Saturday, March 07, 2009

Chris Brown, Rihanna, and Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards

I have a feeling most people reading this blog is well aware and have some opinions about the Chris Brown and Rihanna domestic abuse events.

It seems like the general consensus among the public is that Rihanna is being a horrible role model, and the stereotypical cut-out of what happens in abuse situation. As she reunites with Brown, it is expected that she will not press charges, testify, or speak out against abuse. It is expected, that the 19-year old Chris Brown will abuse again.

While legal battles and media attacks wage, Chris Brown appears to be moving on.

Chris Brown's myspace reads: ""Vote for Chris on the Kids' Choice Awards 2009, Thank you for your support."

The Kids' Choice this year are March 28, 2009, and hosted by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

The nominees are based on votes by kids, and the voting finished four days ago, March 3rd...well after the Chris Brown/Rihanna scandal began.

Of the four music categories, Chris Brown and Rihanna have a combined four nomination (nominations in song categories listed at end of post).

I have really torn feelings over this...the awards have their rules, and I don't think that award should be manipulated as if we lived in a state-controlled government, but it also is a kids show, and to allow Chris Brown to be praised and lauded in a public forum geared around Children and Teens is unfortunate.

Should Nickelodeon take a stand? Should parents take a stand? Should Chris Brown's personal life be separated from his entertainment life?

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Music Nominees for the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice awards:
Favorite Song: I Kissed a Girl (Katy Perry); Don't Stop the Music (Rihanna); Kiss Kiss (Chris Brown featuring T-Pain); Single Ladies (Beyonce)
Favorite Music Group: Daughtry, Jonas Brothers, Linkin Park; Pussycat Dolls
Favorite Male Singer: Chris Brown; Jesse McCartney; Kid Rock; T-Pain

Favorite Female Singer: Beyonce; Miley Cyrus; Alicia Keys; Rihanna

5 comments:

Michael Parsons said...

I think it is too soon for Chris B to try and seek redemption. As long as Nickelodeon does nothing they are basically saying domestic abuse acceptable.

As for Rihanna, she is a victim in this case. But I cannot judge her on this as I have no idea what is going through her head.

The message she is sending out to young girls however is a horrible

Aaron said...

Thank you for your comments on this whole mess.

It's hard enough for kids and tweens to know what is acceptable as they start coming into their own. In fact, it's easier to understand what CB did (hitting is wrong) than what Rihanna is doing (isn't it?).

There are enough children who grow up in abusive households and need to see someone in the public eye set a good example. If Rihanna - the only celebrity in recent memory to be a domestic abuse victim in public - refuses to, who will it be?

William Petruzzo said...

Kids entertainment is a pretty important issue to me. I worked for some time as an entertainment analyst studying children's networks and programming.

I strongly doubt that Nickelodeon has any kind of agenda surrounding domestic abuse. That would seem ludicrous. However, they undoubtedly have an agenda surrounding the sex industry and four them to take a moral stand of any kind would be extremely out of character.

In truth, child celebrities don't have the luxury of a private life and their private conduct is where their real influence over children lies. I don't think they're masterminds, but the networks are. If they selected carefully celebrities with squeaky clean lives, other lucrative agendas would fall apart.

Should they? Yes. Will they? absolutely not.

Anonymous said...

Yes. They should take him off the ballot. They should take him off of the NETWORK.

In this case Nickelodeon is setting Brown up as a role model. He should not be setting examples for any young men or women.

I will be telling my children what he did and why it was wrong.

Anonymous said...

Nick should absolutely dismiss CB from the show and nominations. I can't believe they would even consider not doing that. Almost as troubling to me is the list of other nominations. Pussycat Dolls, I Kissed A Girl? Yes, let's see if we can start sexualizing kids as early as possible, I think that'll be great. At the risk of sounding really old and foggerly, shame on Nickelodeon.