Let’s face it, we are still fascinated by this crazy Rihanna-Chris Brown relationship, it’s voyeurism encouraged by both of them, as they can’t stop tweeting pictures of themselves. Over Thanksgiving weekend, Rihanna flew to Germany to spend some time with Brown and posted a few pictures (like this one) calling him ‘baby’ and ‘lover’, undeniably demonstrating some reconciliation…. Let’s just notice that this girl tweets the hell out of her happy reunion and then complains that ‘the world hasn’t let go’. But this is not my point, my point is, if she was able to forgive him, why can’t we?
There is a weird phenomenon going on there, and the public is divided into two camps, the ones who find her to be a stupid attention whore, and the ones who applause and say it’s not our business: she is a good girl who has rightly forgiven her man.
Forgiveness! God forgives and so should we…. Right! But that’s the thing, forgiveness is a totally overrated feeling, it is this crazy Christian thing to do: forgive anyone, whatever this person has done to you.
In the past, we have forgiven many wife/girlfriend beaters, and we let it go, but this story doesn't go away. Our fascination for the duo is a mixture of fame and voyeurism, and the fact that Brown hasn’t truly show any remorse, at least publicly, activates the hatred. These two are like a reflection on forgiveness and its terrible consequences.
Brown doesn’t want to be forgiven, because it would be the equivalent to recognize he has done something wrong, and in his crazy mind (and Rihanna’s), he believes he has just done ‘a mistake’, not a felony.
Rihanna wants to forgive him, not because it looks like the commonly regarded right thing to do but because it is the new commodity for her. She goes back to where she was, being half of the most successful couple of the moment.
However, the world hasn’t totally forgiven Brown. Just last month, Nivea Cosmetics dropped Rihanna as a spokesperson whereas they paid her $25 million in 2011! Forbes magazine reported that Rihanna’s huge endorsement deal with Nivea ‘had pushed her to the number three spot in the publication’s ranking of the 30 richest celebrities under 30’ and that her ‘Nivea deal alone was nearly half of her annual pay’. Stefan Heidenreich, the head of Nivea’s parent company, Beiersdorf, told German media, ‘I do not understand how Nivea can be brought into association with Rihanna, Nivea is a company which stands for trust, family and reliability.’
Isn’t it a paradox? Rihanna acts like a good girl, shows compassion, gives a second chance, but is punished for it? Actually Nivea is one of the few companies which got it right, the rest of the world rewards them with Grammy and top sales, and Brown fans defend him to death – just a few days ago many wanted to kill comedian Jenny Johnson for attacking Brown on Twitter.
The problem is that these two use the term forgiveness like a product, they are two materialistic kids who offer themselves expensive gifts and these new series of Instagram pictures are the best ones. Rihanna poses as the forgiving girlfriend, Chris Brown as the remorseless bastard and they ride their image and laugh at us.
But some of us, like Nivea, are not fooled as we know that very often forgiveness isn’t the moral thing to do, forgiveness is just an alibi to serve what people want to achieve,…in this case fame, money and sex!