(
warning: graphic content) Yesterday, news satire site The Onion, published
an article entitled "Heartbroken Chris Brown Always Thought Rihanna Was the Woman He'd Beat to Death." In the article, Chris Brown said in a fabricated interview, "Despite all the ups and downs, I was so sure Rihanna was the one I'd take by the throat one day and fatally assault, and even toward the end I continued to hold out hope that we'd be together until the day she died at my hands from blunt-force trauma."
The article was met with much
controversy through social networks such as Twitter and Tumblr. This is not the first time that The Onion has got in hot water for jokes at the expense of black women. On the night of the Oscars, they referred to child actress Quvenzhané Wallis as the c-word. These two controversial articles beg the questions: how far can satire go before it provokes this kind of public reaction? Is comedy completely untouchable when it comes to offensive content? The latest Onion misffire also cannot be looked at without taking into account the problematic race-based media narrative surrounding Chris Brown.
 |
| A reaction on Twitter to the Onion article |
 |
One reaction, on Tumblr, to the Onion article
|
Yesterday's article is so controversial, not because it makes fun of Chris Brown, who has been a target of jokes by The Onion and by Twitter comedians for a long time. People are upset because The Onion is using violence against women (or more specifically Rihanna's death) as fodder for making fun of Chris Brown. This kind of portrayal conveys the attitude black women are disposable, whose death can be utilized just to make a point that Chris Brown is a monster. The article itself is very graphic, which is saying that violence against women is a laughing matter.
However, many defend The Onion because of the site's satirical nature. The top commenter on the
Buzzfeed piece about the backlash to the article, wrote, "The Onion has built it's name on over-the-edge satire. If you don't like it, don't read it. Also, what does this have to do with race? The Onion never mentioned race or anything about it in the short article. The people who are putting a racial connotation in this article are the real racists. And let's not make the Onion the bad guy. It's Chris Brown who is the woman beater." The comment has garnered an impressive 55 "likes", which imply agreement.
This kind of comment begs the question if any offensive thing can just be easily written off by saying "it's satire!" The effects of comedy on creating a dangerous culture have previously been written about on this blog
here. I would argue that this is a very dangerous argument because by positioning comedy as this untouchable realm, where nobody should get offended, it takes something away from those who have experienced violence against women. Sites like the Onion, should be responsible for their content and the argument "its satire" is thin at best, especially when it demeans violence against women, and women of color.
As for the old and tired argument that "if you see something as racist, than you are the racist", which the Buzzfeed commenter presents, that is absolutely untrue. It is not a coincidence that both Quvenzhané Wallis and Rihanna are women of color, and they are both being treated as disposable or sexualized. We can also look at the media narrative surrounding Chris Brown for more information about how the situation is undoubtedly connected to race.
In a
great article, Ayesha Siddiqi, explores how Chris Brown is perceived by both the media and the public. While there is no doubt that what Brown did to Rihanna was awful and unforgivable, Siddiqi discusses how making jokes about Brown has become "a cross between being a meme and a national hobby, with all the depth of the former and the level of engagement of the latter." In other words, it's become very cool (while also remaining, very easy) to make Brown into a punchline.
 |
|
Siddiqi also writes about how race plays a factor in the treatment of Chris Brown. "While a slew of white celebrities have assaulted women with not so much as a footnote on their IMDB pages, Brown’s constant defamation has become a drone as common to the Internet as making fun of Nickelback." In a concrete example, Siddiqi compares Brown to Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen, who has a long list of domestic violence offenses, is often treated, not as angry or evil, but as "troubled and eccentric—he's been roasted on Comedy Central, he went on a stand-up tour, a Fiat Abarth commercial fictionalized his house arrest complete with cheering models, and his post-Two And A Half Men sitcom got a 100-episode order from FX."
Again, we must be careful to admit that analyzing the media narrative surrounding Chris Brown, is not at all the same thing as condoning the attack. In the same vein, condemning the Onion story is not the same as being "humorless." It's a sad shame that violence against women is considered something to laugh about, when it affects so many women every day. The Onion has done great, funny work, but they should really be ashamed of themselves for this one.
Yours in Advocacy,
Ella Mintz
Sources:
