A before and after photo of a woman has gone viral today. No, it’s not just an illustration of some celebrity’s plastic surgery, it’s an amateur photo of what happens when you refuse a man’s advances. Mary Brandon, 22, hadn’t been at Notting Hill Carnival long when a man started groping her. When she rejected his advances, he punched her in the face.
Refusing to suffer in silence, she uploaded photos of her injuries to Facebook, in a bid to shame the man who hurt her so badly. And she’s said that she would totally get punched again. It’s pretty extreme, but if you see what happened to her you can sort of get it – she’s refusing to back down. The pictures have since gone viral.
She wrote on her Facebook page, under the photos: ‘At Notting Hill Carnival yesterday a man in the crowd grabbed my arse. When I told him not to he did it again.’
‘I pushed him away, exercising my right to tell a man to stop touching my body without my permission, so he took a swing at me and punched me in the face.’
READ MORE: A Woman Has Just Been Attacked In A Bar For Wearing Google Glass
Going some way to explaining the severity of her injuries, she continued: ‘Carnival is supposed to be about community and good vibes. I wanted to have a good time but instead I spent 9 hours in A&E because of this coward. I’m so pissed off that this man thought it was OK to hit me because I said no to him.’
But it’s the photo that’s the most shocking part of the attack. Her entire face is covered in bruises, blood and swelling. She also made the strident point that she would actually take a punch again from the prick who thought that grabbing at her, then hitting her, was appropriate behaviour:
‘Maybe it’d be safer to just ignore it when someone invades your space and body,’ she writes.
‘But I can honestly say I will always stand up to someone who thinks they can get away with this behaviour and I’d take a punch again from this looser or any other looser [sic] who thinks it’s OK to treat women like this.’
READ MORE: Victim Is Now ‘Terrified To Travel’ After Sex Attack On The Tube
A friend of hers who witnessed the attack told The Evening Standard: ‘She had only been at the carnival for 15 minutes and I was standing right next to her.
‘After she pushed him away, he started walking off and then a couple of people were laughing, which we think damaged his ego,’ said Rebecca Hammerton, 22.
‘He walked back and swung round and punched her in the face with a right hook punch, using the force of his whole body. He was with another person, I think a girl, but they didn’t bat and eyelid and ran off through the crowd.’
READ MORE: The Number Of Women Reporting Sexual Assaults On The Tube Is At A Five-Year High
She added: ‘He didn’t lose his temper or anything, he was really calm,’ but something tells us that smacking a woman in the face is pretty much losing your temper, no matter how much you try to style out this sort of sexual violence. At the very least, maybe this can serve as a deterrent to blokes who don’t get that women aren’t there to please them.
The incident happened near the Channel One soundsystem in Leamington Road Villas and police are looking for the attacker, described as about six foot tall, black, in his late 20s/early 30s and in all-black clothing, including a cap.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Post Carnival Investigations Team on 0208 246 0076.
You might also be interested in:
Watch The Moment This Indian Woman Hits Her Back Against Her Attacker
Teenage Girl In India Cut Off Uncle’s Dick After He Raped Her
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.