Did this woman "ask for" a brutal beating? No, no and definitely no. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Hi society. It’s us, Ravishly. And we just have a few friendly reminders to enable us to live happier, kinder, healthier, more just lives. So we know there’s a shit ton of horrific shit going down right now in the world—from Ebola, to Israeli-Palestinian violence, to genocide in Iraq, to the militarization and brutality of police in our own Ferguson, Missouri. Plus we lost Robin. It’s real bad. All we want to suggest is that while we’re all taking these horrors in, we remember some basic things about humanity: like that beating the shit out of someone is never OK—no matter what he or she chooses for his/her profession.
Why the reminder? Oh, because of porn star Christy Mack’s unconscionable beating and the (at this point, seemingly inevitable—though it is not inevitable) victim-blaming in its wake.
Here’s the Deal
Christy Mack is a porn star. And yes, to recap: that means she has sex! For money! On camera! And people see it! Now that we’re past that, let’s focus on what matters: her 18 broken ribs, her missing and broken teeth, her ruptured liver, her inability to walk, her lesions from multiple knife injuries, her nose broken in two places, her slurred speech due to facial swelling.
So what happened exactly?
Christy Mack had been dating Jonathan Koppenhaver, an MMA fighter known as "War Machine." Last Friday, she claims Koppenhaver appeared at her Las Vegas apartment unannounced, on the heels of a breakup in May. He found her with an unidentified male third party—and promptly began beating the shit out of them, sending both to the hospital without uttering a word.
According to her statement, released with graphic images of her in her post-attack state, Mack said that Koppenhaver made her “undress and shower in front of him” after beating her friend, then “dragged [her] out and beat [her] face.” He threatened to rape her. He used a knife on her, prompting her to believe she was “going to die.” Koppenhaver even took her phone “and canceled all of [her] plans for the following week to make sure no one could worry about [her] whereabouts.” She was only able to escape when the MMA fighter left—to get another knife.
Since the alleged attack, Koppenhaver has been on the run from cops. Not that has stopped him either from tweeting weird, delusional, victim-blaming things like the following:
I only wish that man hadn't been there and that Christy & I would behappily engaged.I don't know y I'm so cursed.One day truth will come out
— War Machine (@WarMachine170)
And, of course, the victim-blaming hasn’t stopped with War Machine. It’s everywhere—from Facebook comments on the incident like "Those type of guy’s are not mentally fine and they need to see a therapist. But certain women do know how to pick them and love to be mistreated," to a Fox News outlet who quoted president of Exquisite Entertainment, Howard Levine (who’s worked with Mack) when he said: “She was warned several times. They broke up a while ago and he moved out of state.”
Oh. OK. She was warned. Not-so-subtle implication? She asked for/deserved her brutal treatment.
More from our friends at Fox, who quote Nik Richie, owner of gossip site The Dirty:
The site obtained pictures of the former couple together post their supposed break-up in bed only a week or so ago, and they two were spotted together recently as a week ago. War Machine reportedly caught her cheating. He thought they were still together. What he did was 100 percent wrong but she provoked him.
There it is again! And so soon after Steven A. Smith came under fire for his claims on ESPN that women should do their part in preventing provocation from their men (in the wake of Baltimore Ravin Ray Rice getting suspended for two games for beating his then-wife unconscious). Wait, what’s that? Fox also quotes Lex Jurgen of gossip site WWTDD and he claims Mack made a “bad choice” and references Smith? Oh, yeah. Enjoy (and by that we mean "retch repeatedly over") this nugget:
Steven A. Smith got suspended from ESPN for saying women shouldn’t provoke their violent boyfriends. What about dating a guy who’s been arrested and imprisoned several times for violent assault?
Yes, War Machine is violent, with a proven record of assault. Yes, he tweeted egregious “jokes” about raping Mack. But no, profound NO, that anyone, ever, at any time, is responsible for provoking/deserving domestic violence.
We know this is what mainstream media pounds us with every day. But how about we not let such quotes, such framing of these incidents, enable us to forget what trumps it all: No person deserves to be beaten. Ever.
We’re sorry we even have to type these words but it clearly needs to be repeated: Porn stars are as much people as non-porn stars. And when they are beaten, with chilling photographic evidence and hospital records backing it all up, they deserve our empathy. They do not deserve to be victim-blamed or shamed for their career choices.
No person chooses or deserves to be abused. Full stop.
