Proving that it's not only white Australian males who are capable of misogyny, Serena Williams appears to have blamed a 16-year-old victim of rape for what happened to her.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Serena spoke about the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two football players at a party in Steubenville, Ohio last year (the case was particularly controversial because of US media coverage that appeared more sympathetic to the football players than the girl).
In the interview, Williams says "I'm not blaming the girl", before going on to, well, blame the girl (making "I'm not blaming the girl, but..." the new "I'm not a racist, but...") for being drunk at the time of the rape.
"Do you think it was fair, what they got? They did something stupid, but I don't know. I'm not blaming the girl, but if you're a 16-year-old and you're drunk like that, your parents should teach you: don't take drinks from other people. She's 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn't remember?
"It could have been much worse. She's lucky. Obviously I don't know, maybe she wasn't a virgin, but she shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different."
It's not like Serena doesn't have a point — it's probably not a great idea for a 16-year-old to be getting blackout drunk at the best of times — but it's also not like that makes the fact that she was raped by two football players who then distributed footage of their crime throughout the community any less heinous, or their punishment any less "fair".
[tw: rape] AUGH COME ON SERENA WILLIAMS I LIKED YOU SO MUCH WHY WOULD YOU DO DIS http://t.co/orWAZ022iV
— Angelina L.B. (@albinwonderland) June 19, 2013
Serena should save her backhands for the tennis court, not teen rape victims. http://t.co/Lc3kxPvCwg
— Sarah Harris (@SarahHarrisNews) June 19, 2013
Can't imagine what Serena Williams means by "lucky" that nothing worse happened. Lucky that she was only gang-raped & images put on FB?
— Luke Herring (@lhjh70) June 19, 2013
Serena Williams: Open mouth, insert large sponsor-clad foot. #Steubenville #RollingStone
— Abigail Donaldson (@BeeDonaldson) June 19, 2013
Seriously, who the flock cares what Serena Williams thinks about anything but women's tennis? #Steubenville — Just Fiona (@Barely_Sane1) June 19, 2013
