It’s not unusual for beloved entertainers like Mario to perform in front of hundreds of screaming fans who want a glimpse of their favorite singer. But it’s highly inappropriate when a fan uses their adoration as a permission slip to cross a line with them.
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Sadly, that’s exactly what happened when the “Just A Friend” singer was performing over the weekend in Detroit. And to make matters even worse— the ordeal was all caught on tape and has been widely circulated online.
If you haven’t seen the video yet, then allow us to paint the sad scene. Mario is walking across the stage in front of a row of women as he sings. While many hands are up in the air trying to touch him, one woman takes things way too far and grabs Mario in his private area and even holds her hand there. (To make matters even more sticky, the woman appeared to be wearing a wedding ring which only begs the question of where exactly her own husband was?)
Clearly feeling the assault, Mario then bends down to tell the woman to “stop doing that” before he continues singing. While that’s extremely commendable and professional of him to continue on with the show and not make the moment even bigger, we can’t and shouldn’t skip over the fact that he was groped in a non-consensual way in front of now thousands since the footage has circulated online.
If the roles were reversed and a male fan did this to a woman artist, the outrage would be astronomical and swift. So why aren’t too many people sounding the alarm to the same degree for Mario? To take it a step further, why is it that stories and instances where men are assaulted— sexually or otherwise— are ever given the same amount of public outrage?
Take for instance the recent incident that happened with Lenny Kravitz over the weekend while he was performing in Brisbane, Australia. During his song “Let Love Rule,” a woman fan allegedly pulled out four of his dreadlocs from the back of his head.
“You know how hard you got to pull to rip those out of my head?” he questioned in a since-expired Instagram Story post at the time, per PEOPLE. “Damn, baby.”
Where is his outrage? And let’s not forget the incident that happened with “Power” star Michael Rainey Jr. in 2024 when he was grabbed without his consent during an appearance on TyTy James’ Twitch livestream.
Thankfully he and his team met the moment with the severity that it deserved and put out a statement condemning sexual assault as an “unacceptable act.” But still, the ordeal left the young star with an emotional and physical challenge of trying to come to terms with what happened and how to process it in the immediate aftermath.
Look, we don’t know who needs to hear this but: it doesn’t matter how excited you are to see your favorite celeb. There is absolutely no time nor occasion where assault is okay. And just because you’re a woman, it doesn’t give you the right to act out on any behaviors that you think you might be able to get away with. It’s wrong, it’s problematic and overall it sours the relationship between artists and their fans.
Straight From 
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