January 7, 2015 - Written by: Yazmin Joy

He asked them to “Slap her”. Here’s how they reacted.

Italian video journalist Luca Lavarone stops various young boys in a busy street. They are all between the ages of nine and eleven. He then asks them a series of questions. Name…. Age…. What they want to be when they grow up. Then he introduces a girl into the frame. *Girl enters.* He asks the boys what they think of the girl. He asks them to caress the girl. Then he asks them to SLAP HER. THIS was their reaction…

I don’t know about you, but I cried. Okay, I shed a single solitary tear… OKAY, OKAY, I didn’t cry. And I’ll admit, some parts of the video were a bit uncomfortable (‘caress her’??? Is she a puppy?). Maybe Rebecca Hains is right: ‘It’s sickening’. Is it sickening? To me the emphasis is more on their response.

I know, I know… This video was intensionally made to go viral. I acknowledge that profuse editing and strategic marketing is probably giving the creators, Italian news company Fanpage.it, an unprecedented number of hits right now. Is it contrived? I hope not. Maybe? Probably? Does it matter? It gets us talking about domestic violence, which is a good thing.

We can’t ignore the fact that domestic violence is a national and global epidemic which effects men, women AND children. But while many campaigns tackling similar subject matter focus on the problem: the violence, the victim, the rehabilitation, the prosecution – here we look at beginnings. We look at the concept of CHOICE. We look at how these kids look at and perceive women. Then we look at how they react to violence.

Does their reaction reflect their upbringing? Or an innate understanding of right and wrong?

Maybe a combination. Whatever their influence, these boys give us a lil’ hope. To me, they are not ‘boys’ defining what it is to be ‘men’, but rather they are kids defining what it is to be human. We can all watch and learn…

Have a great day peeps!

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