An American female powerlifter has gone viral after punching out a man who sexually harassed her in Dublin.
Colorado-native Leanna Carr was minding her own business walking down a street in the Irish capital when a stranger groped her from behind.
In her own words, the man defended himself by saying, ‘You’re an American, you probably liked it.’
She wrote on Twitter:
While walking down the street in Dublin earlier this week, a man grabbed my butt. He proceeded to laugh hysterically and said “you’re an American, you probably liked it”. Apparently traveling solo has made me a better person bc my first reaction was to punch him in the face.
The tweet, showing her bruised hand following the ordeal, has been liked over 24,000 times.
Carr explained to The Independent:
I was walking in a hurry to catch my bus, when I felt someone grab my bum, hard. I turned around a little shocked initially, and said ‘what the f*ck’ to him. He started laughing, and said ‘oh you’re an American… you probably liked it’,” she told Independent.ie.
I am never a violent person, and I have never punched anyone before… but I became so angry and had so much adrenaline that my reaction was to punch him. I got him on the cheek bone, hard.
I started yelling a couple more things to him like ‘don’t ever touch a girl like that again, I could get you arrested’. He became very mad and I thought he was going to hit back.
But there was an older couple next to us who saw the whole thing and the gentleman told the scumbag to keep walking. The man started laughing again and then crossed the street to disappear in the crowd of people.
She added:
I was a little shaken and wanted to go home at first. I spent a couple days in Galway and went back to Dublin for another day, and I truly met the most amazing Irish locals who were very welcoming and kind. I realise situations like this could happen anywhere.
There are ‘bad eggs’ wherever you go. I left Ireland with more positive than negative experiences. This situation just made me keep my guard up a bit, which is a smart thing to do when traveling solo internationally.
She continued:
Maybe you haven’t seen it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. No matter what country you’re in. Sexual harassment happens every day from complete strangers and most women do not know the correct way to respond.
In the past, I probably would have felt too shocked and timid to have dealt with the situation. I probably would have just walked away… and that man probably would have continued to prey on innocent women.
I never use Twitter and didn’t write the post for attention, but I’m glad it went viral. This is something that is very common and hopefully it encourages more women to feel comfortable and able to stand up for themselves if it does happen to them.
Keep doing you, Leanna.
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