A T-shirt featuring Rihanna and her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown has been blasted by fans and women’s charities for trivialising the singer’s domestic violence ordeal.Seen on sale at the Beacons Festival in Skipton North Yorks the £10 top has a photograph of Rihanna on the front over the words ‘I’d hit that’ and a picture of Brown on the back with his fists clenched.According to the urban dictionary ‘I’d hit that’ is slang for ‘to get with someone or to have sex with’ but here the term appears to have a double meaning as Brown is shown with his fists clenched.Organisers claim they removed the t-shirts after complaints and the Leeds based graphic design company that printed them has withdrawn the style from sale.But festival goer Jim DeBarker says that the t-shirts remained on sale for the entire weekend of the festival.Writing on music website louderthanwar.com he said: ‘When I first sighted the t-shirt a small crowd had formed around the stall imploring the vendors to take the t-shirt off sale due to the offence it was causing at the allegedly family-friendly festival. ‘The response they got was that the shirt had been made by the suppliers who made the official merchandise and so they were obliged to keep it on sale. Showing a complete disregard to the feelings of those protesting its presence, the objectors were told that they welcome to buy a different t-shirt if they wished. ‘I asked at the production office for a comment on this revelation that their officially sanctioned festival merchandise was apparently advocating domestic violence and the response I got was outwardly sympathetic, although the offending shirt remained on sale for the entire weekend.’Teresa Parker from Woman’s Aid the UK’s largest domestic violence charity said: ‘Domestic violence is certainly not a laughing matter - it is experienced by 1 in 4 women at some point in their lifetime and 2 women every week are killed by their current or former partner. ‘This t-shirt trivialises violence in relationships, at a time when Women’s Aid is working to try and educate teenagers about healthy relationships, to try and reduce the amount of domestic violence in the future and ultimately save lives. ‘We would ask the people who are producing this t-shirt to think seriously about the message they are sending out.’dailymail.co.uk
