Recently I read this article online about an incident that had happened involving Gigi Hadid. You see I wouldn't consider myself to be a fan of her, nor would I consider myself not to be a fan of her. What brought me to read the article was the title: "Gigi Hadid is attacked at Milan Fashion Week".
Basically, a man named Vitalii Sediuk ran up to Gigi & her sister Bella as they were making their way through crowds of people. He tried to pick Gigi up, but she managed to elbow him in the face and even tried to confront him. (video.)
Not surprisingly, there were both negative and positive reactions to this story. For example, some people believed rumors that it was "staged" or thought that she wasn't displaying "model behavior". Personally, I think that she was right to defend herself. Even if Sediuk claims that it was a prank, it was still assault. The number of celebrities that died over the years because of public attacks should show everyone that Hadid was right to protect herself.
Reading the article and watching the video not only inspired me to write this. The situation also caused me to wonder when people stopped viewing celebrities as human beings? I know that when you're famous you sign up for a lot of stuff (both negative & positive). Yet, there still is some sort of boundary that shouldn't be crossed.
Now, this guy (Vitalii Sediuk) is apparently known for messing with a lot of celebrities. For one thing, he punched Brad Pitt in the face on the red carpet in 2014 while he was at the Maleficent premiere. He also tried to crawl under America Ferrara's dress on the Cannes 2014 red carpet. He even tried to kiss Will Smith on the lips a few years prior. These, in addition to the Gigi Hadid situation, are just a few of the many things that this guy has done. Judging by the internet, the list of celebrities that he has "pranked" just keeps growing.
Would he have punched a random guy on the street like he did to Brad Pitt? Would he have tried to crawl under a random woman's dress like he did with America Ferrara?
I don't know him personally, but my guess would be.......no.
These people are celebrities, therefore he did those "pranks" to them because he would get attention from the media. No one deserves to feel violated or assaulted like these people were by Sediuk. I think that Jim Halpert from The Office said it best:
"I think all of us have a tendency to view celebrities as sort of... mythical figures, you know? We don't really see them as real so therefore we don't judge them as real people."
