Female powerlifter posts photo of swollen knuckles after punching man who sexually assaulted her
The insidious nature of sexual harassment and abuse in the upper echelons of the entertainment industry has captured the public consciousness of late. The New York Times' damning exposé on Harvey Weinstein prompted various household names such as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cara Delevingne to come forward with their run-ins with the disgraced film mogul. And it started a domino effect too, with powerful men such as Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner, Louis CK and Terry Richardson facing damning allegations of their own.
However, the reality is that anyone can fall victim to sexual misconduct. Case in point: an American powerlifter has gone viral after punching out a man who sexually assaulted her in Dublin.
Colorado-native Leanna Carr recently paid a visit to the capital of the Republic of Ireland while travelling around Europe. Leanna was walking down a street in the city centre, minding her own business, when a stranger decided to come over and grope her from behind.
The man purportedly defended himself by saying, "You’re an American, you probably liked it."
Carr took to Twitter to post a picture of her bruised and swollen knuckles, and it quickly went viral - garnering over 24,000 likes. "While walking down the street in Dublin earlier this week, a man grabbed my butt," she wrote. "He proceeded to laugh hysterically and said “you’re an American, you probably liked it”. Apparently traveling solo has made me a better person bc my first reaction was to punch him in the face."
Speaking to the Independent, Leanna explained what happened in the run-up to the incident in greater detail. "I was walking in a hurry to catch my bus, when I felt someone grab my bum, hard. I turned around a little shocked initially, and said 'what the f*ck' to him. He started laughing, and said ‘oh you’re an American… you probably liked it'."
"I am never a violent person, and I have never punched anyone before… but I became so angry and had so much adrenaline that my reaction was to punch him. I got him on the cheek bone, hard," she continued. "I started yelling a couple more things to him like ‘don’t ever touch a girl like that again, I could get you arrested’. He became very mad and I thought he was going to hit back."
"But there was an older couple next to us who saw the whole thing and the gentleman told the scumbag to keep walking. The man started laughing again and then crossed the street to disappear in the crowd of people."
Understandably, Leanna was shaken by the whole ordeal, but she decided to stay in Ireland and actually ended up having a great time. "I spent a couple days in Galway and went back to Dublin for another day, and I truly met the most amazing Irish locals who were very welcoming and kind. I realise situations like this could happen anywhere," she stated.
"There are ‘bad eggs’ wherever you go. I left Ireland with more positive than negative experiences. This situation just made me keep my guard up a bit, which is a smart thing to do when traveling solo internationally."
Stressing that sexual harassment and assault can happen anywhere, and at any time, Leanna added "Maybe you haven’t seen it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. No matter what country you’re in. Sexual harassment happens every day from complete strangers and most women do not know the correct way to respond."
"In the past, I probably would have felt too shocked and timid to have dealt with the situation. I probably would have just walked away… and that man probably would have continued to prey on innocent women."
Good on you, Leanna!