This fashion event assault on a protestor shows how casual violence against women is

I may not work in fashion, but I can tell you what’s definitely not a good look: physically restraining a woman, pushing her to the floor, covering her mouth with your hand and pinning her down with your legs so that she cannot speak or escape. Especially when you’re a man in a position of power, and it’s done in plain sight in the middle of a fashion show.

Shocking video footage of the above incident was shared online after Steven Kolb, CEO and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), accosted a female Peta protester who attempted to disrupt the Cos show at New York Fashion Week on Sunday over the use of wool on the runway.

And when I say shocking, I mean it. Violence against women is nothing new, of course – but there’s something about the apparent casualness of the way Kolb rips the sign out of the woman’s hands, about the way he coldly overpowers her and covers her mouth – literally silencing her – that is terrifying to watch. Another clip showed him pushing a male protester against the window and covering their face with his hand. The fact that it was done in broad daylight, in a room full of onlookers, seems to suggest just how safe he felt: how entitled and protected from consequence.

Kolb has been placed on leave from the CFDA, which issued the following statement: “The CFDA takes this matter very seriously, and as a result, Mr Kolb will be on leave pending a full review. The CFDA as an organisation is committed to working with dissenting voices to find commonality and is engaged in efforts to move the American fashion industry forward while upholding the values of our membership, including respectful engagement with differing viewpoints.”

There have been calls, so far ignored, for his resignation; Kolb himself has issued the usual paint-by-numbers apology required after such an event. “As I review the videos, I understand the reaction they have generated. Frankly, I don’t recognise that person,” reads his statement on an Instagram story. “As a result, I am taking a voluntary leave from work and meeting with a professional to ensure it never happens again.

“I am deeply sorry and hold myself accountable. I have accepted an invitation from Peta to meet and discuss their concerns, and I hope to have the opportunity to apologise in person to the two individuals who did not deserve that treatment.”

Some of his detractors have accused him of not even writing the apology in his own words, pointing out that the Instagram story is flagged as “AI content”.

Anne Sisteron, a jewellery designer and influencer, said that the fashion industry has to speak up about his actions.

“When the man who represents American fashion physically assaults a woman in front of hundreds of people, we need to talk about it,” she claimed in an emotive video posted to social media. “What I saw was a man very confident with violence – violence against people he deems below him.

“You may or may not agree with Peta, but what I think you’ll agree with is that no man anywhere has the right to assault a woman.”

If only that were true. Far from being an isolated incident, it comes hot on the heels of a very similar, albeit more violent, display in the UK. Just weeks ago, a woman exercised her right to freedom of speech by protesting at the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham. She was assaulted by audience members: they violently pulled her hair and grabbed her head and jaw; one man bashed her with a crutch; her shirt was ripped and her back scratched.

Just as alarming as the attack itself was the response from senior Reform UK politicians. Leader Nigel Farage stood before it all and laughed from the stage. “That poor, young girl, she looked like she was going to do herself an injury, didn’t she?” he said. “Well, there’s a saying I’ve got for that. You know what it is, don’t you? Boring, boring, boring!”

MP Robert Jenrick’s reaction was even more callous. When questioned about the assault on Sky News, he told protesters to “get a life” and made fun of the woman being dragged by her hair, simply saying, “Oh boo-hoo” in response.

What’s so deeply concerning about both incidents is that they speak to the normalisation of violence against women, especially when they are speaking out, using their voice and fighting for what they believe in. The stereotype of the “angry women activist” is surging, alongside a frightening attitude where casual violence towards them is permissible.

What was once seen verbally online, or committed behind closed doors and hidden from view, is now very much out in the open. The men involved in these instances felt comfortable and confident manhandling these women in front of hundreds of others, in the knowledge that their actions were likely being filmed as well as witnessed. In neither moment did any of them appear to display reticence or anxiety about that fact.

This “acceptability” doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it’s arguably been years in the making, with pundits having aimed at any woman fearless enough to put herself in the firing line in the fight for justice. Greta Thunberg, the pioneering environmental activist, had to endure years of hateful jibes in the press when she was still just a teenager. British journalist Rod Liddle, in particular, frequently mocked her in his columns in the 2010s, calling her a “weird Swedish kid” and coining the phrase “Swedish doom goblin”; in 2017, Piers Morgan put on an accent and impersonated her on live television; Fox News were forced to apologise after a pundit called her a “mentally ill child” on air.

Any woman daring to use her voice in the age of social media will have faced something similar at one point or another – viciously trolled for having the temerity to believe she might just deserve to be heard.

The message is clear: women should sit down and shut up or expect the consequences. But now, it seems like it’s not just words that we’ll have to be wary of.