Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

[Kegan Allee <>]

Hi LB,

 

I think it is important to ask what the video is actually showing and tease that apart from what people use the video to teach. 

The video is showing:

·        Italian boys and their opinions, thoughts, and dreams

·        Italian boys interacting with a presumably Italian girl as directed by the invisible male-sounding voice

·        Italian boys and their reactions to the invisible male-sounding voice directing them to caress and then slap the girl

 

The video is not showing:

·        The girl consenting to be in the video

·        The girl consenting to be commented on, caressed, or slapped

·        The invisible person (presumably male by voice and by the interactions with the boys as one of them) talking to the boys and to whom the girl looks at and reacts

 

If the intention of the video is:

·        To document how boys think about violence against girls then this video does that.   

·        To teach boys and men that violence against girls/women/people is wrong then this video falls short.

o   It does not teach boys/men that violence against any person is wrong

o   It does not teach boy, men, girls, women, trans*, intersexed, or anyone else that boys and men can be subjected to violence and that is bad too.

o   It does not teach about consent.

 

My point is that you would need to ask more specific questions about who is seeing the video/being shown the video and what they/educators hope to get out of it. 

 

My personal opinions:

I thought it was a pretty sweet video about how a handful of Italian boys and how slapping this girl was not in their world of possibility.  Would I show it as an educator? Maybe, but *only* if I had the time to have a conversation with my audience about what it shows and what it doesn’t show and discuss the pros/cons.

 

I hope that helps, and happy New Year J

Kegan

 

 

*************************************************************

Kegan Allee, PhD

Title IX Investigator
University of Southern California

3720 South Flower Street, 2^nd Floor

Los Angeles, CA 90089-0704

Tel: 213-740-5086  Fax: 213-740-5090

Email:

 

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From: Mahri Irvine [mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2015 8:50 AM
To: 'LB Klein';
Subject: RE: Thoughts on "Slap Her: Children's Reactions" Video

 

Hi LB,

 

Thanks for sharing! This is a very… interesting video. I appreciate the sentiment behind it, but wow – basically it’s sending a message that it’s okay to “caress” a girl who is just standing there, but it’s not okay to slap a girl? It’s almost as though by trying to teach the viewers a lesson about not committing domestic violence, the film producers are telling us that it’s okay to commit sexual assault by “caressing” someone without asking for her consent. The whole premise is really quite disturbing to me. Basically, I could interpret this video as an objectification of a “pretty” girl who is standing there letting an unknown adult male tell boys to do what they want to her.

 

Also, the reasons the boys give for not slapping her are problematic, as I’m sure we can all agree. Not slapping somebody because she is pretty sends us a message that it’s okay to slap somebody who is not pretty! And, not slapping somebody because she is a girl, is a very different message than not slapping somebody because she is a human being.

 

Anyway, that’s my two cents worth. Thanks for sharing!

 

-Mahri

 

 

Mahri Irvine, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Department of Anthropology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

www.mahri-irvine.com

 

From: LB Klein [mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, January 6, 2015 11:31 AM
To:
Subject: Thoughts on "Slap Her: Children's Reactions" Video

 

Hi Colleagues,

 

I hope this email finds you all well and that you had some restorative time off and a great start to the new year.  

 

A video has been circulating a lot lately from Fanpage.it in Italy. It has close to two million views.  Trigger warning: themes related to gender-based violence, depiction of children being asked to commit violence. 

 

The subtitled version is entitled "Slap her: children's reactions" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OcKQ_mbiQ

 

Personally, watching it makes me uncomfortable and several folks I've talked to have found it triggering. I find it problematic for many reasons and am currently writing a full reaction to it. However, I've been receiving it a lot from folks who are advocates or prevention professionals in the movement who seem to be seeing it differently. I thought I would check in with others in our field to see what y'all think. 

 

Thank you for anything you have to share.

 

My best, 

LB

LB Klein, MSW | Educator & Consultant Based in Atlanta, GA

MPA Candidate, Program on Gender-Based Violence

University of Colorado at Denver School of Public Affairs

Lead Trainer

Prevention Innovations, University of New Hampshire

Pronouns: She, her, hers

        

 

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