Ralston Valley [e]Xpress Newspaper

The night of February 8 was for most people an ordinary Sunday night. But for pop star Rihanna, it was almost an end to her life.

As most everyone with access to the celebrity gossip community knows, Chris Brown has been charged with 2 felonies for his actions against Rihanna February 8. It seems obvious from pictures released of Rihanna right after the attack, that he should have an easy conviction; and show hundreds of teens that their abusive partners will not get away with what they are doing. Right? Wrong; not only has Brown pleaded “not guilty”, but a poll taken by the Boston Public Health Commission showed that nearly half of 200 teens interviewed, believe the beatings were Rihanna’s fault; that she “deserved” them.

More startling statistics show that 52 percent of the teens thought the media was portraying Brown unfairly, while 44 percent believe the fighting is only a “normal part of the relationship”. How very depressing.

Have we really come to a place in our history in which domestic violence is accepted? It is simply overlooked? Do people in this day and age actually believe that this kind of primitive behavior is OK? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

Domestic violence is still very prevalent in our modern day society. It is estimated by the National Institute of Justice Study, that approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men annually are physically assaulted by an intimate partner in the United States. Worldwide, one in three women will be a victim of domestic violence.

And with all of these startling statistics, half of the youth of America believe it is simply a normal part of life. One teen interviewed by the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalition (DVSAC) jokingly said it was “to keep them in their place”. His cavalier attitude towards the subject shows how this is not taken as a serious problem to many people. It is something to joke about and laugh about and even participate in.

Why has this become such an accepted part of relationships now-a-days? It is certainly not due to lack of organizations or lack of people who know about it, because in both categories there are plenty of people. One contributing factor is most definitely the celebrity world. Even after the pictures of the beaten Rihanna were released, hundreds of teens still support him. All claiming that he did nothing wrong, and in the case of 9th graders in the Bronx, saying: “she probably made him mad for him to react like that … You know, like, bring it on?”

No one, ever, deserves this kind of treatment, for any reason. It doesn’t matter if they’re “bringing it on” or doing nothing to encourage it at all. People need to realize now that domestic violence is not a joke, should not be accepted and should not be so lightly discussed. This is a serious problem that for some reason is becoming a normal part of people’s lives, with any luck, the attention to the issue brought by the celebrity world will help to decrease and eliminate the problem.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence in any form, contact the National Teen Dating Abuse Help hotline at 1-866-331-9474.