What apparently began as a domestic squabble turned into the worse day in the lives and careers of one of the music industry’s famous power couples – but it also helped illuminate a situation for millions of women and girls living in America. News reports on the radio, television, and Internet informed audiences of the beating, biting and menacing that occurred on February 8, 2009. Pop singer Robyn Rihanna Fenty, 20, became another victim of domestic violence as she was brutally attacked by boyfriend, and R&B singer, Chris Brown, 19.
Both artists were scheduled to perform the evening of the incident at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, but 45 minutes before the show, the Recording Academy, issued a statement informing the audience that they will not be performing that evening.
“I remember when I first heard about the incident on the radio, I was in shock,” said Alvaro Castellanos, 25, a senior majoring in civil engineering at City College in Manhattan. “What had occurred between the couple seemed like a scene in a movie. I had heard he bit her on the ear, punched her in the face, and choked her,” said Castellanos.
It was no movie. Brown has been charged with two felonies, a sentence that could result in him spending the next four years in prison. On March 5 Brown received a court order from the Los Angeles Court where Brown appear for his next court hearing, “not to harass, molest, threaten, or use forced violence against anyone,” according to a March 6, 2009 Rolling Stones article written by Daniel Kreps.
Celebrity incidents like this shows that domestic violence is non-discriminative, that it can occur to anyone, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion. As a victim and survivor of a violent domestic relationship, also known as spousal violence, relationship, Maria Villacreses 45, currently working as an at home babysitter in Queens, recalled coming to this country at the age of 25, with her ex-husband, and two kids, Luis, 4, and Myriam, 3. “ I remember the days I spent at police stations as a safe haven for me and my kids after being hit and beat by my husband,” said Villacreses.
Her ex-husband made all the money, and her job was to stay home and take care of the kids. She was afraid to leave him because she had no one to turn to. Villacreses knew that it would be hard, but she recalled just waking up one day, and decided that she wasn’t going to put up with the violence anymore, that it was no longer safe for her, and her kids. So she packed her bags, walked out the door and never looked back.
Many women in a situation like Villacreses find it extremely difficult to leave on their own. Many trapped in violent relationships find it much easier to forgive their abusers. They rarely find a way out of the relationship as they are afraid of their partners, afraid their partners might harm themselves if they left them, or, after a while, begin to believe that thei harmful actions are out of love.
These are the women Safe Horizon, a non-profit organization, aims to help. For over 25 years, Safe Horizon has provided domestic violence victims with support, assistance, safety planning, and emotional support for victims. Safe Horizon describes battering as “relationship abuse, or intimate partner violence, a pattern of behavior used to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence.”
The Clothesline Project, which began in 1990 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, also tries to helps women by allowing survivors and victims to express their feelings and emotions. It is a, “visual representation of what occurs to people who are victims of domestic violence,” said Alicia Czachowski, coordinator of Health Services at Hunter.
The Clothesline Project also serves as a healing tool for victims and inform those who are silent victims in domestic abuse relationships that “ Silence is Part of the Problem, Speak Out & Loud, Sexual Assault is not right and is worth the Fight,” as stated by one of many messages written on a T-shirt. “Hunter College has been part of the project for the past three to four years, and is a national arts project done in many universities around the country,” said Czachowski.
Tzivia Margolis, 31, a senior, majoring in media studies with a minor in women and gender studies, wrote on a T-shirt that she designed last year, Speak to me with your words, and not your hands. She recalled that plaintive creation she donated last year as she looked at the T-shirts made by this year’s contributors to the Clothesline Project. Those creations were displayed along the bridge connecting the Hunter North and West buildings during the Sexual Assault and Sexual Health Awareness week, March 16-18, 2009.
“I feel that domestic violence is unacceptable,” said Christian Maldonado, 21, a senior majoring in computer science, at LaGuardia Community College, in Queens. Christian said that no male should ever put his hands on a woman. “I feel that Chris Brown should do the time for the crime, but because he is a celebrity he will be able to get away with it,” said Maldonado.
He also said, “I think its stupid that he makes, they – Rihanna and Brown – make it seem like its okay, but its really not.” Maldonado, who has a younger sister, Leslie, 14, said, “ If that – domestic violence – would ever happen to my sister I would take care of him myself, and if she were to take him back, like Rihanna did, I would go crazy.”
But he also said if one of his best buddies beat up a girlfriend, he would be there to support his buddy.