Under my umbella-ella-ella... What the almighty fuck!?

Just a warning: I'm about to flip my ever loving shit.

During the first week or two of this Rihanna and Chris Brown thing, I was making light of the situation, making inappropriate jokes, and watching TV reports on the story. Now, after I've had some time to digest this Rihanna and Chris Brown thing, it is driving me up the fucking wall. To the point that I'm changing the channel on my TV, avoiding magazines articles and ignoring links to the latest "Rihanna/Chris Brown" news.

I want to make one thing clear; the fact that a woman was assaulted by her boyfriend is a serious issue. And it happens every fucking day, to woman every where. The fact that this 21 year old pop star was assaulted does not matter! It doesn't matter! Fuck her and fuck him.

Now, again, I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying. No man/boy should ever put his hands on a woman/girl. I'm pretty much pissed that everyone is making a big deal out of this single incident, while ignoring the plight of physically, emotionally and sexually abused and assaulted women EVERY FUCKING DAY.

At first I wanted to talk about this on a global scale, but that's a bit too much to process, because when you look at violence against women around the world Amnesty International states that: "At least 1 out of every 3 women has been beaten, forced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime."

Now that is a pretty intense stat. So I figured I'd stay away from global data.

I'd research Canadian data, after all we're a first world country, part of the G8, 'beacon of human rights', our numbers should be statistically dramatically lower. (How many of you are shaking your heads at the idea that violence against women would be significantly lower in Canada?)

"Half of Canadian women (51%) have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16." (Statistics Canada)

They used the age of 16 because under that age Stats Canada considered it child abuse, so the 51% doesn't take into account the number of women abused and assaulted before the age of 16. But lets stop thinking of that data as a bunch of numbers and think of it as people. Quickly think about 4 women in your life above the age of 15; your mother, your friends, your sister(s), your girlfriend. Actually pick four names right now.
Now assign those 4 people numbers from 1-4. It's easy, have you done it? Okay.
Now understand and accept the reality that number 2 and number 4 have been physically assaulted or sexually abused since the age of 16 at least once.

It's a bit different when you put faces you know, on an issue.

Let me hit you with another idea.

"Women are 3 times more likely than men to be physically injured by spousal violence and 5 times more likely to require medical attention" (Stats Can)

And this is only the women that reported injury and/or sought medical attention.

"Almost 40% of women assaulted by spouses said their children witnessed the violence against them and in many cases the violence was severe. (Stats Can)

That's right, we're fucking up women, and teaching that behaviour to our children. :)

I don't think that I can accurately communicate to you the level of mounting emotion I have for this subject. I can give you pages of statistics regarding the amount of women killed by their boyfriend/common-law/husband. The amount of women choked, beaten, thrown, and raped by their male partners, family members, someone they know or complete strangers. But we don't have that kind of time.

If the allegations are true about Chris Brown, and this little fucker punching his girlfriend, or whatever they're reporting today; then fuck him and the horse he rode in on. But also, fuck the media. Fuck me. And most definitely, Fuck you! Yes, you the reader. Fuck you for buying that magazine because there was new information about Rihanna/Chris Brown. Fuck you for talking to people about how tragic or horrible this whole Rihanna/Chris Brown thing has been, while doing nothing about violence in your own fucking community/area/family/life. Cause if you know someone, that is in a violent relationship they can't seem to get out of, and you've given up on them, or you simply ignore it. Then most definitely fuck you.

This media horror show that has become Rihanna and Chris Brown is not an isolated incident.

It's a global phenomenon that funnels down to the men and women you know personally. Because you know people that have been the victim of shit like this, you know the perpetrators of shit like this, you are the victim of shit like this, and/or you are the perpetrator of shit like this. There are no neutral parties in this. We are all responsible, and we will continue to be until we make that change.

Until we make it crystal clear to our children that under no circumstance do you hit a women. Until we create real, strong and sustainable support systems that work for women. Until we decide to seek help or counselling if we know we have a history of violence in our family; whether you were a victim of it, or experienced it. Until we decide to break the cycle, your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your daughter, will continue to live the reality of physical or sexual abuse at least once in their live from the age of 16.

It's literally up to you.