Here are some photos of Gigi Hadid in Milan over the weekend, promoting her capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger. As we discussed last week, Gigi was in Milan for their fashion week, and she had a pretty full schedule of runway work and appearances. When she was leaving one of the shows, she was assaulted by serial abuser Vitalii Sediuk, a “prank journalist” who gets off on assaulting celebrity men and women, mostly women. Here’s the footage of Sediuk assaulting Gigi again:
It took hours for media outlets to realize that this was Sediuk, and the first outlets reporting on the altercation made it seem like Gigi had done something wrong, when clearly she was defending herself while being physically assaulted. Well, Lena Dunham’s latest Lenny letter includes a defense of Gigi’s actions, plus Gigi wrote this about what happened:
I remember taking the time, as it all felt slo-mo, to look at him, a stranger, and my first reaction was: “Get me out of this situation.” I played volleyball, and my coaches talked about muscle memory. I started boxing two years ago and I always remembered that. Since then, I hadn’t been in a situation that forced me to fight back, but it just came out when he grabbed me — it wasn’t a choice. I do have that fighter in me.
Honestly, I felt I was in danger, and I had every right to react the way I did. If anything, I want girls to see the video and know that they have the right to fight back, too, if put in a similar situation. Practicing self-defense is important so that when you’re in the moment, reacting from muscle memory comes more naturally to you than freezing up. Confidence in your own ability to defend yourself comes with educating yourself about it, and is a massive advantage when in an unsafe situation.
The first article that was posted about the incident was headlined: “Not model behavior. Gigi aggressively lashes out and elbows fan in the face after he tries to pick her up. The supermodel angrily hit an unknown man before running to her car.” That’s when I really got pissed. First of all, it was a woman who wrote the story with that headline. What would you tell your daughter to do? If my behavior isn’t model behavior, then what is? What would you have told your daughter to do in that situation?
When my mom first saw what had happened, she texted me the picture of me elbowing the guy and (among other messages of support) said, “Good girl.” My mom has taught me the power of my instincts since I was a kid. She’d always be like, “OK. Pay attention to the people who make you feel uncomfortable. I want you to tap into that and be aware of it.” I continue to use that intuition with the fashion industry and the people who I have to be around. It usually guides me pretty well. I think it guided me in this situation, too.
It sounds cliché to say it, but in the moment, it wasn’t heroic to me. It was just what I had to do. It’s very touching to me that people see it that way. I know people are put in much worse situations every day and don’t have the cameras around that provoke social-media support. I just want to use what happened to me to show that it’s everyone’s right, and it can be empowering, to be able to defend yourself.
I agree with Gigi’s mom, because my first reaction upon seeing Gigi elbow her assailant was “good girl” and “right on.” No one, no man and no woman has the right to put their hands on you. No one has the right to assault you in the name of a “prank” or a “protest.” And it’s great that Gigi is encouraging young women to care about self-defense and standing up for themselves in all situations. Well done, Gigi.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Absolutely. Glad she’s okay.
I hate that she has to defend herself for defending herself. How anyone can question someone defending themselves from an attacker is beyond me. Honks for Gigi.
Can someone explain why this d-bag “prank journalist” is not in jail? Isn’t this like the 100th time he’s done this?
My first response was, ” Wish she had hit him harder and given him a black eye”.
She had every right to defend herself. If it had been me, his nose would have been broken – or would have tried by slamming my head back. Also would have aimed for his man parts. He got off easy. She needs to press assault charges against him.
She just rose in my estimation. Good for her for encouraging girls to learn how to defend themselves and not be afraid to use it. I agree about the assault charges. I think celebrities are too quick to brush off these “pranks” because everything they do is so scrutinized, and they don’t want to deal with the public commentary. “I can already hear the “but it was just a joke” comments. But being in the public eye does not mean that anyone has the right to put their hands on you.
Exactly! I also think it’s completely disgusting that she has to keep defending her actions. She had every right to defend herself.
Yes to all of this, and plus you don’t even necessarily think rationally at a moment like that. Someone is attacking you, you go into defense mode. If the attacker gets hurt, that’s on them.
I don’t care of if this was a prank, a protest, or a her #1 Fan. That was UNACCEPTABLE. Full stop. She had every right to react the way she did. What’s expected of celebrities these days really irks me. Yes, they get paid exorbitant sums to do what they do, but that doesn’t give us the right to disregard their humanity. It most certainly doesn’t give anyone the right to touch them without their consent.
I can’t believe people call this a “prank.” A prank is short sheeting your sibling’s bed or putting a whoopee cushion at the dinner table. Not grabbing and picking up a stranger on the street.
Right. People like that are going to wind up “pranking” the wrong person.
Were people really reporting this as her fault?
Do we have to allow strangers to put their hands all over our body and cart us off now?
It’s always our fault isn’t it? We’re b!tches if we fight back. We’re weak and asking for it if we don’t. We can’t say no because that’s mean. We can’t give a soft no because that’s confusing and manipulative. We can’t say yes because we’re sluts. It’s exhausting.
this X1000
Yes, unfortunately the first report I’ve read of the incident had the title “Gigi’s not model behavior” and it was written by a woman! I thought she did something stupid and then I saw the video and became enraged because first of all she didn’t manage to break the duchebag’s nose and second with the misleading and insulting title. Was she supposed to say thank you to that as&^&^le? I mean why are we even discussing about how she reacted, there shouldn’t be a question about this. Oh and the best thing is the guy’s justification for all of this: “In an email to The Associated Press, Vitalii Sediuk confirmed that he had lifted Hadid off the ground, saying it was a form of protest against the use of celebrity models.”
Exactly. Which door of awful do we choose today?
Ice queen with no sex appeal or the slut.
Aggressive shrew or doormat.
She hurt his ego by being too mean that’s why he was violent vs she didn’t push him off strongly enough how was he to know.
If I say Margaret Atwood three times in a row while looking in a mirror, will this double jeopardy crap magically resolve?
Yes, they were, I saw the headline before I watched the video. At first I thought she’d done the middle finger and swearing routine with the paps, just based on that. But no, she was picked up, completely lifted off the ground from behind by a stranger! Wtf?! What exactly is she supposed to have done? Oh, that’s right, she’s supposed to be a mind reader and know it was all in fun and the spirit of a “protest”. A protest against her, but nevermind that. That guy should be pummeled into the ground. An elbow to the face is merely polite.
So true! We can’t win no matter what, she absolutely did the right thing though. I just can’t believe the media reported it that way when it’s obvious she did nothing wrong, sickening.
I had an incident last year when I was putting a ton of groceries in the back seat and I turned around to see 3 men in the car next to me and one of them had his camera on me, he quickly put it down when I saw it and I asked if he was taking pictures of me, he laughed and said “actually it’s a video of your great a*s bending over like that”, I told him that wasn’t cool and he said “oh come on sweetie don’t be a fkng b*tch about it”. I just left and later when I was telling one of my guy coworkers about it he said I should’ve been flattered, that was almost as shocking as the incident itself. I’m so sick of women being treated this way, we’re not b*tches for standing up for ourselves!!
On another note, I watched the whole video above and saw Britney Spears being pranked by her son, that was pretty funny and my definition of a prank, my daughter does it all the time. Grabbing a stranger and picking them up is assault, not a prank!
Men are such creeps. And why is videotaping and photographing strangers not an invasion of privacy.
This girl never hit my radar until this event. Good for her and her reaction.
Just last week, I got in a major heated argument with my BF of 11 yrs over this sort of thing. The BF’s father has a habit of walking up to people he doesn’t know (always women), putting his arm around them, saying words he thinks are funny.
I spoke up about it finally after having to walk into a restaurant in front of a woman I pretty much thought the BF’s father assaulted on her exit. And all ### broke loose.
The BF (and father) not only told me that most women welcome those kind of gestures, but that I should cover up and join a religion if I think the handsy action was wrong.
KJ – wow! What a horrible reaction from your bf and his father! It’s ridiculous that there are still so many men that think a women should be grateful for being manhandled….
Good for her! PLEASE don’t play the brainless Barbie Doll when men take physical advantage. Is she supposed to smile and giggle until the complete stranger lets her have her body back??!!!
I tell my 12 year-old daughter to “go for the eyes” when in a compromising situation against her will. If she’s too aggressive I’d rather deal with that then watch my kid get manhandled by a stranger. Unreal that anyone could find Gigi at fault.
Eyes, groin, knees… ears are a good one too because they’re quite tender but people don’t automatically protect them like they do the rest of their face. Boxers wear those little ear hats for a reason.
I remember taking a self defense class with my girl scout troop when I was around 12. We actually got to practice the moves on a real person (wearing a protective sumo-like suits). It started out awkward but by the end we were all really into it. If there’s something like that available in your area I highly recommend it. Having the actual experience of physically doing it gives you real confidence and muscle memory.
That’s fantastic that a Girl Scout troop did it!
I recommend it too. I took a full semester of it in college, taught by a Division 1 school wrestling coach who was awesome and gigantic and knew his stuff. Thankfully I’ve never had to actually use any of it, and hope I never do, but I remember all of it. You are so right about it giving you confidence.
Thankfully I’ve never had to really use it either, but I have most definitely made an escape and defense plan in several situations. Never came down to physical resistance, but being able to provide for such a situation really helps.
Another thing that gave/gives me confidence is working with large animals. Horses, cows, creatures that you have no hope of physically overpowering and who can stomp you into oblivion without exerting themselves if they so choose. You learn to take a few hard knocks, how to be straightforward, how not to be “nice” because there’s no politeness badge when you’re dealing with ornery cattle, not to hesitate, and how to deal with some tight situations. If I can stop a horny 1800 lbs dairy cow from mounting me (yes they do that), you, sir, will not be a problem.
Speaking for the common (wo)man to Gigi: you ABSOLUTELY did right! no one, ever should touch a woman without her permission. I don’t care if she’s naked, I don’t care if she’s ‘just a model’ or a prostitute or a female child getting her cheeks pinched by a stranger in a store or ANY female. We are raised, from birth, to acquiesce to such things, to be ‘good girls’, ‘nice girls’ when all any of that means is ‘give up your autonomy, your body is not your own, it exists for the pleasure/entertainment/judgement etc of others’.
Females: STOP being nice!
God I hate this.
I used to love dancing at the club or bar or whatever. Go out with you girls and have a good time.
Without fail I would be touched without my permission. My go to was if someone started grinding their business into my butt, usually without even making eye contact, I would stop dancing and stand still.
Not even aggressive, just obvious I do not want you around. I had more than one guy get physical and threaten to punch me for this. When I was aggressive and told guys to fuck off, I had guys threaten to hit me. There is no winning sometimes.
I’m fortunate enough to be quite tall so I can tower over a lot of guys who pull that kind of crap, and I have perfected the death stare, but it’s still scary as hell. I used to have very long hair and it became a habit for me to turn around sharply, elbow first, if I felt anyone pull on it. Like, are you a kitty? Can you just not help bapping and pulling at my hair? Where is the sign on the back of my head saying this is okay??
Go Gigi. It’s crazy that anyone would say she was in the wrong. No one should touch your body without your permission, and most women put up with it, or reject it kindly and softly. Eff that noise. Gigi anyone who does that to you.
There’s something deep in here about the things we say we want from women, versus the things we actually value and social ideal of quiet, calm and sweet. I’m not caffeinated enough to find it though.
I will leave this thought: In general, husbands want a docile and adoring wife, dads want a strong and wilful daughter.
I said it before but I’ll repeat: that shot she gave him to the head with her elbow was awesome!!
She did the right thing.
She’s completely justified. I was hoping she would have broken his nose when she elbowed him so he would have an eternal reminder of why he doesn’t get to assault people.
I’ve seen videos of Gigi hitting the heavy bag and believe me, this dude got off easy. I like how she popped him with the elbow right in the face. Another couple seconds she could have started teeing off on him, would have loved to see that. Don’t mess with GiGi!
Good for her!
I don’t even like Gigi, but she had every right to defend herself. I wish she’d beaten the shit out of that guy. I had no idea anyone was claiming she did something wrong – the guy picked her up, for god’s sake.
I feel like he deserved a few more punches. I hope girls look at this and take note.
Was there anyone saying she was wrong? I haven’t seen anyone ever defend that loser when he “attacked” anyone. And can someone not do something about him? Seriously. I wish someone’s security would give him the beat down he deserves. What he does is not ok. I would feel the need to file a lawsuit if he did this to me.
I couldn’t believe the way this was being reported. It was disgusting.
Even if it was a fan – there is NO excuse for creeping up on someone and grabbing them. She has all the rights in the world to defend herself.
Honestly – I found her quite dull prior to this. But since this whole incident, I’m impressed with her. Not only did she attempt to protect herself, she went after the people calling her behavior wrong. She handled herself amazingly. And I love that she’s also promoting strength training kind of exercises like boxing. She shouldn’t ever need to use any kind of training like that – but she had the instinct and it helped her out.
Agreed. I went from being mildly annoyed by her media oversaturation to being impressed as hell. Take notes, women of tomorrow!
Me too. Previously I’ve found her very boring and just kind of there, not liking her that much but also not really caring. But now? I admire how she’s handled this. Good girl. I hope she never backs down on this. An elbow to the face is the bare minimum this guy deserved for his assault.
We’re in effin 2016 and someone actually thinks she has no right to say who’s touching her body??
Love every word of this ! I can’t really conceive of how terrifying it must be to be this young woman, singularly objectified in the Information Age, this Age of Access and unbound, ultra-refracted desire. I’m still in awe of the “fighter’s” composure she showed in the midst of the assault. Now I’m in awe of her clear-eyed message. It chokes me up to think of her mother’s voice, my mother’s voice, my grandmother’s saying: “good girl.”It’s painful … this shorthand, “good girls keep themselves safe.” So much needs to change, but still, it’s heartening that she has a platform to defend her essential defensibility.
I can’t believe anyone was criticizing her for this, or that a “journalist” thought that was the appropriate way to write up the store.
I’m proud of her for fighting back, both then and now.
“Pay attention to the people who make you feel uncomfortable.” So, so true.
Of course she was right! I’m not easily scared and I don’t tend to think that the world is a dangerous place or that most people are bad, but darn! If someone tries to grab me, I won’t wait to see what are the person’s intentions! I’ll elbow them and try to go for the nuts and/or nose! And I won’t care that it looks “unwomanly”
He assaulted her. I’d like to see him arrested, charged, and in jail for a stint. He is clearly a repeat offender.
Good on her for encouraging young women to learn self defence!
Is anyone even questioning her defending herself? Ridiculous. That guy has repeatedly assaulted and sexually assaulted women and men. He needs to be in prison.
I have a whole new respect for her since this story broke. Go Gigi Go!!
Good for her for elbowing the assailant, and I hope she fired her useless “bodyguards”.
I wish she’d have broken his nose. And since he physically picked her up and started pulling her away, I’ll bet there’s a lawyer who could get him charged with attempted kidnapping or something. Put that asshole in prison for a good long while.
And I honestly think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a picture of her smiling. She looks like a completely different person when she smiles!
Damn straight
x1000
Way to go girl!! No one, no matter who they are, has a right to put their hands on you. I have told my 16 year old daughter what a police officer once told me: when you are walking from place to place, you walk with a purpose that gives off the vibe that you are a force to be reckoned with, and you show that force if anyone puts their hands on you. Ladies do not ever think you are in the wrong for defending yourself.
So disgusting that anyone would respond to this as if Gigi was the one who behaved badly.
my two cents : I think it was model behaviour and I hoped that her fan girls will learn to expect respect.
I wish that she had broken his nose. It would have served him right.
thank you for only posting Gigi’s bit and none of gross Dunhams!