Poppy Got Punched! She’s the Victim, Right?

I saw some news this morning that left me feeling annoyed, not because of what happened, but rather how the media portrayed it. I’ll talk you through what happened first. Poppy, a British tourist, had just left a pub in Richmond in inner-city Melbourne, when a man was walking the other way waving a Brisbane Lions scarf after Brisbane defeated Geelong in the AFL preliminary final. As Poppy got closer, the man kind of waved the scarf in front of her, I guess in a sort of celebratory or gloating “We won!” sort of way. Poppy reacted and tried to grab the man’s scarf, but took issue when she couldn’t turning to reach for the scarf, and then winding up and striking the man in the face. The man took issue with that and retaliated striking Poppy in the face sending her flying backwards and falling to the pavement. Poppy’s friend intervenes, with the man clearly clutching his eye and audibly saying “She hit me!”. Poppy suffered a broken jaw and a shattered tooth, requiring surgery.

How do you think the media portrayed all of this? Well, Sky News: “English tourist recounts horror moment she was punched by a man on Melbourne street. She no longer feels safe.” Herald Sun: “She came with big travel plans. A footy thug in Richmond broke her jaw. She recounted her vile encounter with a violent footy fan.” ABC: “English tourist's jaw broken during altercation. Poppy was punched in the face during an altercation with a group of men.” It seems like it was a group of men that attacked her. You know, the group of men that were just standing there minding their own business while Poppy was winding up to punch their friend. “She has been left with three plates in her face after suffering a broken jaw and shattered tooth.” “‘Horrific’: Victorian man breaks woman’s jaw”, “Young woman attacked by unknown man”. You get the idea.

First, just to be clear, I’m not here to condone the actions of the man. Obviously, he shouldn’t be punching anybody in the face, however, nor should Poppy! A factual headline could also have been, “Victorian man punched in the face by young British woman. Retaliates effectively”, but nobody ran with that headline.

Poppy told the media, “I went to push him away to leave me alone. He then punched me. I don’t remember much apart from getting off the ground and walking away. It was scary. I wasn’t with a lot of people and it was really intimidating. They were being really rowdy because a football game just finished, they were quite boisterous. I have had stitches from my left ear to my cheek to my mouth. I had to have a wisdom tooth taken out. I have two titanium plates in my jaw. It has put me off. I don’t want this to happen again and I don’t really feel safe. I think it’s vile, awful. I don’t understand how someone thinks that’s an okay reaction to have, especially to a young girl. I’m on a pureed diet for six weeks so I couldn’t even have a birthday cake.”

Senior Constable Elissa Dykstra from Victoria Police stated, “It’s absolutely disturbing as a woman watching the vision. The footage is pretty horrific. It’s not great to see, especially on a busy Saturday night involving a young female.”

I agree, women should feel safe walking the streets at night, however, that’s on the condition that you don’t go around hitting people. I’m not justifying the level of force the man used, but all he did initially was wave a scarf in front of you – a fairly innocuous act. You escalated the situation by trying to grab it, and then striking him on the face. You don’t know how he’s going to react. It was foolish to strike him. Again, this is not me justifying what he did to you, but what do you think somebody would do if you strike them in the face? As they say, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Yes, he overreacted, but so did you.

What I really hate about all of this, Channel 9 didn’t even mention that Poppy struck him first. Even though they played the footage and you could see it happening, they just acted like this was just a vicious male attacking an innocent young woman.

At least the ABC were factual, “Poppy can be seen reaching for the Lions scarf and hitting one of the men in the head before he punches her in the face, causing her to fall to the ground.” Thank you ABC for at least giving the full description of the events.

Many people talk about wanting gender equality, but then also indicate that men shouldn’t hit women. I agree, men shouldn’t hit women, but also women shouldn’t be going around hitting men. That’s equality, is it not? What if I was in this situation? What if it was me instead of Poppy? The man waves his flag in front of me. You know what I would have done? I would have continued on walking. That’s what I would have done. Case dismissed. It wouldn’t have even made the news.

If you’re a young woman, I think it’s extremely unwise to go around punching men in the face who wave scarves at you. He may have overreacted, but so did you.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn