Robyn Rihanna Fenty, more commonly known as Rihanna, was born in the island country of Barbados on February 20, 1988. By the age of 15, she had already created a musical group with her school classmates, thus showing early signs of a promising career. She was also a member of the Barbados army cadets where her drill sergeant was popular Carib singer/songwriter Shontelle.
In 2003, record producer Evan Rogers was in Barbados. Friends of Rihanna took the oppurtunity to introduce Rihanna's musical group to him as they believed Rihanna could have had "what it takes". Evan Rogers says of that first encounter "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist.". Throughout the next few months, Rihanna spent most of her time traveling back and forth from Barbados to Connecticut, in order to lay out the plans for her shot at stardom. At the age of 16, Rihanna left Barbados to stay in the U.S. and it was then that she released her hit-single "Pon de Replay". She was an instant success and in the following years she has released hit songs such as "SOS.", "Please Don't Stop the Music", "Shut Up and Drive", "Hate That I Love You", and "Umbrella".
However, as of late, Rihanna has been in the spotlight for much more than her vocal and musical talents. In fact, her music has hardly been up for any discussion as most media enterprises have chosen to focus in on problems occurring in her personal life. The first altercation took place between Rihanna and her then-boyfriend Chris Brown. On February 8, 2009, it has been claimed that Rihanna was physically abused by Chris Brown in a car before the 2009 Grammy Awards. As a result, her performance that night was cancelled, and questions surfaced, demanding the truth. Indeed, Chris Brown had turned himself in promptly after his abuse allegations, however, he also plead non-guilty to charges made against him in a court of law. Rather suspicious...
From the situation, many questions have arisen. The most obvious question is what actually happened on the day of February 8, 2009? This question's answer is probably the most unclear, as many stories have been released by both parties which contain confusing, unbelievable and conflicting information. Some sources have claimed that the violence occurred because of text messages Chris Brown had been receiving. Apparently, Chris Brown had been receiving text messages from another women and Rihanna finally confronted him about it. After Rihanna ousted Brown, a verbal battle ensued which eventually turned physical as it has been claimed that Rihanna was punched, strangled and bitten by Brown. Why was Brown in contact with another women in the first place? He and Rihanna had been in what looked like a loving, happy relationship for quite a long time. Perhaps Chris Brown was not actually happy with his situation and was seeking comfort in another women. Maybe due to the longevity of the relationship, Brown had become bored of Rihanna and was in search of someone more fun. Although many would probably ask the question "who would need anything more than Rihanna", the answer is simple; perhaps Rihanna is not very exciting, maybe even boring.
A second question that came up during the fiasco was "should Rihanna stand up and become an advocator against the physical abuse of women?". Although she was given a great opportunity to become the voice of help to physically abused women everywhere, Rihanna did not seize her chance. In the United States, 25% of women have reported to have been victims of "dating violence" at some point in their lives and so, essentially, Rihanna shattered the hopes of millions of women when she made the decision not to take any action and stand up for abuse victims. In fact, she essentially rubbed salt in the wounds of the victims by becoming entangled in an "on again, off again" status with Chris Brown following the domestic violence incident. Although, it now looks as though the two have permanently parted ways, the pain Rihanna caused people by "getting back together" with Brown, is undoubtedly still there. If one does not believe that Rihanna caused any sadness by "reconciling" with Brown, look at some of the quotes left on blogs displaying headlines such as "They're Back Together", "Reconciled", and so on...
"Does she come from an abusive family? She has now fallen into the cycle of the abused girlfriend. She believes he'll change. He won't. The next time will be worse, and it will continue to get worse until she's killed or nearly so, or he's hauled off to jail." Posted by: Carol | February 27, 2009 at 08:40 PM
"How sad.
She has no self esteem and no respect for herself.
I am no longer a fan of hers as she sent the wrong message to females everywhere.
She just made what this loser did, ok."Posted by: Jenna | February 27, 2009 at 09:04 PM
(for more comments, visit the link http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/02/rihanna-and-chr.html)
Putting the domestic abuse case aside, Rihanna has been making even more headlines with her newly found nude pictures. In May 2009, photos of a nude, for lack of a more politically correct word, black woman were released onto the internet. Although in the completely nude shots, one does not actually see the person's face, photos simultaneously released with them feature Rihanna's face. This fact led many people to the conclusion that the photos are indeed of Rihanna. From this incident, we also find questions arising.
A very early question is, are these photos actually of Rihanna? We might never know with the technology that exists today. Perhaps the photos were hacked off Rihanna's (or even Chris Browns) cell phones or computers. Maybe, the photos were accidently sent to the wrong person, and they took it upon themselves to spread the pictures to the world. Furthermore, maybe the pictures are not of Rihanna at all. In a world where photo manipulation is so easy and accessible, a skilled photoshop artist could have easily created the illusion that the person in the pictures is Rihanna. With today's complex technology, this question could possibly be the hardest one to answer.
A second question relating to the photographs is, who was responsible? As aforementioned, the photographs could have possibly been hacked by a person with no life. Honestly, don't people have other things to do than to disrupt people's lives by breaking into their personal life? Anyways, in response to his bad wrap due to the Rihanna violence controversy, perhaps Brown released these photos to get revenge on the Barbadian Princess! During the violence controversy, Chris Brown had been painted as America's bad guy, and as a result he lost sponsors and had his record sales drop tremendously. He may have wanted to get some revenge on Rihanna for her part in his demise. The preceeding theory is very plausible, as photos containing Chris Brown were simultaneously released with the Rihanna photos. Interestingly, the tables could just as easily be turned. Rihanna herself could have been seeking revenge on Brown and thus took it upon herself to release the photos. She maybe wanted to make Chris Brown jealous by reminding him that she is no longer his. By releasing "what was once his" to the world, he would not feel as special as he had once felt, as now everyone can "see" Rihanna.
As one can easily see, through the exposure of the Media, many wild and confusing incidents can arise. If we did not have entertainment mediums such as television, the internet, radio, etc., it is undoubtable that Rihanna would not have received as much exposure as she did. For most celebrities, it is safe to say that they are not satisfied with the Hollywood spotlight, and thus their personal lives must attract the spotlight as well. Personally, I do not believe that people should mix the world of reality with the world of entertainment. In my opinion, celebrities should just be for singing, acting, dancing etc., rather than for creating controversies and influencing the personal lives of people. However, since the Media has so much power, it is inevitable that these two worlds are going to constantly be overlapping, and so an intelligent person should have the knowledge to understand what is right and what is wrong, what is real and what is "make-believe".
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