You learn something new every day don’t you? Like this week I realised that domestic violence is accepted in modern society.
I was shocked because not too long ago, the collective world was shocked, dismayed and angry at one Christopher Brown for his transgressions towards Robyn Fenty – and rightly so, no one should have to beaten to a pulp for any reason, though no one to this day knows why Chris saw it fit to beat Robyn with by the images of her on that faithful night seems to be an umbrella.
Chris Brown, 20 years old may I add, has since been on as many media outlets that would let him on to apologise for his horrific actions but the fourth estate has pretty much rendered his career dust because after all there is no reason why anybody should beat their partner to the extent Chris Brown beat Rihanna. Right?
Wrong?
I have honestly been trying to ignore this Tiger Woods story, but it’s everywhere. It amazes me how fast the media are willing to knock someone who a day (or even an hour) earlier they were willing to shower with praise. Now he’s the byword for all cheating men – cheated on your wife? You did a Tiger. Damn it, he’s the excuse that politicians are using to get out of tough questions (here’s looking at you Harry).
What really depresses me about this whole Tiger fiasco is the narrative which suggests that Tiger has let US, the collective people who obviously worshipped him down. Really? I don’t know about you but Tiger is, has and will always be a good golf player and that’s it. He has never been a reference for how I should conduct myself in my personal life.
I can’t think of a single celebrity who I’ve let infiltrate my personal space. Michael Jackson? Legendary performer. Could he have told me how to handle an argument between me and my ol’ lady? No.
The fact that we are still looking at celebrities as role models in our personal lives shows how lacking in life skills today’s society has become.
But I’m losing the thread and original premise to this piece. It’s been reported after finding out that Tiger has been Tom-Dick-and-Harrying around with anything in a skirt that Tiger’s wife went at him with a golf club. It’s also said that Tiger had several scratch marks on his face which were suspected to be from his very (rightly) angry wife.
Even with Tiger denying the fact that his injuries were caused by his wife (which tells a story in its self), the media has practically ignored this domestic violence subplot. Some even suggest that Tiger got what he deserved for how he’s treated his wife.
Heck I have had conversations with my own girlfriend who said that she would positively kill me if she found out I had cheated on her.
Now my question is this, if a man found out his wife had been cheating, would it be alright for him to become violent towards her? Would it have been alright for Chris Brown to do what he did to RiRi if she had cheated on him?
I have been relaying my frustrations to a friend of mine who studied Criminology and he is of the belief that if all domestic violence incidents towards men were reported, the numbers would be very similar to its female reported counterparts (I understand that there could be a lot more women who suffer from domestic violence and don’t report it).
But I feel there needs to be a final clarification on gender equality. Either men and women are considered equal in every case (bar child birth) or we have to accept that it is impossible for men and women to be equal.
You can’t be chanting (*in my best Destiny’s Child impression*) “All my women, who are independent, throw you hands up with me”, and then in the very next breath treat an incident differently because it happened to a woman instead of a man. It’s simply not fair.
That’s me done. That’s the only thing I found interesting about this whole Tiger situation. Apart from that I fail to see why anything about this story is any of my business.
Just a normal everyday bloke writing about films.