CM Punk picked a fight with Chris Brown starting on Sunday. Brown beat his pop singer girlfriend Rihanna three years ago, but he has served very little to the public for his crimes and has shown even less remorse. He's very much deserving of having noted dickhead and sometimes social crusader Punk give him the what for over Twitter, even if Punk could be argued to be a jerk in this situation. Then again, being a jerk is a far, far, FAR lesser crime than being someone who uses fear and violence to keep people weaker than they are in line. That being said, Punk is a hypocrite in this situation. In fact, a whole lot of us are. There's an elephant in the room with wrestling fans that seems to be glossed over when it comes to this whole vilification of Chris Brown over domestic abuse, and it rests squarely on the shoulders of one "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
Many wrestling fans who are blasting Brown are just as fanatical about their fandom for Austin. Hell, Punk himself has been embroiled in a Twitter bromance with him over the last couple of years. Yet, Austin has just as much a history with spousal abuse as Brown does. It's the reason why Debra McMichael left him. Not a lot of people are quick to bring this up at all, and it's troubling. The thing is though, I can't really cast the aspersions myself either, because most of the stuff I've written about Austin on this blog has been glowingly positive regarding his career and his recent Twitter exploits. He's one of my favorite performers ever. This raises a lot of cognitive dissonance, because I know what he did was wrong, but I can't help but enjoy what he has done and what he might do in the future.
That being said, these things wouldn't be called dilemmas if they were easily swept under the rug. Also to keep in mind, maybe Punk knows something that we don't know. Austin has never served time for his domestic abuse, and I haven't seen a whole lot in the way of public remorse, which doesn't mean that he isn't remorseful. Still, it's not up to me to assume that he is sorry for what he's done, or that in his private life, he's cleaned up his attitude towards women. The only difference between Austin and Brown are the public outbursts by Brown, which have done nothing but temper the reactions against him. At the end of the day, neither has really shown that they were sorry for what they did, and yet Brown is the only one who is vilified by wrestling fans. Why? Is it because Austin's happened a long time ago and Brown's was three years? Is it because Austin's body of work is good and Brown's isn't? Is it a race thing? I have no idea, but no matter what the reason, it's a terrible double standard.
While being a hypocrite isn't nearly as big a crime as the ideological elite might say it is, I'm not sure having a double standard is something people should aspire to. For as much as Punk is lambasting Brown in public, he has a difficult decision that he needs to make. Either he needs to start attacking Austin for his past (which is probably not constructive), or he needs to work with Austin to help him either rehab his violent tendencies against other people (again, not just women... using fear and violence against the "weaker" is wrong regardless of gender) or to bring to the surface that Austin has indeed repented and become a better person. Until then, all this rhetoric against Chris Brown is empty.
Spousal abuse isn't something that just happens with people we hate. It's also not something that should be swept under the rug. Some might not expect better from wrestling fans, but we're all human, and we all should have compassion for those who are intimidated by the assholes of the world, whether those assholes are short-tempered pop singers or iconic pro wrestlers.
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