Rihanna Takes On The “Spokeswoman For Domestic-Violence Survivors” Role

noah | November 5, 2009 11:00 am
This morning’s Good Morning America showed the first snippet of Rihanna’s interview with Diane Sawyer, her first sit-down chat with a reporter since the February pre-Grammys incident in which she was assaulted by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown. And it’s a pretty gripping—if somewhat quease-inducing—part of the discussion to lead off with, as Rihanna talks about how she now feels embarrassed to have fallen for Brown, what led her back to him in the immediate aftermath of the incident (complete with statistic-citing), and how she finally decided to break things off with him for good. The part where she says “Eff love” will probably be quoted the most out of context, but the words surrounding it are, I think, the real message that she wants to send out to young women involved in abusive relationships:

When I realized that my selfish decision for love could result in some young girl getting killed, I could not be easy with that part. I couldn’t be held responsible for telling them, “Go back.” Even if Chris never hit me again, who’s to say that their boyfriend won’t, that their boyfriend won’t kill these girls? These are young girls and I just didn’t realize how much of an impact I had on these girls’ lives until that happened… It was a wake up call for me, big-time, especially when I took myself out of the situation and I’ll say that to any young girl who’s going through domestic violence: “Don’t react off of love. Eff love. Come out of the situation and look at it third-person for what it really is, and then make your decision. Because love is so blind.”

It’s important to remember through all of this, I think, that Rihanna is really young—she only turned 21 shortly after the incident—and the amount of scrutiny she had to deal with is sorta mind-boggling to me. (I have to wonder if it played any role in the guilt that she clearly still feels over the whole thing, what with the Shame Patrol constantly being on watch in the blogosphere these days.) Anyway, the interview’s being spooled out over the next few days, as you may have surmised from the sorta-lurid way that Diane Sawyer presaged Rihanna’s description of what happened nine months ago. I am now intrigued enough to add tomorrow night’s 20/20 to the old DVR—although, as Miss Info pointed out, if “F Love” becomes a single in the next few weeks, ugh. Rihanna on Good Morning America [YouTube via Miss Info]