Shorts too Short!
A dozen young men assaulted a French family of eight including children in the country’s south. Male members of the same family suffered a severe beating after attackers deemed the women’s clothes and pants to be “excessively revealing” and “shameful”.
The incident which occurred last Sunday in the city of Toulon, southern France, consisted of a family of two sisters, their husbands, their brother and three children aged between 10 and 14. They had been riding bikes and rollerblading through an eastern neighborhood of the city. They were approached by a group of 10 young men, who insulted the women for wearing ‘inappropriate’ and ‘provocative” clothing. The husbands and brother intervened to defend the women but were severely beaten. One of them suffered multiple facial fractures, and another a broken nose.
“They [the attackers] shouted to them [the women] ‘whores’ and ‘go on, get naked’,” the Valeurs Acuelles magazine quoted Marchal as saying.
A GANG of 10 youths unleashed a volley of offensive insults at two French women because they were roller skating wearing a pair of ‘revealing’ shorts – then beat up their husbands and their friend.
Mayor of Toulon Hubert Falco said that “attacking my fellow citizens in shorts is abnormal and pitiable.”
“I am happy that thanks to the efficiency of the national police and CCTV cameras of the city, we could apprehend the perpetrators. One does not attack a woman because she is wearing shorts. This heinous act must be punished harshly,” the Mayor added in his speech.
One of the victims, named only as Marie, commented on the incident to the Nice Matin newspaper on Friday.
“We were not wearing shorts. We were in biking sportswear. One youngster badmouthed us and then things quickly escalated,” local French newspaper quoted the victim.
There is no information on the alleged perpetrators’ identities, nationalities, citizenship or religion. Politicians and supporters shared the news of the incident on social media under a hasthag #TousEnShort (‘All In Shorts’), to express their support for the victims. Some posted their own photos while wearing shorts.
It is not the first incident revolving around shorts in Toulon. The #TousEnShort hashtag emerged in June, after a previous attack on a woman wearing shorts. An 18-year-old girl named Maude Vallet was insulted, harassed and spat on by a group of five girls while on a bus. Her denim shorts played a role in the attack.
Vallet posted a picture of her sexy short pant outfit on Facebook, arguing that men can walk around in any items of clothing they want, and even go shirtless, and do not face the harassment she faced when she walked around exposing her breasts and erect nipple in public. After the very odd incident, a campaign to support the “victim” was mostly certainly promptly launched. According to a local French media, about 100 women wearing shorts only gathered in Toulon for a “short walk.”
