Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) Lyrics

Lyric discussion by mhbuddy 

Cover art for Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) lyrics by Eminem

This song is a powerful reality of what many women go through. It is a viscous cycle of violence that often originated with trauma in childhood (but doesn't have to). I counsel women who have been abused and they often will pick out men who will abuse them again. There are many factors to it, but one major aspect is if they have not worked through and grieved the pain of the abuse they are destined to repeat it. They have no respect for themselves, thus seek out the creeps who will confirm their low self concept. Their tolerance for taking compliments is often amazingly low, where their tolerance for taking criticism is amazingly high. I had one client save voicemails of her ex-boyfriend cussing her out and calling her names, whereas when she got a nice card from a friend she would quickly throw it away.

If you are finding yourself in this cycle, I plead with you to find some help. Someone who can gently lead you through what you are doing to yourself. You are worth so much more, and there really is help.

The man (in this song, at least) is not the only one at fault here, you cannot have a "fight" on your own. "Maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano" read in between the lines, it's a mutually destructive relationship.

This is called "blaming the victim." It is something abusive men do to maintain control over their girlfriend/wife.

Sexism works both ways, lots of men are abused in relationships too, it's just not as well publicized; in addition there are mutually abusive relationships. And that's not an excuse from an abusive man, it's just true.

I'm not denying that male on female domestic violence might be more common, but don't over generalize.