Herstory

Why do celebrities and victims of domestic violence like Rihanna continue to glamorize abuse?

Why is the media making domestic violence sexy? Because we are letting them.

They’re using the pictures of a leather-clad Rihanna bumping and grinding on stage, not the pictures where her face is torn up and bruised. If we continue to let these celebrities parade their choices in front of us, then we become immune to the truth about domestic violence.

"What is it about beauty, glamour, talent, death, and tragedy that captures humans so? When they are combined, they create some sort of alchemy that's nearly impossible to deny.

The lives, loves, and losses of these famous people are exaggerated versions of things in our own lives, and the drama does more than intrigue -- it creates a shared sense of nostalgia in which we can each experience our own sorrows and joys in a more distant way which may be disconnected from our own pain but also connects us to one another.

For these reasons stories are powerful, popular and even positive. But when one takes them too far, when one forgets that Natalie was a real person and so her death was real to her and all who love(d) her, and pursues the subject with a fascination which removes the dignity from the souls involved, we are perverse. And this includes the media which banks on such attentions."