We all have our moments where keeping it real goes wrong and celebrities are no exception to that rule. Unfortunately for Serena Williams, things went terribly, terribly wrong during a recent interview with Rolling Stone when she kept it real about her opinion of the Steubenville rape case.
During her interview with reporter Stephen Rodrick, Williams and the interviewer watched the news and happened upon the story of the now famous Steubenville, Ohio rape case in which a 16-year-old Steubenville High girl was imbibed with alcohol and then raped repeatedly by two high school football players, Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, while their friends watched, photographed and recorded the rapes. The images and video were then disseminated through text and social media by their high school peers.
The two boys were convicted in March of the rape, with Richmond receiving a minimum sentence of one year in juvenile detention, while Mays received a minimum sentence of two years for sharing photos of the crime, resulting in a child pornography conviction.
When Williams saw the story on TV, she shook her head in disbelief, but she wasn’t disgusted by the perpetrators of the rape, she instead questioned why the girl put herself in a situation to be raped.
“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.”
Wow! Talk about blaming the victim!
Regardless of whether the girl was drunk under her own volition or drugged, which has been alleged, no one who is intoxicated deserves to be raped. In fact, there are no circumstances under which anyone deserves to be raped. Absolutely none.
It’s bad enough that school officials and local authorities tried to cover up the scandal to protect the boys, according to the internet hacker groups Anonymous and KnightSec, and that the girl was ostracized in her own town after the rape. Now, she’s being blamed on a national platform for the rape by an influential celebrity. Suffice to say, Williams’ stance is nothing short shameful and inappropriate.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time a celebrity has said something ignorant about rape. Check out some other offensive remarks below. – nicholas robinson
