Is this the part where I’m supposed to laugh?
By now I’m sure we’ve all seen the video of the wonderful Miss Gigi Hadid defending herself against a stranger who arbitrarily grabbed her and picked her up as she was leaving a show in Milan during fashion week. If not, pause here, watch it and then come back!
Okay, so the stranger is Vitalii Seduik, a self-acclaimed ‘prankster’. Now, I’m sure we have all seen an episode of Punk’d, or a prank show alike and usually when Justin Timberlake or whomever comes out, the prankee usually laughs it off.
However, Seduik’s victims do not react with genuine laughter, but with anger, shock, and simple disgust. I wish I could highlight the Gigi episode as a blunder, but unfortunately Seduik has an uncomfortably extensive list of personal violations under his creepy belt.
In 2014, he crawled under America Ferrera’s dress whilst she was posing for pictures on the red carpet at Cannes. At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Seduik ran onto the red carpet and buried his face in Leonardo DiCaprio’s groin. Last month at L’Avenue, a restaurant in Paris, Seduik ran over and attempted to kiss Kim Kardashian’s bum as she was arriving at the restaurant. I could go on, but it is obvious that someone needs to tell this guy that his jokes are incredibly invasive, vulgar, and not really that funny to be honest.
So the question that I keep asking is why on earth has he not been arrested?
Grabbing, crawling under dresses, burying your face in someone else’s private parts (without their consent), all of this spells assault in every sense of the word, right? Therefore, I felt it imperative that I put on my Nancy Drew hat.
I began my investigation at one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century, Instagram. On Seduik’s page, I found that he had written explanations on his latest antics. To paraphrase, Seduik does not agree that Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner are worthy of supermodel status (rude!). On the Kim Kardashian stunt, Seduik states that it was not planned but he saw an opportunity and “had to come up with an idea very fast”. Seduik highlights that his actions were a protest against Kim Kardashian’s use of fake butt implants, and that he encourages Kim and the rest of the Kardashian clan to ‘popularise natural beauty amongst teenage girls who follow and defend them blindly.’
Now, I do not understand the relation between the pranks and the message. That is not to say that perhaps he needs to think of a better ‘prank’, per say. ABSOLUTELY NOT. What Seduik needs to learn, is how to voice an opinion without terrorising the subject.
I believe that everyone has a right to his or her opinion, and if Seduik does not think highly of Gigi or Kim, he has the freedom to express that. It is not his views that I find problematic, but his method of expression.
I am certain that there are people out there who share his views, but not all of them are participating in such atrocious behaviour. Frankly, I believe that this justification of his actions is rather poor, and also where is humanity? Regardless of what you think of people, it doesn’t give you the right to target them in such a way.
What saddens me about all of this is that some people have criticised Gigi’s reaction as bratty, rude, and not model behaviour. Again freedom of speech, expression, blah blah, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’m sorry, but contrary to what romantic comedies have taught us, grabbing someone from behind can be quite frightening, and when you’re in the public, that fear is optimized.
She is a human being, she was attacked, and she defended herself. Being a model quite frankly is her job; she is a living breathing human being just like us. I personally would react very similarly if a complete stranger grabbed me and picked me up. Why? Because you are violating my personal space! This is conducive of society’s skewed perception of women and frankly I applaud Gigi for showing him who’s the boss!
Images from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/women/2016/09/22/109316744_elbow_news-large_trans++NJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpg ), https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/476677941789707842/), https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ae/d2/4d/aed24d69ad3aa1f319e144b49816b801.jpg ) and : https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/45/81/ce/4581cebbfaf3bbd31b68537012876e0f.jpg