Didn’t your mama teach you manners?

Earlier this week there was a little Facebook meet-up at Hyde Park in London. Around 250 teens and young adults had a water fight to cool off from the “blistering heat.” (Do they have blistering heat in London because I was there in the middle of June a few years ago and it was darn cold out.)

So anyway, this water fight took an ugly turn when one young woman squirted a guy with some kind of red soda. She was clearly just playing around, but he didn’t find it the least bit funny. He chased after her and when he caught up with her he punched her square in the jaw, knocking her up off the ground and then flat in the grass. (The article has the pictures too prove it.)

I think most of us would find this behavior pretty despicable. And I’m not talking about the girl’s behavior. I’m talking about this guy punching a girl. Maybe it’s because I am born and raised in the Midwest, but we were taught that a man never, ever, ever lays a hand on a woman. It doesn’t matter if she punched him first of if she squirted him with red soda. Never.

So imagine my surprise when I read the first few comments.

Claire from Wells says:

Cannot condone what this man did, but, she did not use water she used a coloured liquid, he may have thought that she had ruined his t-shirt. She took things too far, he went further. If she had not been there, it would not have happened. They are both in the wrong, not just him.

Adam from Reading says:

I’m not supprised he was angry, water is one thing cos that dries but she’s stained his white shirt!

And Gary from Cobham says:

Before we condemn this apparent bully, we should remember that “ladettes” are often more agressive and inclined to provoke fights than men of similar ages. They play the agressor in the (almost) certain knowledge that most men will still not hit a woman. In this case she clearly got it wrong. In the age of so much knife crime, maybe she should be grateful she just got punched..!!

Seriously?!? Getting squirted with red soda justifies being punched in the jaw so hard your feet literally come up off the ground? In what world do these people live in where that is an appropriate reaction to being squirted by liquid? And this girl was “the agressor (sic)” for squirting the guy? Really?!? Aggressor? She was having fun. I’d bet money she didn’t mean any harm by it.

Should she have squirted him with red soda? Probably not. It was a water fight, not a soda fight. And red soda can stain. But an appropriate response should have been, “Dude! You just stained my shirt.” And maybe a request for her to fork over about four pounds to replace it. Because seriously. He’s wearing a white t-shirt. It looks like maybe a Fruit of a Loom or Hanes t-shirt that you can buy at Wal-Mart for $6 for a back of three t-shirts. (Or Marks & Spencer or wherever you buy cheap ass t-shirts in London.)

It says a lot about where society is today when so many commenters actually think it’s ok for a man to lay a hand on a woman, let alone when her only crime is squirting him with soda. It’s not like she physically harmed him (which still wouldn’t make it okay for him to hit her in my book). Jeez!

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