Does "Hit the Bitch" Stop Domestic Violence?
by When Nordette Adams, another contributing editor at BlogHer, told me about the Danish anti-violence program, Hit the Bitch, I thought it must be some sort of joke. It wasn't. Nordette had read a post on Feministe, in which the author "hit the bitch" avatar as many as 15 times, watched her cry and cover her bruised face, and then was rated "100% gangsta" when the "bitch" collapsed. As the online abuser observed her status, the words changed.
"Gangsta" disappears and "idiot" replaced it. For some reason, Nordette did not find this to be a very effective anti-abuse message campaign. Go figure...
I wanted to "hit the bitch" myself, but by the time I went to the website, it was restricted to Danish users:
Dear non-danish visitor,
Due to an extremely high amount of traffic "Hit the Bitch" has been limited to only allow users from Denmark.
However, domestic violence is a global problem, so please support the fight against it in your local country.
Thanks for your interest.
Kind regards
Children exposed to Violence at Home
I guess Danes have a better cultural framework for understanding the links between "gangsta" behavior and abusing women. Yeah. (The ad is in Danish, and when Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux wrote about it onCare2, a commenter translated it. There is also a picture from the site before it was restricted.)
Since I am not gangsta enough to have hit the bitch, I'll focus on the effectiveness of the idea behind the campaign. My sneaking suspicion is that the "extremely high amount of traffic" that the website experienced is not due to people who want to better understand why you are an idiot if you hit women. I think they heard about this website where you can be a bad ass motherfucker and have some fun beating a fake woman online. I also think that many might want to feel like they are participating in some sort of gangsta culture in which this is not only OK, but really cool. Yet the last line (as reported by Nordette) does not, pardon the pun, strike me as remotely strong enough to encourage users to think about why the violence against women is wrong. I wonder how many people saw the words "100% idiot" and laughed it off.
Martina Zavagno at Advreblog disagrees with my take on the campaign. She noted that:
The campaign is literally in your face as you have to punch the featured girl to get the message. Most disturbing is that you want to go all the way through, which make you feel like a 100% idiot once finished. But the message, even though it's in Danish, is very clear.
awid - the association for women's rights in development reviewed blog posts for and against the ad, and staked out a middle ground:
Seriously though, this seems like the end result of some people sitting around a table trying to figure out how to make domestic violence edgy and attention-grabbing. Are we really so inured to the standard imagery of wide-eyed kids cowering in the background, or the bruised faces of women?...Perhaps the best way to decide is to visit the site and experience it for yourself, should you feel it's not too unpleasant to do so.
Yes, well, that would be a good thing to do, wouldn't it? Except that you can't if you are not Danish. And maybe at the end of the day that is what disturbs me the most about this ad campaign. The organization wanted to stir up a discussion about domestic violence and create awareness. They chose to do so in a very controversial way. And then when, not surprisingly, a lot of people wanted to see the site for themselves, they restricted access to it. It makes me think that they themselves realized that they may not have made the wisest decision in encouraging people to "hit the bitch."
Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants and is the author of Off the Beaten (Subway) Track.
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Comments
Hit the bitch...wow!!
Unbelievable. I don't know anything about Danish culture but I doubt that they have any special or more enlightened way to deal with domestic violence. The description of their website leads me to believe they do not. Maybe if they had a Danish or Swedish-looking woman wielding a golf club at her husband's head or trying to scratch his lips off...hmmmm. Maybe a different response or at least a different discussion.
I think the only way to stop or significantly decrease domestic violence (besides exposing and penalizing abusers) is to teach children, in classrooms and churches and on playgrounds and in the media that they watch that this is something horrible and bad and report it asap if they see or experience it. I believe domestic violence begins in the lives of children who eventually grow up and perpetrate it.
I know DV is not funny, but...
I couldn't help but crack up at your golf club reference. Very effective - much more so than Hit the Bitch. And I think you are right that the real way to stop it for good is to work with kids. It is definitely a vicious cycle, often supported by our horrid culture.
Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Oth
not convincing.
This sounds like a poorly thought out student project - it shows ignorance about domestic violence and violence against women, and ignorance about how to communicate persuasivly.
The reason I say it reminds me of a student project is because whenever I set my students a assignment to deal with communicating a moral message - the same thing happens. They tend to take the easiest route which is to "raise awareness" rather than inform people of a real way in which they can create change.
So you see adverts of woment with battered faces, damaged animals, pollution and so on, but no new information about these phenomena, and no practical call to action.
This is then justified as "but people must know about these things!". Which is a cop out. I think you will find that most people realise that cruelty to animals, violence to women and children and polluting the environment happens, and is wrong. But what then?
And its worse than that, because often these messages actually perpetuate the beliefs that help cause the problems. "Women are victims". Or maybe some people actually get off on seeing how powerful abuse is. So it can actually do harm.
There are so many ways in which on line technologies could help women in abusive situations. And if you do want to go the "inform" route- then tell me about a real woman, a single individual that I can identify with.
If we want to change people's perceptions, we have to work a lot harder than it seems the people behind this project did, and think a lot harder too.
Sensationalism
Excellent points, as always. It reminds me too of the vile breast cancer awareness campaigns that implore men to save what they love most - boobs - and feature lots of cleavage. The easy way out definitely sends a message - the wrong message.
Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Oth
Choice of Words Is Way Wrong
What a load of crap! The site is automatically disqualified for titling this sensitivity/understanding game "Hit the Bitch." That clearly shows what camp it's on and what kind of marketing it plays off.
http://www.thecluelesscrafter.com/
Goals
If the goal was to get attention, they definitely succeeded in that. But yeah, it's a really sad statement on marketing.
Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Oth
They Think This Is Helping?
Just hearing the name of this so called game is enough to spark outrage. A game called Hit The Bitch is not going to help a man stop hitting his woman, it may make him hit her more if anything. And the people playing this game are most likely men who already hit their women and find joy in having a game to express their hate even more.
http://curvyislandsista.blogspot.com/
Hit the bitch alternative...
Perhaps if they replaced the avatar of the woman with a picture of Chris Brown that you could pummel I could get behind it.
*crosses eyes*
That they put the site up at all under the guise of bringing awareness to domestic violence by asking you to hit a virtual woman made me want to cuss a lot.
People don't think. I remember when I first saw "Bubble Woman/Girl," a really neat looking computer program that let you drag a half-naked woman through bubbles and watch her fall, I was fascinated with how it looked, how she fell through the bubbles, and especially intrigued when music was playing in the background. Partly I was fascinated because I was in awe at the programmer's skill. That was five or six years ago.
And then one day shortly after I discovered the program, I thought there's something wrong about this. Why is it a woman? Why is she almost naked? And does she look happy at all going through these bubbles? Does it look like the bubbles are painless? Game over.
That was game over for me, but Bubble Girl is still popular. She's online today as a "funny" game, she's embeddable now. You can add her to any website.
Click to Play!
Nordette Adams is a BlogHer CE & you can find her other stuff through Her 411.
OMG Nordette
I remember BubbleGirl. I too was fascinated by her and spent a lot of time dragging her around and watching her fall. I shared the game with lots of other email friends. Well, I just clicked on your link to refresh my memory and EWWWWWW ! I can't believe I actually participated in that. BubbleGirl is a half naked corpse that gets stuck between solid balls when not freefalling and you can drag her around. I can't believe I once participated in that. Shuddering.
Ridiculous
You can see screenshots from the app @ http://www.semor.dk/#/cases/hitthebitch/.
It's a dumb idea, and yes, people have flooded there to DO the beating, not to receive some sort of message AGAINST the beating.
Weird.
~ Bill
I blog at billcammack.com
Hit the Bitch....
My husband and I wrote from both a male and female perspective on this campaign. Feel free to take a look and comment: http://womenspeakout.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/hit-the-bitch/
also...
and it's interesting to point out that the link for the game has been so overwhelmed that it is no longer available outside of denmark.
Absolutely Ridiculous
Ugh this website makes me sick. I cannot comprehend how the creators can claim this silly little game is actually anti-domestic violence. I'm certain that although the website surely got many hits (excuse the pun), it did NOTHING to actually dissuade men from physical violence against women.
We actually wrote about this site a few weeks ago here:
http://girlhate.com/2009/11/17/hit-the-bitch-campaign-are-we-in-the-twil...
Glad to see it has since been restricted to Danish users only at least.