The Chris Brown narrative has, until recently, been pretty easy to package. On one hand, the musician has legions of rabid fans. On the other, he’s probably just as well known for his 2009 arrest after assaulting his girlfriend, singer Rihanna. That latter claim to infamy—and the disturbing reaction to the news from the former camp—is still the one that gets the most attention in Chris Brown news. To wit: a major profile of the artist that appeared in the U.K. paper The Guardian on Oct. 4 quoted his take on the incident (“It was the biggest wake-up call”) in its headline. But that part of the Guardian story—in which he pretty much tells writer Decca Aitkenhead that being abusive is part of being immature—isn’t what’s been racking up headlines in the days since. Earlier in the story, while Brown is talking about his childhood, this passage appears: He lost his virginity when he was eight years old, to a local girl who was 14 or 15. Seriously? “Yeah, really. Uh-huh.” He grins and chuckles. “It’s different in the country.” Brown grew up with a great gang of boy cousins, and they watched so much porn that he was raring to go. “By that point, we were already kind of like hot to trot, you know what I’m saying? Like, girls, we weren’t afraid to talk to them; I wasn’t afraid. So, at eight, being able to do it, it kind of preps you for the long run, so you can be a beast at it. You can be the best at it.” So, in the last few days, headlines about Chris Brown have changed. For example: Jezebel‘s “Chris Brown Didn’t ‘Lose His Virginity.’ He Was Raped.” And PolicyMic‘s “Don’t Ignore That Chris Brown Was Raped Just Because You Hate Him.”  And Flavorwire‘s “Why Is No One Talking About the Fact That Chris Brown Was Raped?” (Brown has not responded to these articles, unless they’re what this cryptic tweet was about.) The fact that what Brown describes was rape is indisputable: though attitudes may or may not be “different in the country,” … Continue reading Chris Brown Was Raped. Does It Matter If He Doesn’t Think So?