I followed the very public response to the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation from the moment TMZ first published the disturbing, post-abuse images of the beaten pop star.

I’m sorry. It’s not “the Chris Brown/Rihanna” situation. Abuse is not a “situation,” it’s a crime.

I’ve also been closely following the very public response to Chris Brown’s recent Grammy performance. The questions of, “did he deserve to perform?” and, “does he deserve to be forgiven?” have been debated from every angle. The Daily Beast has an excellent opinion piece by Marlow Stern, as one example.

I tend not to weigh in on these kinds of divisive issues. As a member of the “entertainment industry” I know that what’s “right” is not always a factor in the products that go into and out of this machine. There is a church/state like divide between morality and entertainment. It applies to things as trivial as The Bachelor and serious as the details surrounding the infamous Real Housewives suicide. It’s a supply/demand market. If people have the demand, Hollywood is happy to supply. This is not the entertainment school or the entertainment foundation, it’s the entertainment industry. What governs it is not morality, it’s money.

Do I personally think it is disgusting that Chris Brown has maintained, ney, expanded upon his popularity in the music and entertainment industry? Ies, absolutely. Do I blame the producers of the Grammys for including him in the telecast? No. It’s not their job to make a morally sound show. It’s their job to make a show that people will watch.

Now I’m going to say something that may be very controversial: I’m glad the Grammys producers included Chris Brown in the show. I hope more entertainment outlets shower Chris Brown with publicity and attention. I hope he wins more awards and received more accolades. The more attention Chris Brown gets, the angrier critics of his continued popularity will become, and longer the issue of his having beaten his girlfriend will stay in the press, where it belongs.

It has been three years since Chris Brown beat Rihanna. In those three years Chris Brown has only apologized to his girlfriend/assailant via text message. In fact, the only public incidence of him discussing the issue ended in his blow up at Good Morning America. It is rumored that Rihanna and Brown have spent time together, and even hooked up in the years since the abuse. As a result of all these things and more, the way Chris Brown is viewed in the eyes of many young women has not changed. Here are 25 tweets from teenage girls across the country, all stating that they’d be fine, even happy, if Chris Brown beat them up. Literally, “I would let Chris Brown beat me up anyyyy day.” And, most disturbing of all, there’s this story from The Daily Beast article:

“I discovered a picture of Chris Brown inside of [a female student’s] binder cover,” said Chloe. “I tried to explain to her that he was not a role model and she just didn’t get it. I even showed the student the photos of [Rihanna’s] bruised face and she claimed they were Photoshopped.”

That is a problem. It’s a problem that’s bigger than whether or not Chris Brown performs on the Grammys, though his performance is no doubt a piece of the whole. It’s a problem that the entertainment industry cannot solve alone.

Do you know what would happen if everyone who rolls their eyes at The Jersey Shore stopped watching The Jersey Shore? MTV would cancel it.

Do you know what would happen if everyone who believes Chris Brown is a terrible role model for human beings (this goes far beyond children) stopped buying his music? Or if they wrote to his record label expressing their anger? Chris Brown would become irrelevant.

We don’t have to shake our heads and say it’s such a shame that Rihanna went back to Chris after what he did to her. We can tell her it’s a terrible message for young women through comments, blog posts, articles, and, most importantly, not buying her music.

I love those catchy pop tunes as much as the next person, but if I have to stop listening to Umbrella so that one fewer girl gets beaten by her boyfriend, that’s fine by me.

All too often we, and certainly I, hide behind the fact that this is a free country where people can buy music sold by criminals and watch TV shows that celebrate dysfunction. We are both part of the problem, and capable of the solution.

That’s why I’ve decided to weigh in on this devise issue, and I hope you will too.