come across as standard, rehearsed responses, but instead, as explicit, frank admissions. Yes, she had gone to visit Brown in Miami to see how he was; she was still emotionally attached to him at that point. But she also discussed her subsequent choice to leave him, disclosing how, like many victims of abuse, she reached a breaking point.

To me, the interview highlighted how, in the midst of the media circus that followed the incident, we all forgot that Rihanna is not just a celebrity but also a real victim of intimate partner violence, a social problem that has very specific characteristics, patterns and responses. Though she supposedly “went back” to her abuser once, most women, as both Rihanna and Sawyer pointed out, attempt to end such relationships multiple times before succeeding. Yet when those pictures of Rihanna and Brown emerged, very few people bothered to consider this well-documented statistic. Furthermore, many saw her unwillingness to comment on the matter for so long as a sign of weakness, not as a way of dealing with the trauma.

In fact, this notion that the incident happened to her was something Rihanna stressed when Diane Sawyer asked whether she would ever be strong again. The pop star quickly denied that she was weak. Her assertion was that she did not cause this abuse, bring it on or deserve it in any way. It just happened to her.

However, clearly reaching such a conclusion requires distance, time and internal reflection, things for which she was criticized. Yet taking her time away in thoughtfully recognizing this fact is actually what makes Rihanna the role model people were so eager to see her become.

Vora, a junior sociology major, can be reached at avora01@brynmawr.edu.

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