A slew of controversy has surrounded the recent Grammy Awards which aired Feb. 12 about the center stage support thrown behind musical performer Chris Brown. Brown, whom was nominated for several awards that night and even won for best R&B album, has not attended the award telecast since the now infamous night three years ago when he attacked and beat then girlfriend Rihanna, putting the Grammy Award winning performer in the hospital.
During the telecast Brown’s fans and supporters took to Twitter, tweeting their desire to be beaten by the performer and expressing how much they adored him. After this many stood up in protest, but not condemning the performer or his bounty of fans who seem to want him to attack them, but rather to protest the Grammy telecast and CBS, the station that aired the award show, for supposedly glorifying domestic violence.
Society has always wanted someone else to blame other then themselves. In 1999, two students marched into Columbine High School and opened fire on students and faculty, causing the deadliest high school massacre in our nation’s history. But when the smoke cleared we did not question the morals or upbringing of the perpetrators. Instead we blamed the music they listened to and the video games they played.
Columbine was a tragedy, but it was not something that should have enraged people to take up arms against Hollywood. When did we stop expecting parents to raise their children and start requiring television to be the morality altar that we should worship at? The tweets glorifying domestic violence were not the fault of CBS, nor the fault of the Grammy Academy. They weren’t even the fault of Chris Brown. They were the fault of the women posting the tweets.
Social media has allowed everyone with a smartphone or a laptop to express their opinion and put a spin or comment on every social event that takes place, but we don’t need to blame the event planner when a party crasher shows up and says or does something completely idiotic. These tweeters did not express their stupidity because Hollywood hasn’t provided them with a proper role model. They did so because their parents were not be the role models they should have been.
Even before movies and TV the world had its problems with younger generations abusing alcohol and drugs, having premarital sex and becoming extremely violent with each another.
These “trouble topics” are not the fault of Hollywood. On the contrary, Hollywood has helped society with these problems by shedding light on them. Movies like “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Boyz n the Hood” opened the door for society to see what was really happening to the youth. Television shows like “My So-Called Life” and “Freaks and Geeks” opened parents’ eyes to see what their kids were really dealing with in school.
Whether through drama or comedy, satire or song, Hollywood is the window that has allowed society to look back in on itself and question whether the morals and values we are living by are the best interpretation of ourselves. For us to then turn around and blame the very institution that only mimics our own style is no more than shameless; it is the very reason why individual responsibility has been cast aside to make room for the “blame Hollywood” mentality.
If you want to be outraged about what happened at the Grammys then do so, but place the blame where it is deserved. The music industry and Hollywood as a whole cannot govern the youth of today simply because the parents won’t. If an individual posts or tweets something that is in poor taste then that person is to blame for the comment. People must stop using Hollywood as a crutch and start parenting their children from the beginning. Now that would be a novel idea for a Hollywood screenplay.
