Hail Bitch: Misogyny in the Digital Age | “Shut up, bitch”

“If I meet you, I’ll rape you”, “dirty whore”, “have you considered suicide? “. If you thought online misogyny was a small matter to be taken lightly, think again. Virtual hatred exists, it is insidious, and above all extremely dangerous.

Silvia Galipeau
The Press

Not only on the internet, moreover, but even in the real world, denounces the documentary-shock Hail Bitch: Misogyny in the Digital Age, in theaters next Friday. And hang on, it spanks.

The two directors, Léa Clermont-Dion and Guylaine Maroist, don’t go too far, but rather offer us a choral film, edited like a thriller, moreover committed. Think occasional music and, above all, dramatic tension. Introductory warning included: yes, this film could shock. Because the reality is just as shocking, they say, in short. And it’s time to act.

In turn, four women arrive on screen, from Montreal to Paris via Rome and Vermont (because no, it’s not a local problem), who here recount their experiences (ordeal?) with blows of notifications and other insults, each more chilling than the next. As if you were there. In truth. And it is indeed scary.

Beep: “Hang her”. Beep: “Shut up, bitch”. The insults fuse and follow each other, in crescendo. And the viewer is literally bombarded. No, those aren’t “a few bad tweets.” As proof: at 40,000 “death threats and rape threats”, one of the protagonists stopped counting. Not to mention this Italian politician, who suggested online to send rapists to Laura Boldrini, the former speaker of the Parliament of his country. If the words (and the number!) are chilling on screen, imagine in real life.

Speaking of real life, yes, the repercussions are indeed concrete. And not only for the people concerned, but also all those around them. We will not tell you everything, but this “collateral damage” is symptomatic of the problem. Because we get out of the virtual. And it’s ugly.

“It’s hard to watch,” agrees Léa Clermont-Dion, also a postdoctoral researcher in radicalization at Concordia University. “We wanted to make a thriller, because that’s the reality. “Reality, “when real life is a horror film”, adds his accomplice and co-director, Guylaine Maroist, also a producer.

“It’s really a trivialized subject, not understood, not considered. We wanted to make people feel the emotions, the anxiety, the suicidal thoughts…”, explain the directors.

The voice of the victims

The two women have been working on their subject for seven years. They have been digging into the question for seven years, traveling the planet, following their four protagonists in their daily lives. They would never have thought that the subject would be so topical once the film was finally made.

As we know, the harassment of elected officials (a broader, albeit related subject) is making headlines (with the Chrystia Freeland affair, then the liberal Marwah Rizqy, these days). Just a few weeks ago, in Austria, a doctor who was the victim of harassment on social networks committed suicide.

Why, anyway? “Why so much hate? “, headlined colleague and editorialist Nathalie Collard on Thursday. The film doesn’t address the issue at all (“it’s not an expert documentary […], explaining is another film”, we are told), but rather gives the floor to the victims (who have taken great risks by displaying themselves in this way), with the avowed aim of raising awareness. At most we understand that the four women have this point in common: they spoke, precisely, the most naturally in the world (in class), until publicly (online, or in politics). And obviously, it bothers.

It’s not an expert film, but we give the floor to Donna Zuckerberg (yes, the sister of Mark, founder of Facebook), feminist author specializing in online misogyny, who also calls herself “very concerned” about this new reality. Above all: its trivialization.

Because no, it’s not trivial, to receive a photo of your decapitated skull. An example (certainly among the worst) among many others, shown here in close-up on the screen. It is not trivial and the consequences are also far from trivial. The film demonstrates this: taken as targets, women can only be tempted to keep quiet. We would be less. “And the problem, in the end, is democracy,” says Guylaine Maroist, who taught at UQAM and heard many young women say they refused to enter politics one day, for fear of becoming too “achaler”. ” It is enormous ! »

So what to do? This is the big question that arises, and this, throughout the duration of the film. Where to call for help? How to file a complaint? How, above all, to put an end to this new misogyny? “The police are overwhelmed, respond the directors, because cyberbullying is difficult to demonstrate, these are complex cases. Nevertheless, they have their own idea. It’s a committed film after all, and they also invite commitment. In addition to raising awareness, it is legally that we must act, work, activate, they believe. How ? By legislating what is said on platforms, so that they are held accountable for what they broadcast. And penalized, if necessary (as in Germany, in particular). “We are convinced that we can change things by raising awareness, by educating, and by legislating. »

Hail Bitch: Misogyny in the Digital Age will be in theaters on September 9.