The brave, bold step that Rihanna took last Friday by deciding to speak honestly, openly and frankly about the vicious assault she suffered at the hands of her ex-lover, Chris Brown, has paid off in multiples.
1) It has given a voice to an issue that hasn't always been front page news: Teenage dating violence. When one thinks of domestic violence, it's usually in the context of a husband beating his wife. But Rihanna's situation is shedding light on an issue of boyfriends, really YOUNG boyfriends, treating their girlfriends like rag dolls while the girls suffer in silence. No more. Thanks to Rihanna's courageous decision to speak out, there was a 59 percent increase in calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Now that's change you can believe in.
2) It got all of the icky stuff out of the way. Now that Rihanna has faced the music, so to speak, and answered all the questions about that night, she can comfortably move forward with the business of promoting her new album "Rated R." If any interviewer is determined to harp on the unpleasant incident, she can politely refer them to her answers in the Sawyer interview. By leaving no question unanswered, Rihanna has saved herself many a potentially uncomfortable media interview. Janet Jackson, are you taking notes?
3) It made Chris Brown look like even more of a jerk. Not because the details of the evening were dragged out, but because Rihanna was able to open up and explain to the world her pain and her experience in a humane way. Chris on the other hand, insists of regurgitating rehearsed answers and trite scripts which make him come across as neither apologetic or serious. In nearly every interview about the assault, he's been saying the same things, "I'm sorry. I don't know why this happened. I love my fans. I don't wanna talk about what happened that night. Can you play my song?"
