If you were to take the entertainment media as gospel - and many do - you could be forgiven for thinking the R&B singer Chris Brown was the only star ever to have assaulted a woman.

Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault in 2009 after an altercation that left his then girlfriend, R&B star Rihanna, with significant injuries.

Chris Brown ... pleaded guilty to felony assault in 2009. Credit:Reuters

Since then, it has become de rigueur to remind people that "Chris Brown beats women". A local review of his new album, Fortune, with the rating "no stars ever" and the assertion: "Screw you, don't encourage his actions", went viral online. A group of guerilla activists in Britain this week began attaching stickers to his albums that read "Warning: Do not buy this album! This man beats women." Such is the level of saturation online that an app, Brownout, can now remove all mentions of the singer from your web browsing experience.

Let's get one thing straight: Chris Brown has beaten women. He also seems to be an extremely unpleasant man; he recently got a neck tattoo of a woman's battered face, and his unrepentant petulance when it comes to the matter of his past violence is deeply troubling.