Why is the Australian entertainment industry still supporting Chris Brown?

THIS year we’re going to allow a convicted domestic violence abuser to perform on the biggest stages in our country. Why are people still supporting Chris Brown?

Why are we celebrating this criminal?

OPINION

This December we’re going to allow a convicted domestic violence abuser, a homophobe and a misogynist who promotes rape culture to visit our shores.

Furthermore, we’re going to put him on the biggest stages in the country for shows that will be promoted by some of the most influential mainstream media outlets in Australia.

Yep, American R & B singer Chris Brown has announced yet another Australian arena tour which will be supported by Nova FM — and I believe it’s time for entertainment executives and promoters to stop turning a blind eye to his (and his contemporaries) monstrous behaviour in favour of earning a soulless dollar. It’s time for the industry to take a definitive stand against these types of musicians.

In 2009 Brown was involved in a highly-publicised altercation with his then girlfriend Rihanna which left her with horrific facial contusions and bruises. It resulted in several radio stations boycotting his music, and a cancelled performance at the Grammys. Brown later stated that the night was “a blur” and blamed his actions on a childhood where domestic violence in the household was common. Unfortunately the backlash was short-lived and the music industry pressed on with his career by sweeping these proceedings under the rug.

In 2012 he then tweeted that Cher was a “GRANNY b**ch” who “needs a beating”. He blamed the tweet on a hacker after receiving widespread criticism.

In 2009 Chris Brown pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years’ probation for assaulting Rihanna.

Brown is also rampantly homophobic, even when it comes to his fans. In 2013, he was convicted of assault when he broke the nose of Parker Isaac Adams after he requested to get a joint photo. Adams told police that Brown said to him “I’m not down with that gay s**t.” A similar occurrence allegedly transpired when the openly gay man Lucas Peter attempted to retrieve an autograph from Brown. “His bodyguard stopped me and said Chris wouldn’t be signing,” Peter told Radar Online. “That’s when Chris stopped in the garage by the parking pay stand and yelled ‘f***ot’ at me,” Peter claimed. Brown denies the exchange ever took place.

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Brown’s history of slurs when using homosexuality as a pejorative, with the most recent coming after reports that Brown replied “no homo” when asked to comment on Frank Ocean’s statement that he’d had a relationship with a man.

Chris Brown’s lyrics aren’t much better than his rap sheet. Photo: Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

Then there’s the blatant misogyny within his music that projects the ideology that women are worthless and the only purpose they serve is for the sexual gratification of men. Take these lyrics for example: “Hey little mama all that a** in them pants drop it like you’re single even though you got a man”, “You would think we in a waterbed all the sheets are soaked,” and “Two girls and one champ, no is not an option”.

We live in a society that is slowly taking action to curb violence, misogyny and homophobia. If Tyler, The Creator was banned from touring for his lyricism alone, if Triple J discontinued to play songs by Bliss N Eso after they made jokes about domestic violence on Instagram, surely we should be doing the same if not more severe for a man who acts in these manners within real life?

If the entertainment industry of Australia has any soul they should cancel his upcoming tour to send a clear and powerful message that the type of behaviour that Brown openly promotes and engages in is depraved, poisonous and utterly intolerable.

An Image supplied by the promoter of Chris Brown’s Australian tour.

Tyson Wray is a writer and editor from Melbourne. Follow him on Twitter @tysonwray

Originally published as Why is the Australian entertainment industry still supporting Chris Brown?