It’s been a “cover girl” year for Rihanna. Literally. Over the past 10 months, the Bajan superstar snagged the covers of Rolling Stone, Vogue UK, Glamour, GQ, and most recently, Esquire magazine, which named her this year’s “Sexiest Woman Alive.”
The glamorous shots almost make it easy to forget the horrific police photo taken of her two and a half years ago — almost. But even after two hit albums, two world tours and countless chart-topping singles, she inevitably ends up answering a question about — him: Chris Brown.
In Esquire, she says:
“It’s incredible to see how he pulled out of it the way he did. Even when the world seemed like it was against him, you know? I really like the music he’s putting out. I’m a fan of his stuff. I’ve always been a fan. Obviously, I had some resentment toward him for a while, for obvious reasons. But I’ve put that behind me. It was taking up too much of my time. It was too much anger. I’m really excited to see the breakthrough he’s had in his career. I would never wish anything horrible for him. Never. I never have.”
‘Why is she still talking about him?’ fans and pop culture-watchers ask. ‘She’s her own star now. Why won’t she move on?’
But the problem isn’t that Rihanna can’t quit Chris Brown — it’s that we won’t let her.
In the Esquire interview, the reporter says asking the Chris Brown question is like scratching a needle “across a record,” though Rihanna, barely batting an eyelash, responds diplomatically. It’s also notable that Rihanna can respond in such a fashion, because while two years may seem like an eternity in the entertainment world, it’s barely enough time to recalibrate for many survivors of domestic violence.
Compare Rihanna to another superstar with a similar past — Tina Turner. For years, she suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her husband and svengali, Ike Turner, until she was able to escape in 1976. But fans never knew of the abuse until ten years later, when she published her autobiography, I, Tina (which later became the basis for the 1993 film, What’s Love Got to Do With It).
The year her book came out, Tina was interviewed by Ebony magazine, and even then, a decade after leaving the man who said he planned to kill her, she spoke diplomatically about their marriage:
“I learned something from Ike. I learned to be strong. I learned patience, endurance. I learned a lot from Ike, as the type of businessman that he was. There were just two sides: He was a violent man, and he had no control… But aside from that, he did well for us in the early days.”
She even permitted her co-writer, journalist Kurt Loder, to interview Ike for the book, saying it was only fair to include his side of the story. But did she want to keep in touch with him? “No,” Tina responded in 1986. “It’s too soon.”
When Ike Turner died in 2007, reporters still wanted to hear what Tina had to say about him. Her camp responded with a simple statement: “Tina hasn’t had any contact with Ike in more than 30 years. No further comment will be made.”
Tina Turner has been largely able to shed the mantle of being a high-profile victim of domestic violence by focusing on her career, finding love with a long-time beau and becoming a pop legend worldwide. Rihanna seems poised to follow in the same footsteps, if her world tours and numerous magazine covers are any indication. She’s spoken out as a survivor with her provocative-yet-powerful video, “Man Down,” and is now a tourism ambassador for her home country, Barbados. Given the time, she could easily shed the title of “Chris Brown’s battered ex-girlfriend” — if we only let her.
