Look, this is all very well, but here’s the part that’s profoundly disturbing to me–and to everyone who watches the damn video and is disturbed by it–and yet almost no one seems to want to talk about..
He tells the girl to leave, so she leaves and he walks away. But for some reason, the way she’s leaving is unsatisfactory to him, so he runs after her, grabs her and throws her to the ground. I’m not going to say he went out of his way to make sure she made contact with the sidewalk instead of the grass, but he sure didn’t seem to go out of his way to prevent it. Then, after forcing her to sit, there’s apparently something about the way she’s sitting that is unsatisfactory, so first he screams “sit your ass down!” at her despite her having made no attempt not to continue sitting, and then, her failure to comply with his command to sit in a sufficiently submissive manner causes him to see an urgent need, perceptible apparently only to him, to lay hands on her some more–a lot more-wrestle with her, exert dominance and control over her.
It’s clear that there was some reason the asshole had picked her out of the crowd as someone to pay attention to, such that her continuing to talk got his attention from a distance the way no one else’s talking had. And it’s clear that there was some reason he felt the need to lay hands on her over and over again, pull her hair and force her into submission despite the fact that she was complying with his orders.
And it is perfectly goddamn clear to anyone who watches the video what that reason was and what it was about her that caused him to at least subconciously tag her for special attention!
That’s what makes those of us who feel ill watching it feel so ill. And yet, none of us want to discuss it because, gosh, it just seems over the line and over the top to suggest it, or accuse this guy of . . . um . . . gulp . . .
Plus we can’t even talk about it without using words like “young” and “nubile” or note that she, unlike most of the teen girls here, didn’t have a cover-up on (because, as Megyn told us, “she’s no saint!” Hussy had it coming, just like all hussies do!), words that make us feel icky and pervy, or guilty because they might represent an admission that we ourselves noticed the thing that he did, the thing that caused him to single out her, out of all the teens on the scene and all the teens leaving the scene at his command.
But for Christ’s sake, we all noticed. It’s clear as day. Maybe it wasn’t conscious, but no, it’s just not a coincidence that the testosterone poisoned amped up warrior goon tagged this girl, among all the teens there as one to keep an eye on for special treatment if she gave him the slightest excuse to do it.
That’s why we feel sick watching this video and that’s why we’re outraged, whether we want to articulate it or not. And, I fear, it’s the exact same thing that makes many of those who are defending him so strident and aggressive in their approval of his actions.