I did not even watch The Grammys last night, but I was completely blown away but some of the things that people said about the winners and performers online. First of all, I love Bon Iver, and was excited to see him recognized by winning two awards. I was a bit confused when he was even nominated for Best New Artist last night, considering he released his first album four years ago, but his work is beautiful so I think he deserves a win none the less. Over the summer, I was lucky enough to see him perform at an outdoor show in Mountain Park, and shed a few tears as I listened to him perform:
I know his music isn't for everyone, but I was absolutely blown away by some of the awful things that people had to say about him after his acceptance speech.
In my opinion, he seemed a bit awkward, but humble. Who cares if you haven't heard of him? I haven't heard of everyone who has been nominated for a Grammy either, but that does not mean I'm going to storm over to my computer and tweet that I hope that person has been raped. You read that right. Raped. Somebody tweeted that this man deserves to be raped because they personally believe he should not have won a Grammy. Thankfully, I do not actually know the person who wrote it, but instead read this lovely comment via the tumblir now devoted to the things people tweeted in outrage when Bon Iver won over Nicki Minaj (who one tweeter commented deserves to win because of her nail polish), the Band Perry, J. Cole, and Skrillex. Personally, I would not have cared if people were just angry that someone they had never heard of won a Grammy, but the fact that some members of the public think that wishing rape on a man they do not even know is an acceptable thing to do is beyond upsetting. As far as I can tell, there were also plenty of people confused about who Paul McCartney is, but luckily no one seemed to be wishing him bodily harm.
Bon Iver haters dont seem to be the only music fans confused about what rape and domestic abuse are actually like. A couple of days ago, HelloGiggles published an article called "I'm not Okay with Chris Brown Performing at the Grammys and I'm Not Sure Why You Are." I read it and agreed with everything the author said. In my opinion, Chris Brown should be banned from ever releasing another album, let alone performing at the Grammys. I know he was young, but after I saw the picture of what he did to Rhianna, I truly do not understand how the incident has been pretty much forgotten. This has nothing to do with how I feel about Rhianna music (negative), or Chris Brown's music (more negative), but I think that people need to realize how serious domestic abuse is. People, especially teens, look up to people like Chris Brown, and when he gets away with things like this they think it is acceptable. So all of that being said, I saw something extremely disheartening (to say the least) when I logged on to Facebook this afternoon and saw that someone had posted a Buzzfeed article that was literally entirely made of people tweeting things like this:
How horrible. After reading all of these collections of tweets from last night, I feel as though I have seriously lost faith, not only in humanity, but in the groundswell. It feels like every day, there is a new article about cyber bullying, and how to stop it etc. Maybe being able to hide behind your computer has given people too much confidence to say things that they should not even be thinking, let alone saying to cyberspace. I like taking advantage of the groundswell when it comes to things like consumer reviews, but today I feel like I've read somethings that I cannot un-read. To quote Joan from Mad Men, "It takes a brave person to say something anonymously." Things are rarely anonymous in cyberspace, but it may as well be if you are writing to thousands of strangers.
