Adam Johnson, pictured with girlfriend Stacey Flounders.
Adam Johnson has been arrested for allegedly having a sex with a minor. Adam Johnson is a 27-year-old man, while the girl he was reportedly sexually active with is 15 years old. This is all we know about this story at the moment.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t prevented an overwhelming number of people on the internet to come running to Johnson’s defense, but not because he’s not yet been found guilty – no, that would be far too moral – but because “15 year old girls shouldn’t be allowed in clubs”, “she probably looked older than 15” or “she just wants money from him.” All of these suggestions are based upon versions of events that the police have never once confirmed have taken place. As far as we know, no nightclub was entered by the 15-year-old or by Johnson. The closest thing we have to an actual fact in this investigation is that police arrested Johnson when the girl’s father had contacted them, after she had reportedly posted about their relationship on social networking sites.
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It’s predictably an endless sea of people seeking to blame the alleged victim, throwing up the argument of “clubs are 18+ only so she’s to blame”, even though it’s never once been stated by police that the pair met in a club.
Continuing this dive into a cesspit of the internet’s most awful, indefensible opinions, you’ll also find that an image is circulating that many believe is a photograph of the 15-year-old girl in question, with it actually being of Johnson’s girlfriend, Stacey Flounders. Here’s the image in question, taken from her Facebook page:
Many have been led to believe that this is a photo of the girl Adam Johnson is alleged to have had sexual relations with, which has inevitably led to some rather choice comments. The following two tweets are a good summary of the kind of response the circulation of this image has elicited:
Though the image isn’t of the 15-year-old, the reaction to its circulation is indicative of how readily many are to place the blame upon the female victim, and not the man – particularly if the man in question is a professional footballer, it seems.
People are insinuating that the minor is to blame for going to an 18+ club (which, as far as we know, she didn’t), and that the 27-year-old Adam Johnson, a man almost double her age, is therefore somehow the victim in this false narrative that some poorly educated denizens of the internet have cooked up in an attempt to justify a grown man sleeping with an underage girl.
The ignorant often ask why the victims of sexual assault, rape and crimes of that nature so frequently opt to not speak up about it. Maybe it’s because when they do, many choose to point the finger of blame at them and publish their identities on the internet? Just a thought.
