Should violent abuser Chris Brown be playing Hampden Stadium?

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

This missed opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue about accountability comes at a time when Glasgow is in the throes of a deepening crisis for women's safety. Instances of domestic abuse are up by 41 per cent, rapes increased by 41 per cent, and sexual assault has risen by 28 per cent, according to the most recent data from the Safe Glasgow Partnership.
Every time I hear Chris Brown's name, I think back to a camera at the Grammys in 2009 panning to two empty seats, their vacancy eerie and unsettling. I think of how a young Rihanna's eyebrows are gently knitting together, holding back tears while her swollen face, black and blue, is photographed after her boyfriend, then 19, punched her repeatedly while driving a Lamborghini.
Many of his fans will tell you that Rihanna has forgiven him, and so should we. Or 'seriously, the Rihanna thing happened like 15 years ago and he has apologised a million times'. But the violent incidents and string of allegations only started with Rihanna; they didn't end there. A documentary released last year, Chris Brown: A History of Violence, details the seemingly endless controversies, including numerous accusations of alleged sexual assault and a rape allegation. In 2017, Brown's ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran filed a restraining order, alleging that the singer repeatedly harassed her, punched her, and threatened to kill her and her friends.
Brown kicked off his Breezy Bowl XX tour in Manchester earlier this week, a month after he was arrested in the city for an alleged bottle attack at the Tape nightclub in Mayfair in 2023. He spent a week in HMP Forest Bank, whom he thanked for being 'really nice' before performing to around 20,000 fans on Sunday night.
Team Breezy, as his fans are known, are fiercely loyal. They will claim that Brown is Michael Jackson reincarnated, that he is the "king of R&B". They will wax lyrical about separating art from the artist. But we are living in an era with more music than ever before. It's easier to make, listen to, and discover. Something like 120,000 new tracks are uploaded to streaming services each day, according to a Luminate report from 2023. That is to say, the world is not short of options. Listening to Chris Brown is a choice.
Glasgow Women's Aid said in a statement that Chris Brown 'should not be welcome in Glasgow' and asked what his concert says about our priorities. 'Time and time again, we see the entertainment industry turn a blind eye to abuse when profit is involved. Venues and sponsors claim to stand against violence against women but continue to hand a mic to men who harm.'
The voluntary organisation called on promoters and venues to consider the impact of whom they choose to platform. They also said that fans should reflect on what they are supporting with their money and that politicians should have more of a voice when it comes to performers who have been charged with violent crimes. 'Abuse should have consequences,' they added. 'Glasgow is better than this.'
I have been trying to unpack where it is I stand with this. Am I disappointed in DF Concerts for promoting Brown's gig? Or the tens of thousands of fans in the city and beyond who line his pockets with their ticket purchases? Or the political elites who have turned a blind eye to Brown while claiming Kneecap 'crossed a line'? Should someone pull the plug on the gig? What does that mean for free speech?
Nearly every woman that I know, myself included, has been on the receiving end of men's sexual violence in some form or another. In terms of severity, these incidents vary greatly. Because formal institutions like the police and the courts have a history of failing survivors of abuse, the desire to hold someone to account in any way possible can be intoxicating. When it has happened to me, I have felt blinded by my desire to get justice and crippled by gut-wrenching feeling that it will never happen.
Part of the problem is that as woman, what was meant to be our big movement, our big moment, went horribly wrong. Whitewashing everything with the same hashtag (#MeToo) had a flattening effect. It painted someone dog-whistling at you on the street with the same brush as rape. It also made us hyper-aware of what would be considered appropriate or inappropriate, and sometimes people got it wrong. But it seems like now, the middle has fallen out. And some people are so sick of walking on eggshells that they have just decided to give up thinking about these things altogether.
Since the #MeToo movement there has been a cultural shift, a regression. Misogyny is creeping back into the mainstream. It often feels like a scary and hostile time to be a woman. I think part of this comes down to stripping nuance out of situations, which has in turn resulted in a chilling effect where it becomes so loaded to talk about something on a deeper level that we just stopped talking about it at all.
Cancel culture is an illusion. It flattens complex situations, which in turn can strip someone of the opportunity to learn and grow. And while I don't believe in cancel culture, I do believe in accountability culture. And Brown does not come across to me as someone who has ever learned from his violent and disgusting mistakes.
Chris Brown's stadium show is a great opportunity to have a conversation about what we as a city think is acceptable behaviour. And the silence speaks volumes.
Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it's free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1