As some of you may know, Florida State University quarterback De’Andre Johnson was dismissed from the team after a surveillance video was released of him assaulting a woman, Abigail Husty, in a nightclub in Tallahassee. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about and you want to witness it, here’s the link.
The video blew up, especially on my Facebook news feed. After watching the video and stemming my initial horror, I started to read the comments. The majority of them expressed the same shock and revulsion I had when I watched a six-foot-one, one hundred ninety pound man punch a woman in the face. But then I saw it: a comment by a woman that said, “She shouldn’t have provoked him.”
I was dumbfounded by this woman’s comment. It is never okay for a man to hit a woman. It’s not okay to assault anyone in general. The fact that this Facebook commenter justified Johnson’s actions by blaming the victim is not okay.
And look, I get that they both had probably consumed alcohol. I understand that tempers flare after a heated conversation. But that does not justify the actions that occurred, and it certainly doesn’t justify victim-blaming. Even Johnson’s attorney said he was not the “initial aggressor,” as if that makes his actions partially okay because Husty was aggressive first.
And the fact that the Facebook comment was said by a woman irked me even more. I know that all of womankind doesn’t have to stick together, but come on. With all the inequality women face on a daily basis anyway, are we really going to exacerbate the discrimination by blaming a woman for her own assault?
Victims should not be blamed for their assaults and a man should never put his hands on a woman. Period.
