The National Coalition For Men just released a statement in light of Rihanna’s public discussion of the domestic violence incident between her and Chris Brown. The coalition thinks that if Chris Brown should be held accountable for assaulting Rihanna, then Rihanna also needs to come clean about her history of violence.
LOS ANGELES/EWORLDWIRE/Nov. 5, 2009 — Pop singer Rihanna recently made a widely publicized statement to Glamour Magazine that she wants to “shed light on the reality of domestic violence.” The National Coalition For Men (NCFM) calls on Rihanna to discuss her own reported violence against Brown as well if she wants to shed light on the problem honestly.
According to court records and other sources, Rihanna struck Brown in the face “numerous times” before Brown assaulted her (‘http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/768865/rihanna-hit-chris-brow…’). NCFM purports although that would not justify his more severe assault, her violence should not be ignored, and if she does not “woman up” to it then her message will be the usual one-sided double standards that leave female perpetration covered up.
The saying, “There is no excuse for domestic violence,” applies to both sexes. Female violence in relationships is not rare but is often hypocritically deemed acceptable or humorous, such as in the film, Sideways. It is part of the cycle of domestic violence, which cannot be stopped without addressing the problem honestly. Children are damaged just by witnessing domestic violence, regardless of its severity.
A 32-nation study by the University of New Hampshire found women are as violent and as controlling as men in relationships worldwide (‘http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2006/may/em_060519male.cfm?type=n’,
‘http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID41E2.pdf’).A major study funded by the Centers for Disease Control found one-fourth of heterosexual relationships had violence and: “half (49.7%) of those were reciprocally violent. In nonreciprocally violent relationships, women were the perpetrators in more than 70% of the cases.” (‘http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/5/941′)
The same study also found “while injury was more likely when violence was perpetrated by men, in relationships with reciprocal violence it was the men who were injured more often (25% of the time) than were women (20% of the time).” (‘http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a’)
Over 200 studies now confirm the same thing, that “women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners,” as California State University Professor Martin Fiebert shows in his online bibliography at ‘http://www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm’. This data is more reliable than criminal justice data because men are less likely to report the violence or to respond positively to crime surveys because society still does not consider female violence as much of a crime.
If Rihanna sincerely wants to raise awareness about domestic violence, NCFM calls on her to be forthcoming about her own violence and to address the problem honestly.
Click here to learn how to break free from domestic violence
