I LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE

A dear friend of mine today "Tweeted" me in regards to the song, "I Love the Way You Lie", by Eminem and Rihanna. To my understanding, the song was/is believed to be embracing or dancing around issues of domestic violence. So naturally I logged onto iTunes and thus, I speak now or forever hold my peace about it:

My initial thoughts before watching the video (YouTube) and listening to this song (iTunes) was that, with Rihanna apart of this project, it must be about raising awareness of domestic violence. Due to her countless interviews regarding the alleged physical and emotional abuse she endured in her relationship with R&B superstar, Chris Brown. I admit, I'm not all the way clear on the video concept, so I'll have to watch it a few more times. I can say that I did see where the intersections of emotional and physical abuse, met throughout the video.

The lyrics expressed the heartfelt feelings of both the batterer and of the victim. They talked about how a couple involved in domestic violence go through the different stages: the good times together, the expolsive actions after the emotions have build up inside of the batterer and back again to the honeymoon stage or as before, the good times they had together. The honeymoon period in the cycle of violence, happens after the punches, kicks, degrading remarks and whatever other abusive actions intended or acted out on the victim. This is when the victim has had the "last straw" pulled and ready to leave the batterer. The batterer knows how to turn the "last straw" back to just another one being pulled. So here comes the "lies" as this song described also in the lyrics. Lies the batterer tells the victim: it won't happen again (it almost, always DOES) threats of bodily harm or even death if the victim leaves the batterer, the batterer will cry or make promises that they have no intentions of following suit on once they win the victims heart over again. This list is not limited at a host of other control tactics, batterers use to manipulate and coerce the victim to stay (please read previous blogs I've written explaining more indepth).

So overall, I applaud the artists for collaberating together to raise awareness of domestic violence and having a picture (video) to go along with it. I believe, someone, somewhere, sat and watched that video or read and/or heard the lyrics to the song and saw a reflection in themselves. A reflection of either the batterer or as the victim.

I am in total agreement with different tools and resources used to BREAK THE SILENCE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!!!!