'Hit the Bitch': Domestic Violence PSA Goes Very, Very Wrong

By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
Posted on November 17, 2009, Printed on May 26, 2012
http://www.alternet.org/story/144018/%27hit_the_bitch%27%3A_domestic_violence_psa_goes_very%2C_very_wrong

A Danish PSA has managed to trivialize domestic violence to a degree unrivaled by our fashion industry, mainstream media and most irritating comedians (and all those people try really hard). HitTheBitch.com gives you a big, meaty hand with which to slap around a scantily dressed model who jabbers at you accusingly in Danish while sad rap music plays in the background. 

With every slap, the model’s face becomes more bruised, and a graphic at the top of the screen marks your progress from Pussy to Gangsta. I’m a pretty big pussy, so I only made it one fourth of the way to Gangsta before I got weirded out and had to stop. But apparently, once you've beaten the crap out of the model, the site totally topples all of your assumptions about intimate partner violence -- you know, that it makes you an offensive stereotype of a black man -- and you are told instead that you are "100% Idiot!"

And teen boys everywhere lean back and thoughtfully consider the relationship between aggressive ideals of masculinity and violence against women.

© 2012 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/144018/