Booty Calls, Rage, and Racialized/sexualized Subjects: Tmz's Coverage of Rihanna and Chris Brown Page: 59
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domestic abuse. In each of these polls, the article serves to pre-determine the responses by
framing the question so as to suggest more correct answers. It is important to understand the
ideological impact of TMZ literally asking readers to beyond passive consumption of gossip
about Rihanna and Brown to further engage in a co-creative process wherein they shun their
shortcomings. Dominant ideologies depend on some level on the audience accepting and
engaging with myths. By accepting that Brown and Rihanna are appropriate to judge and by
encountering coverage that makes a judgment seem natural (even if the audience would have
never come to this conclusion on its own), the audience is both enacting ideology and having
ideology enacted upon them. In either case, ideological notions about race and gender continue
unabated and unexamined in the minds of the audience.142
The first article that demonstrates this strategy, entitled, "Rihanna and Chris Brown
Back Together," focused on the alleged continuation of the relationship between Rihanna and
Brown immediately after the attack. The article first invites readers to judgment by opening with
the not particularly subtle "What is she thinking?"143 The article then describes how Brown and
Rihanna, seemingly unfazed by the events of the previous days were "hanging out at one of
Diddy's homes.'"144 TMZ then asks the readers if this is a bad idea, and 87% (out of 264,790)
agree that it is. It is notable that this article mentions that Brown and Rihanna are staying with
Diddy, a fellow black artist who is demonized by association with Brown and Rihanna,
particularly because he is willing to shelter Rihanna and her assailant. This article seems to
suggest that Brown and Rihanna fail to grasp the gravity of abuse and that they are continuing
142 See Barthes, Mythologies.
143 TMZ Staff, "Rihanna and Chris Brown- Back Together!" TMZ (blog), February 28, 2009,
http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/28/rihanna-and-chris-brown-back-together/.
144 Ibid.59
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Sabino, Lauren. Booty Calls, Rage, and Racialized/sexualized Subjects: Tmz's Coverage of Rihanna and Chris Brown, thesis, August 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc177250/m1/64/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .