Last week after walking the Max Mara Fashion show in Milan, Gigi Hadid hand in hand with sister and fellow model, Bella Hadid, was walking through the crowd of people and taking selfies with fans, when a man ambushed Gigi and grabbed her from behind and picked her up.
Gigi fought off the attacker with fists and fighting words. The man dropped her and Gigi attempted to go after her attacker, but was stopped by her security detail and left the chaotic scene with Bella.
This event was already traumatic enough for her, however within hours, headlines depicted Gigi as aggressive and described her attacker as a “fan.” The Daily Mail stated: “Furious supermodel Gigi Hadid lashes out at fan and has to be held back by security after prankster lifts her up as she leaves Milan fashion show.” The Sun originally read: “NOT MODEL BEHAVIOR: Gigi Hadid aggressively lashes out and ELBOWS fan in the FACE after he tries to pick her up” with a subheading that declared “The supermodel angrily hit out at the unknown man before running to her car” before being changed.
On Twitter, Gigi voiced her frustrations and defended herself with the truth, reminding everyone that she is “a human being” who has every right to defend herself. In an interview with Lenny Letter, Gigi said of the media response, “That’s when I really got pissed. First of all, it was a woman who wrote the story with that headline. What would you tell your daughter to do? If my behavior isn’t model behavior, then what is? What would you have told your daughter to do in that situation?”
Unfortunately, in this day and age these kinds of violations continue on a daily basis especially to women around the world who do not have the same social media attraction or attention as Gigi. Seeing an empowering woman defending herself is exactly what people need to see to know that it is not only okay to defend yourself but it is great, despite what senseless headlines say. With that being said, there was no reason for Gigi Hadid defending her own actions after the assault. Nevertheless, Gigi needed to defend herself further from the media print when clearly she was in no wrong. Seeing someone like Gigi defend herself with no hesitation or help is so critical to her fans and many of whom had face their own experience with something so scary like this.
Luckily, there has been many supportive reactions to Gigi’s defense in the altercation and she has been moved by the response. “It’s very touching to me that people see it that way. I know people are put in much worse situations every day and don’t have the cameras around that provoke social-media support,” she added. “I just want to use what happened to me to show that it’s everyone’s right, and it can be empowering, to be able to defend yourself.”
Interested in reading the full interview with Gigi Hadid? Go to Lenny Letter .