I was just listening to a segment on NPR about girlfriend-beater Chris Brown. One of the guests was talking about how he has no interest in listening to Brown's new album because he doesn't think Brown has sufficiently owned up to his personal sins, noting that the singer typically uses weasel words like "what I did" or "what went down" instead of more specific words like "domestic violence."
Please. "Domestic violence" itself has always been a wishy-washy way of describing the crime of beating the hell out of someone you supposedly care about. It makes the act sound somehow softer and less grotesque--domesticated even--than other crimes, rather than the outrageous abuse of both flesh and trust that it is.
I have no interest in hearing Chris Brown talk about how he perpetrated "domestic abuse." But I wouldn't complain if his next single were all about how sorry he is to have gone berzerk, mangled the face, and threatened the life of the woman he claimed to love.