Chris Brown is currently performing nine shows across the UK, including not one, but two sold-out shows this month. Both Saturday the 21st and Sunday the 22nd of June, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was filled with excited fans who delved into their pockets to watch the notoriously known women abuser perform live. Why do we keep letting men like Chris Brown thrive?
Over the years, Chris Brown has compiled a disturbing criminal history of violence and abuse. Since 2009, when Brown was charged with assault and the hospitalisation of his former girlfriend Rhinna, the following 16 years have embroiled further legal troubles. Reports of further violence backstage soon followed and led to another arrest and felony charge in 2013. This resulted in Brown being sentenced to a live-in anger management rehab, which he was kicked out of in March 2014 and arrested, for violating ‘internal rules’ of the facility. Two months after, he was then sentenced to 131 days in prison for violating his probation. An additional five-year restraining order against model ex-girlfriend, Karrueche Tran was granted in 2017, due to his violent death threats to her.
The following years have consisted of a string of violent assaults towards other artists, photographers, members of the public and more. Brown has stacked up a whopping nine confirmed arrests, all of which consist of assaults, deadly weapons and unprecedented violence, going as recent as May 15th, 2025, where he was arrested for ‘Grievous bodily harm and intent’ in Manchester.
Despite his past and current criminal activities, his 20-year music career has remained unscathed. Society is demonstrating time and again an unbelievable tolerance for abusive men. This is not just about Chris Brown, men with power and fame have been profiting off their untouched reputation, which no number of criminal convictions can seem to tarnish in the eye of the public.
The Chris Brown fandom have been quick to defend Brown on social media and across broadcasting channels. Pushing the narrative of mental disconnection between the ‘art’ and the ‘artist’. In the UK where one in four women experience domestic abuse, the sceptics and victim blaming that has been vocalised by Chris Brown supporters is shocking to witness. It is not about separating the art from the artist; it is choosing comfort over accountability. The Chris Breezy tour has brought to the light how society, in 2025, still refuses, to take violence against women seriously enough to matter at the box office of Ticketmaster.
Chris Brown is not the only example. Donald Trump, who has faced numerous and extremely public allegations of sexual misconduct and was convicted of falsifying business records linked to the famous hush-money payments to a porn star. Yet has become president of the United States, not once but twice. His alarming, unwavering loyalty from a massive voter base is economically driven. This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern. And it's deeply gendered.
If the continued celebration of men like Chris Brown and Donald Trump tells us anything, it’s that our society is still far more comfortable forgiving powerful men than believing the women they hurt. Isn't it time we ask, who do we choose to support, and what does that say about us?
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