We told you a while back about the sad case of the Steubenville, Ohio high school football players who will likely be in jail until they turn 21 after penetrating a girl who had gotten drunk with their hands and posting some photos of her on social media. Now thanks to a new interview with Rolling Stone Serena Williams may have found herself in the midst of a small controversy after revealing she doesn’t believe the boys should carry all the blame. According to excerpts that have leaked:
“Do you think it was fair, what they got?” Williams asked the Rolling Stone interviewer, shaking her head. “They did something stupid, but I don’t know.” Then Williams dug herself in further, according to excerpts obtained by Deadspin. “I’m not blaming the girl,” she said, “but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don’t take drinks from other people. She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember?”
Williams, 31 and currently the top-ranked female tennis player in the world, went on to say that what happened to the girl “could have been much worse.” “She’s lucky,” Williams said. “Obviously I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion….or no? See her response to the conversation she has started after the jump.
“What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened. For someone to be raped, and at only sixteen, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved – that of the rape victim and of the accused. I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written – what I supposedly said – is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.
I have fought all of my career for women’s equality, women’s equal rights, respect in their fields – anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent sixteen year old child.”