A Word On The "Hit That Bitch" Danish Anti Domestic Violence Viral Campaign

I don't think I really need to elaborate on why this flash game is horrifying and completely misguided. I will say that games by their very nature are goal-oriented and intended for fun, so having one centered around domestic violence trivializes the subject, to say the very least. If you want to get across the horrors of abuse, you don't make the player an abuser...you make them the abused.

Don't know what I'm talking about? This recent viral campaign from Denmark that has left most of the civilized world disgusted. "Players" of their anti-domestic violence game "Hit That Bitch" are goaded by a virtual girlfriend in sexy clothes who verbally abuses them while they take punch after punch. There is even a webcam functionality that allows them to throw "real" punches. If that wasn't distasteful enough, a "gangsta" meter above fill to capacity as you land each successful hit. When the game ends and the player "wins", a screen comes up telling them that they are actually "losers", 'cause no one hits a woman.

Yeah.

I'm not even going to bother working up my feminist rage because all I see when I see this campaign is a bunch of Danish douches trying way too hard to be hip and completely missing the point in the process. But I will re-emphasize that video games by their very nature tend to trivialize many subjects. While "regular" violence occurs in many games, much of it is in context and most people don't have access to an Uzi for a good ole fashioned airport massacre. Domestic violence is an issue close at hand, in the home. It shouldn't necessarily be treated with kid gloves but neither should it be almost lampooned with a disrespectful and thoughtless public service announcement.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[Jezebel]