Business as usual for abusive artists

Opinion

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This article was published 10/02/2015 (3880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Singer Chris Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna the night before the 2009 Grammy Awards and was sentenced to five years probation.

During Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a PSA challenging artists to use their power and influence to help end violence against women and girls.

“Right now, nearly one in five women in America has been a victim of rape or attempted rape, and more than one in four women has experienced some form of domestic violence,” he said in the clip, which is part of the White House’s “It’s On Us” campaign. “It’s not OK and it has to stop.”

“Artists have a unique power to change minds and attitudes and get us thinking and talking about what matters,” he added. “And all of us, in our own lives, have the power to set an example.”

So what kind of an example does it set when R. Kelly and Chris Brown were among the evening’s nominees?

R. Kelly is an alleged sexual predator who has been accused of rape multiple times and was indicted — and later acquitted — on 21 counts of making child pornography. Brown’s been in and out of legal trouble since his assault of Rihanna in 2009. Just last month his probation was revoked for not completing community service in time.

Oh, and let’s not forget Eminem — who once wrote a famous song in which he fantasized about murdering his wife and stuffing her body into the trunk of a car, and who, last year, rapped about punching Lana Del Rey in the face twice “like Ray Rice” — who won rap album of the year. The guy has built an entire career on glorifying violence against women.

The optics are jarring. Here you have the president of the United States acknowledging that America has a big problem — on TV, during a glitzy awards show no less — while famous men who have done, or have been accused of doing, or who have sung about doing terrible things to women are celebrated. Same as it ever was.

The people who don’t believe women who come forward like to wring their hands and lament the ruined lives and careers of accused men. From where I’m sitting, it looks like these men are doing just fine.

Of course, it’s not just these men, on this night. Phil Spector, Tommy Lee, Ozzy Osbourne, James Brown, Axl Rose, Scott Weiland are just a handful of musicians who have been arrested for domestic violence over the years. Then there are the men whose histories of violence against women have been all but erased by their artistic greatness — here’s looking at you, John Lennon.

And then there are all those other famous accused men. Woody Allen. Bill Cosby. Roman Polanski.

A lot of ink has been spilled about the notion of separating the art from the artist. In late 2013, after the Village Voice’s interview with former Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis about the story he almost broke 15 years before — R. Kelly’s sexual predation on teenage girls — I wrote a blog post in which I posed the following questions: “How do you reconcile the fact that your hero is someone else’s villain?” and “Does a great voice or a great movie really have the power to erase someone’s past — or, more troublingly, someone else’s experience?”

No one wants to believe the artists they love are capable of committing violent criminal acts. But they can, and they do. I know I’ve felt disappointed in — and even betrayed by — certain artists in the past. You think you know these people. But the truth is, you don’t.

Obama is right when he says it’s on us to create a culture in which violence isn’t tolerated and survivors are supported. We can choose whether or not we believe those who speak out. We can choose whether or not we continue to support people who have been accused of violence and abuse. We can choose not to separate art from artist because to do so can have consequences. Those are choices we have as people, as fans, as consumers. Those choices are powerful.

I’m glad the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences chose to take a stand against domestic and sexual violence during “music’s biggest night.” I’m glad it chose to give domestic-violence survivor and activist Brooke Axtell the chance to tell her harrowing story to an audience of millions before Katy Perry took the stage to perform By the Grace of God. I’m glad that Obama’s PSA chose to be a call to action, unlike the NFL’s domestic violence PSA that aired the weekend before on that other American institution, the Super Bowl.

Now, if only the Grammys could choose not to celebrate the men who hurt women.

 

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca