If you follow entertainment news in even the most cursory way, you heard about pop singer Rihanna's beating at the hands of R & B artist Chris Brown, just hours before they were scheduled to perform at the Grammy Awards earlier this month. And yesterday, after a police photograph showing Rihanna with cuts and bruises on her face was leaked to the media, the story was back in the news.
Listen to CNN's Kiran Chetry's take, and her guest's casual agreement, on what effect a criminal trial for Brown might have on Rihanna's future:
CHETRY: Also the questions for her moving forward. I mean does she want, you know, the stigma moving forward as a one-time victim of abuse, if this indeed turns out to be proven?
GUEST: Yeah, that's right. And it, you know, it sort of marks her career that she'll just be remembered for this rather than her own talents.
Why would being the victim of domestic violence prompt Chetry to discuss the "stigma" attached, except to imply that the victim was somehow to blame? Do we use such terminology about victims in a robbery? When a man beats up another man?
When did it become okay to suggest that victims of this kind of violence somehow "asked for it"?