Chris Brown ‘Lost His Virginity’ at 8 and Thinks It’s Something To Brag About. Except It’s Not.

Right, so, this explains a lot: Chris Brown says he lost his virginity at age 8, to a girl who was 14 or 15 years old, and apparently, he  owes his grown man sexual prowess to his exposure to sex and porn as a third grader. Seriously.

In an interview with the Guardian, the 24-year-old Bad Boy of R&B, waxes nostalgic on his days growing up in Tappahannock, Virginia, with a “great gang of boy cousins” with whom he watched porn—so much so that he deemed himself skilled enough to get it in with a high schooler. Witness Brown’s words:

By that point, we were already kind of hot to trot, you know what I’m saying? Like, girls, we weren’t afraid to talk to them; I wasn’t afraid. So, at eight, being able to do it, it kind of preps you for the long run, so you can be a beast at it. You can be the best at it.

Brown goes on to brag that his bevy of girls rivals the stable of women Prince kept when he was at the height of his superpowers, and that none of them ever leaves dissatisfied: “You know how Prince had a lot of girls back in the day? Prince was, like, the guy. I’m just that, today. But most women won’t have any complaints if they’ve been with me. They can’t really complain. It’s all good.”

I just… my God.

First off, let’s be very clear about this thing: no matter what this little boy says—and yes, at 24, he is still very much a little boy, both in age and deed—an 8-year-old hopped up on porn and convinced he’s mannish enough to emulate the X-rated madness he’s seen on the TV is not a consenting partner. He is a victim.

It. Is. Against. The. Law. To. Have. Sex. With. Children.

There’s not one thing in the least bit cute, funny, interesting or right about his having sex at 8, or a high school girl raping a little boy, or a bunch of older boys co-signing and goading this crazy on. Surely, there is a special place in Jerry Sandusky hell for the teen who did this to baby boy (though come to think of it, at age 14, she, too, is a victim of a sexually-charged lot who failed epically in encouraging a child to have sex with another child for kicks) and any adult who may have known about it.

I hope, too, that Brown’s mama is asking a whole lot of questions this morning of her male cousins and nephews to get to the bottom of who did this to her son. Had they done this to her daughter, surely, she’d be on a rampage.

Similarly, every news organization/website/blog that gleefully reported this bit of “news” with a giggle and a wink and a nod and used it to bash Chris Brown should be damn ashamed of themselves (I’m looking at you, Jezebel). Clearly, there would be no bragging, no bashing, no laughing, no excuses, no gleeful headlines if, say, a 24-year-old starlet was sitting in front of a reporter’s tape recorder, crediting sexual experiences as an 8-year-old with her ability to please her harem of men. No, everyone would call that what it is: sick. Chris Brown’s revelation doesn’t make him a bigger villain. If you’re paying attention, if you’re cognizant of what sexual abuse and dating too early can do to a kid (as chronicled just yesterday in Nick Chiles’ post, “When Kid Date Too Early, It Can Lead To Bad Behaviors“), if you have an iota of understanding that black men do feel pain—physical, mental and emotional—and react to it in a myriad of ways, some of them destructive, the last thing you’re doing is using Chris Brown’s disclosure to tick off another reason on your list of “Why Chris Brown Is a Jerk.”

Maybe someone will tap Chris Brown on the shoulder and point out a comfy couch in a prestigious psychologist’s office so that he can get professional help. All of the anger, the reckless behavior, the blatant disrespect for his significant others, his confusion about love—real, healthy love—and his place in it is so very crystal clear now. Stevie Wonder could see that. He is broken. And no hit record, no pile of money or sold out concerts or Prince-like bevy of groupies will fix that.