Ciara and Kim Kardashian Weren’t ‘Pranked,’ They Were Sexually Assaulted

In case we haven’t had enough reminders that physically assaulting women still passes for LOLs in some peoples’ sick minds, the same creepy little fucker who attacked Kim Kardashian at Paris Fashion Week last Thursday has now assaulted Ciara at today’s Valentino show. TMZ has the disgusting video of Vitalii Sediuk pressing his thong-clad junk into her coat.

The Ukrainian TV journalist  violent jackass, whose battery and assault resumé includes attacking Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Will Smith, has lately been showing a disturbing taste for creeping on women. He also crawled up America Ferrera’s dress at Cannes last year, and crashed the Grammys to get up close and personal Adele.

It’s almost impossible to ignore the parallels between Sediuk and the convoluted case of YouTube pankster rapist Sam Pepper. It was scary that Pepper thought running around grabbing women’s asses counted as a joke, and even scarier that so many fans were willing to defend his actions — less now since his vile history was exposed by fellow YouTuber Laci Green. You’d think with all the furor around that there would be some hesitations about calling this latest bout of attacks “pranks” too.

I don’t know why media outlets feel the need to say Sediuk is “attacking” women. Might want to check your quote marks — what he’s doing isn’t a joke, it’s illegal and there’s nothing funny about it. E!’s jeering headline, “Kim Kardashian, Ciara, Brad Pitt and More Celebs Who’ve Been Pranked by Vitalii Sediuk,” seems to suggest that street harassment is no worse than farting into your hands and making someone smell it.

After the Grammys incident last year The Hollywood Reporter not only failed to condemn Sediuk’s actions but actually published an exclusive interview revealing how he managed to pull it off, like it was a feat comparable with pulling a baby out from under an oncoming train. The Daily Mail did the exact same thing last week. It’s blowing my mind that TMZ is basically the only outlet getting its angle right.

Unfortunately Paris police don’t quite see the severity of the matter either, telling TMZ it’s “not important enough to warrant their attention.” So if you want to follow in the footsteps of Sediuk and Pepper by making a career out of street harassment, Paris is probably a pretty awesome place to live.

Reprinted with permission from The Styleite. Want more?