Eminem- Does his song Love the Way You Lie send the wrong message about domestic violence? (Essay 4)

  Does Eminem and Rihanna’s new song “Love the Way You Lie”, which is about domestic violence, have a positive or negative influence on listeners? 

      

Domestic violence was recently showcased in Hollywood after Singer Rihanna was hit publicly by her ex-boyfriend hip-hop artist Chris Brown. After the incident, claims started to leak out that Brown had hit Rihanna previously. Eminem is a rap artist known for violently bashing his ex-wife Kim Mathers in several of his songs. At least two of his songs, “Kim” and “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” portray Eminem’s violent fantasies about murdering Mathers. The two artists, the abused and the potential abuser, teamed up to make the hit song “Love the Way You Lie”.

“It’s so insane, cause when it’s going good it’s going great, I’m Superman with the wind at his back, she’s Lois Lane, but when it’s bad it’s awful, I feel so ashamed, I snap, Who’s that dude, I don’t even know his name, I laid hands on her, I’ll never stoop so low again, I guess I don’t know my own strength…”
               In this portion of the song, Eminem’s lyrics convey angry messages about snapping and in the end, hurting his girlfriend in an act of domestic violence. Rihanna sings “…That’s alright because I like the way it hurts…I love the way you lie…” The question is do listeners see what is going on is wrong? They could potentially get the message to stay with their significant other through “tough times”, which could be physical abuse in some cases.