function hide_user_promo_bubble_second_stage() { var bubble = $("user_promo_bubble"); bubble.style.display = "none"; } function hide_user_promo_bubble() { var bubble = $("user_promo_bubble"); var myAnim = new YAHOO.util.Anim(bubble, { opacity: { to: 0 } }, 1, YAHOO.util.Easing.easeOut); myAnim.animate(); setTimeout("hide_user_promo_bubble_second_stage()", 1100); } function handle_promo_username(params) { var bubble = $("user_promo_bubble"); var img = $("user_promo_bubble_image"); var anchor = $("user_promo_bubble_link"); if (params.has_photo == "true") { img.src = "http://images.huffingtonpost.com/profiles/" + params.user_id + "-tiny.png"; } else { img.style.display = "none"; Dom.addClass(anchor, "wide"); } anchor.innerHTML = "Shared by " + params.user_name; anchor.href = "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/" + params.user_name; bubble.style.display = "block"; var myAnim = new YAHOO.util.Anim(bubble, { opacity: { to: 1 } }, 2, YAHOO.util.Easing.easeOut); myAnim.animate(); } if (HuffPoUtil.getUrlVar("user_promo")) { YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(function() { var parts = document.location.hash.split(","), shared_by = "", badge = "", i; if (parts.length < 2) return; for (i = 0; i < parts.length; i++) { if (parts[i].indexOf("sb=") !== -1) { shared_by = parts[i]; } if (parts[i].indexOf("b=") !== -1) { badge = parts[i]; } } if (shared_by == "" || badge == "") return; var bubble = $("user_promo_bubble"); if (!bubble) return; var entry_id = HuffPoUtil.GetEntryID(); if (!entry_id) return; var user_id = parseInt(shared_by.substr(shared_by.indexOf("sb=") + 3)); if (!user_id) return; var badge_type = badge.substr(badge.indexOf("b=") + 2); if (!badge_type) return; script = document.createElement("script"); script.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript"); bubble.appendChild(script); script.setAttribute("src", "/include/share_track.php?a=view&eid=" + entry_id + "&uid=" + user_id + "&b=" + badge_type + "&cb=handle_promo_username"); }); } 'Hit The Bitch' Anti-Violence PSA Stirs Controversy

The intentions behind it may have been noble, but a Danish public service announcement about violence against women called "Hit The Bitch" has people asking just what those behind it were thinking.

Made by a Danish advocacy group as a web campaign (www.hitthebitch.dk), the site allows you to use your computer's mouse to move a gigantic hand so that it repeatedly strikes a female model in the face. The site then rates each hit on a scale beginning at "100% pussy" and ending at "100% gangsta." As you hit the woman her face begins to show bruises, and once enough blows are struck and the user reaches "100% gangsta," the woman falls down and the phrase "100% IDIOT!" appears on the screen. It then shows her sobbing and grabbing her neck in agony on the floor. The spot's message about violence is then presented in Danish while mournful music plays in the background.

The response from the handful of sites that have written about the PSA has been one of discomfort. The PSA "takes things to a a disturbing level," writes Nick McMaster at Newser. Meanwhile, Tana Ganeva of Alternet has accused the PSA of having gone "very, very wrong":

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?

Ganeva isn't totally dismissive of the PSA, however, and concludes her article by suggesting that since domestic violence is rarely discussed in the mainstream media, the makers of the spot may be on to something in their approach: "even though it's pretty fucking tone deaf and horrifying, are they on the right track by trying to be aggressively controversial?"

The confusion that the PSA causes for the user -- is this raising awareness to the severity of the problem, or is it unintentionally trivializing the issue -- was captured by Tim Nudd at Adweek: "Perhaps you're supposed to feel guilty, like a real-life abuser might, for continuing to hit the woman just to see what happens next? Who knows. Maybe something's getting lost in translation from the Danish," Nudd writes.

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.

And please let us know how you feel about the PSA.

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Comments

[wso ophelia]

I appreciate and understand the value of shocking an audience. Our society thrives on keeping us ignorant, passive, and docile. It doesn’t like change, and a lot of that attitude has rubbed off on many of us. So every so often we need to be outraged into action. But not all shock is beneficial, even if intentions are good. I've posted a blog about this here and welcome your comments. http://womenspeakout.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/hit-the-bitch/

[KGregs]

Does the site give you the opportunity to buy her flowers and beg for her forgiveness when she gets up from the floor?

Horrifying.

[NealVeglio]

Who exactly is this aimed at? The music and style suggests it's targetting the young 'URBAN' community. IE, just those poeple who are going to find this "hilarious" and play it in the office while cracking up at how funny it is.

I am a fan of South Park etc, but this misses the point. It's all very well to put something like this out and then dress it up as "raising awareness" of the problem but it's NOT hitting that message. It only tells you it's wrong at the end. And even then in a comedic way. If you want to produce a controversial Grand Theft Auto type viral, then be honest about it. Don't dress it up for something it isn't.

I believe in the right to express creatively in an edgy and controversial fashion...but this is NOT being clever or funny. Just taking the base obvious route to cheap laughs.


http://manwithamicrophone.blogspot.com

[OliveP]

Here is the thing that most people don't get..

It is to get awareness and to get the discussion going about this very taboo subject.

I think they have succeeded quite well no?

[eriklk]

I've read a few comments about how this desentisizes us to violence, and how we should rather have a sober PSA about how awful domestic violence is. But the target audience of 16to20yo boys are already desentisized to earnest PSAs. Also, although I haven't played HitTheBitch myself it seems more likely that it'll resentisize people to violence than the other way around. It's really not enough of a game to be played for fun.

There have also been some comments about how unsuitable this game is for victims of domestic violence; again, this isn't a campaign that targets victims. We have lots of those campaigns already. The reason for this controversial campaign is partly the astounding failure of their earlier PSAs at reaching this audience. (Also: One of the nasty things about domestic violence: it's not only thugs and lowlifes who beat their partners - so do doctors and lawyers and lots of other people.)

Ofcourse, this campaign's only a few days old, and nobody knows if it's going to have an impact. But if it can spark discussions in highschool classrooms around the country, I think it will have served its purpose. I never ever thought that some of the girls in my highschool class could be in abusive relationships at the time, but maybe that knowledge would have made me more perceptive and more supportive of the ones who (probably) were. And one of the first steps on the way to limiting this problem is breaking the tabu.

[union girl]

thanks everyone for your useful responses to my post. to be hones, as soon as i posted it, i regretted it -- because in reading the other comments, people were immediately polarized by this idea and major walls were going up (and verbal fists were coming out). plus i was really saddened by how many used this topic as a way do barroom jokes about beating women. i know i never want to visit the website again, but i am going to be forever haunted by the visual of that woman rolling on the ground in tears. she was so broken, and i broke her.

[liveinhope23]

What a truly awful idea. A video game for wife beaters. While I'm sure their intentions were honorable, did they really expect that a graphic representation of domestic violence would deter people who practice the real thing? All this has done is provide an alternate, virtual victim. What next - virtual child molestation to discourage pedophiles?
A sensationalist and self-defeating way to raise awareness about this tragic issue.

[madisonhack]

I disagree. This isn't going to be played by active wife beaters. Part of the cycle of domestic violence is in the guilt of the pain that resulted in the attack. That guilt is constantly pushed aside until it again turns to a resentment against the victim - and then it becomes the fuel for the next round of abuse. I don't know if this game will be effective in reducing domestic violence, but it certainly isn't a wife beater's game.

[JuniperSunshine]

And to end child abuse, should we do the same? How about a new anti-drug PSA where you can simulate taking hallucinogens?

Isn't the point of calling attention to domestic violence to remind people just how unacceptable it is? Turning some poor woman's tragedy into a video game just doesn't seem to do that. What on Earth were they thinking?

[Gylden]

Perhaps something is indeed lost in the translation as this reaction from a non-targeted segment - everyone but danes - seems over the top considering theres more pressing international issues as hand.

Im danish by the way

[nyjenniec]

Disturbing!! I can appreciate wanting to raise awareness through controversy, but I am not sure this does that. Perhaps for a fleeting minute, but then players realize it's a game and are then desensitized to the violence. Good message now lost and replaced with bad one. ugh....

[JDinBalt]

Maybe I'm missing the point here, but how do you DISCOURAGE domestic violence by ENCOURAGING a person to partake in it online? Stupid and misguided, that's what this is. There are better ways to get to people about this topic than virtual battery.

[Sid09]

question: would it be as entertaining if it was a girl doing the slapping? just asking

[bothsides]

gotta knock'em out sumtimes lol

[madisonhack]

This game was made specially for dullards such as yourself.

[DeeDubya]

Because men never get abused. Total propaganda.

[meemu]

If you were to look at the statistics I believe you would discover that the GREATEST majority of victims are women, not men. I believe that women also experience the majority of deaths related to domestic violence, by men. So it obviously is NOT "total propaganda".

[Megan97401]

I guess I'm too late to check it out-- it's only available to Danish visitors now.

I wonder what kind of research, theories, empirical evidence they had to go on which would indicate the site would be beneficial. It just seems too counterintuitive.