Happy slapping - Static

Transcription

The London Consortium
Static. Issue 01 - Play and violence
http://static.londonconsortium.com/issue01/
Robert Saunders
Happy slapping: transatlantic contagion or
home-grown, mass-mediated nihilism?
http://static.londonconsortium.com/issue01/saunders_happyslapping.html
© Robert Saunders / Static / London Consortium 2005
static is the web resource of the London
Consortium, a unique collaboration between
the Architectural Association, Birkbeck
College (University of London), the Institute of
Contemporary Arts, and Tate.
Aiming to initiate interdisciplinary intellectual
debate about paradoxes of contemporary culture,
Static presents contributions from an international
team of academics, artists and cultural practitioners.
The materials, assembled for each issue around
a theme, include analytical essays and articles,
interviews, art projects, photographic images,
etc. Static will welcome feedback, argument and
commentary from scholars, artists and other
readers, and will be regularly updated in order to
communicate the most recent and relevant ideas
and interpretations on the chosen topic.
http://static.londonconsortium.com
The London Consortium – http://www.londonconsortium.com
Architectural Association – http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/
Birkbeck College (University of London) – http://www.bbk.ac.uk/
Institute of Contemporary Arts (ica) – http://www.ica.org.uk/
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Static. Issue 01
Robert Saunders, Happy Slapping
Happy slapping: transatlantic contagion or home-grown, massmediated nihilism?
By Robert A. Saunders, PhD
1
The British press is abuzz with reports of a disturbing phenomenon sweeping through
English youth culture: happy-slapping. It has now en vogue among certain segments
of the youth to physically attack unsuspecting victims and record the event on a
mobile phone. Video of the event is then posted in cyberspace or forwarded to others
as “proof” of the attack, which may be as innocuous as a playground slap to as
nefarious as rape, setting a homeless person on fire, and now murder. Happyslapping is dependent on a nexus of anti-social behaviour, personal and public
amusement, and enabling information and communication technologies (ICTs). In the
context of this commentary, I briefly explore the response of the British press, the
government, and the public to the phenomenon with a focus on the culture of blame
which has apparently eclipsed any constructive engagement which might affectively
lessen the problem. I will look at the influences which have been implicated in the
happy-slapping epidemic including American television programming, mass-mediation,
and “chav” and hooligan culture. In the process, I will also attempt to draw some
more general conclusions about globalization and national identity.
Made in the USA? Think again
I first learned of this deleterious, albeit ludic craze through a BBC World report in
which a representative of the British railway blamed the Internet and America for a
recent spate of attacks on the transit system in which happy-slapping was suspected
as the motive. As an avid student of American popular culture and a specialist in the
field of mass-mediated identity, I was simultaneously intrigued and offended by this
1
Robert A. Saunders is an assistant professor in the political science department at Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey at Newark. He teaches courses on post-socialist politics, global Islam, and
mass media. Recent publications include “Denationalized digerati in the virtual near abroad: the
© Robert Saunders / Static / The London Consoritium
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Static. Issue 01
jeremiad. While I am certain that happy-slapping does exist in the United States (a
shamefully unscientific poll conducted among nearly 100 students at Rutgers
University in metropolitan New Jersey suggests that only about 10% are aware of the
practice as defined above—though none by the name ‘happy slapping’), it is far from
wide-spread and has received absolutely no media attention in the US except for
coverage about its pervasiveness in the UK.
Despite the lack of coverage in
America, a Lexis-Nexis search of the
term ‘happy slapping’ produces a
torrent of hits. Over the past six
months, the British Press alone has run
over 500 stories on the violent craze.
The major papers of Glasgow,
Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and
London have all allowed “happy
slapping” to grace their headlines. The
term’s pervasiveness is even resulting
in some strange uses outside the realm
One of Hundreds—All the major British papers have
reported on “happy slapping” in the last few months
of youth culture. Aerospace
International, a trade publication, ran the headline “Spaceflight - Comet gets ‘happy
slapping’ in name of science” in its report about the interception of Tempel-1 comet
with the Deep Impact probe in a 2 August 2005 report.
The phenomenon even has its first celebrity commentator—Graham Barnfield. Dr
Barnfield is a lecturer in Journalism and Print Media at the University of East London
and has written on the connections between humiliation and entertainment. His
comparisons of the television Big Brother and the brutal photos taken by British and
American servicemen in Iraq prompted an interview by ITV’s Tonight with Trevor
Internet’s paradoxical impact on national identity among minority Russians,” Global Media and
Communications (2005).
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Static. Issue 01
McDonald on happy slapping. The segment “Mugging for Kicks: A Tonight with
Trevor Macdonald Special” framed Dr Barnfield’s comments in such a way as to
suggest a causal link between television shows such Jackass and Dirty Sanchez (staple
products of MTV’s testosterone driven evening line-up) and the theatrical, pseudocomical violence of happy slapping. Although Barnfield never stated his belief in such
a link, the BBC and other press organizations picked up ITV’s press release
promoting the segment and Barnfield was soon being (erroneously) quoted in press
reports around the globe arguing that TV makes youths violent.
Despite the purported connections between Jackass and the recent outbreak of massmediated bullying, the happy-slapping craze is considered by some to mirror a
previous outbreak of schoolyard bullying which was linked to a popular commercial
for Tango, a soft drink. In the advertisement, a nude and rather rotund middle-aged
man painted head-to-toe in orange paint boxes the ear of some poor sap as chats with
his mates. The tag line is “You know when you’ve been tangoed.” Following the
release of the ad, school officials around
the UK reported a sharp upswing in
bullying which mirrored the assault
depicted in the Tango promotion.
Despite the public discourse surrounding
the Tango ad (which was subsequently
removed from the airwaves due to its
perceived causal relationship with
adolescent violence), there is still seems
“Lashings of the old ultraviolence” – a scene from A
Clockwork Orange
to be a reluctance on the part of many in the UK to accept the reality that violence
among the young is an organic and indigenous phenomenon. One is also reminded of
similar violence which spread across Great Britain in the wake of A Clockwork
Orange (1971), Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian adaptation of the Anthony Burgess
novel of the same name. The director’s decision to withdraw the film in the UK was
purportedly due the rash of mimetic “ultraviolence” which ensued.
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Static. Issue 01
While it is enticing to connect the convergence between infotainment (news content
which driven by sensationalism and personalization and edited with the MTV
generation in mind) and reality TV (unscripted, albeit carefully orchestrated,
programming about “regular” people and/or celebrities in “real life” situations) to such
celebrity-seeking violence as play, I am not convinced we should lay the blame at the
door of mass media.
British school officials have also been quick to place the blame for happy slaps on
technology. Banning cell phones in school was the knee jerk response to initial press
reports on the outbreak of happy slapping. Teachers’ groups have even gone farther,
pleading with parents not to buy their children video-enabled devices as they “lead” to
happy slapping (Daily Post 2005). Such Luddite policy measures reflect prevalence
of anti-technology biases in the modern world. Rather than addressing root causes, it
becomes easier to engage in irrational dystopian attacks on technology as an enabler
for anti-social behaviour whether it is happy slaps on mobile phone, neo-Nazi rants
on talk radio, or the beheading of Westerners in cyberspace. Those who view
technology as the culprit do society an injustice by trying to eradicate the platform of
transmission rather than address the issues which give rise to such behaviours.
Despite this, the link between technology and violent play is, explicitly underlined by
its perpetrators. A popular happy-slap site entitled “Happy Slap Video Meme” has
the following tagline: “What happens when you mix video phones and violent people?
This.” The only explanation of the site, other than a disclaimer which disingenuously
rejects endorsements of the activities displayed in the hosted videos, reads:
“On the same day in January that papers first published the Basra torture
photos, they also reported on a “sick craze” sweeping London’s schools called
“Happy Slaps”. Young people film each other slapping or kicking unsuspecting
members of the public, or each other, while announcing: “You have starred on
Happy Slap TV.”2
2
See “Happy Slap Video Meme,” http://66.160.135.81/misc/videos/. A collection of many of the
same clips can also be viewed at http://www.ifilm.com by searching “Happy Slapping.”
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Static. Issue 01
The text is from a BBC article entitled “Humiliation on film” (also linked on the site)
which quotes the previously-mentioned Dr Graham Barnfield linking the TV show Big
Brother with the Iraqi abuse photos.
Dr Graham Barnfield, a media researcher at the University of East London, says
the photos reminded him of one of the biggest trends in contemporary culture reality TV, where it is cool to “record self-abuse and to record yourself degrading
others”. “ These photos appear to reflect what is happening more broadly in
society”, says Dr Barnfield. “On mainstream TV, the internet and elsewhere, it
has become increasingly acceptable to do humiliating things - both to yourself
and others - for the cameras”… “The main shift is that the boundaries between
public and private life have been steadily eroded”, he says. “People under 45 in
particular seem more and more willing to let their dark secrets out into the open
with minimal prompting. Reality TV is the perfect genre for this shift in values
and a declining sense of discrimination” (O’Neill 2005).
In viewing dozens of the thousands of happy slaps which inhabit cyberspace, it
became exceedingly clear that there is a certain level of “play” to be found in certain
clips whereas it is clearly absent in other videos. The videos show attacks which
range from a single slap which is laughed off by the victims (whom one can assume to
be a friend of the attacker) to a three-minute-long bloody assault which also involved
extortion (the assailant demanded 70£ from his victim). The distinction in the types
of attacks was made poignantly clear by Siobhan Christmas when speaking about her
son Triston’s murder in Ilford, Essex when she stated “It was different to normal
happy slapping, where people run up and attack strangers and film them in distress.
But to video Triston on the ground and download it to other people’s computers and
phones, it is just plain evil” (James 2005). The diversity in motivation suggests that
happy slapping has merely been appropriated by its users to add to the effect of what
ever they are doing whether its schoolyard pranks or serious crime.
The chav-happy slap connection
Happy slapping increasingly is linked to chav culture—especially among those who
have been personally victimized in happy-slap attacks. Michael Quinion, author of
World Wide Words and contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, suggests that
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Static. Issue 01
‘chav’ is etymologically linked to the Romany world for child (chavi) and refers to the
“burgeoning peasant underclass” sometimes referred to as “non-educated delinquents”
in the British press. Quinion points out that its is widely-believed that term is an
acronym derived from “Council House And Violent,” although he suggests this is
after-the-event invention. Chavs are readily identifiable by purposefully bold
displays of bad taste in their wardrobe choices. According to Quinion, the press
characterizes the collective chav image as defined by: “a love of flashy gold jewellery
(hooped earrings, thick neck chains, sovereign rings and heavy bangles, which all may
be lumped together under the term bling-bling); the wearing of white trainers (in what
is called ‘prison white,’ so clean that they look new); clothes in fashionable brands
with very prominent logos; and baseball caps, frequently in Burberry check, a
favourite style” (Quinion 2005).
The web site Urban Dictionary, a popular open-source slang dictionary, lists 15
posted definitions of the term ‘happy-slap’ of which more than half refer directly to
‘chav’ in the definition. In several cases, the authors warn potential victims to take
preventative action when they see a “person aged 14-18 years, waring (sic) a cap,
hoodie or a stripy jumper with also market bought jogging bottoms with the known 3
stripes going down towards the feet also waring [sic] trainers like Reebok or Nike”
approaching with cell
phone in hand.3
Violence is integral to chav
identity. According to
chavspotting’s post on
Urban Dictionary, “Chavs
are completely Amoral,
having never been
subjected to right and
e-Chavs: A popular downloadable digital postcard congratulating someone on their
See “happy slap” at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=happy+slap&page=2.
first infraction under the government’s anti-social behaviour crack-down.
Downloaded on August 5, 2005.
3
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Static. Issue 01
wrong by their inattentive, uncaring and often absent parents.”4 The increased
perception of links between the chav subculture, violence, and petty criminality has
sparked bans on certain types of apparel in public places. Many shopping malls have
barred teenagers wearing hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps justifying the action
with the rationale that hoods and caps obscure faces from security cameras. A recent
Daily Star article on happy slapping noted, “YOB culture is now the scourge of
Britain, with more than four in 10 women scared to go out at night because of their
fear of hoodies” (James 2004). The British government has, in fact, declared a war on
yobbery, which increasingly associated with chavs. Its main weapon is the ASBO.
“An acronym for ‘anti-social behavior order,’ it is a civil order obtained from a court
that prohibits a person from engaging in certain narrowly defined activities that are not
necessarily criminal but are clearly anti-social” (Hundley 2005). Despite the ten-fold
increase in the use of such measures in the UK, there is little the government, police,
and community leaders can do to stop the spread of happy slapping across the
country—or outside of it.
Britons are now on the receiving end of the blame game when it comes to happy
slapping. In what is believed to be Europe’s first happy slap murder, an Italian and
Spanish youth attacked Andrew Holdroft, a disabled
Briton, in Stuttgart, Germany. The man was thrown
out his wheelchair and his neck stomped on by one of
the assailants while the other recorded it with his
mobile thus leaving investigators a rather low quality
snuff film as evidence for their case. The youths were
convicted and sentenced to nine years for their crime
which they admitted was motivated solely by boredom.
Too True—Two deaths, thus far,
have been blamed on happy slapping
The Sun reported “Police in Germany and
Switzerland believe the craze has been spread around
the continent by British holidaymakers ‘happy slapping’ in front of locals” (Wheeler
4
“Chav,” Urban Dictionary, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chav. Downloaded on
8
Static. Issue 01
2005). Evidently, Continental authorities are just as wary of this contagion as they
have been of English hooliganism for decades. Ireland too has seen the spread of
happy slaps with the first incident reported on 3 August 2005, although digitallyastute Irish have been quick to introduce a policy response. The Irish Cellular
Industry Association (ICIA), representing all four mobile phone firms operating in
Ireland, agreed to open up all customer records to the gardaí on request, a measure
which is being used to crack-down on the contagion (O’Doherty 2005).
American press reports, unsurprisingly, are quick to link the phenomenon to
endogenous influences within British society. According to the Chicago Tribune,
“Happy slapping is the latest manifestation of what Britons call ‘yob culture.’ The
word ‘yob’ dates to the 19th Century—it likely derives from ‘boy’ spelled
backward—and it denotes a kind of loutish, anti-social behavior associated with
working-class youth in Britain’s urban centers. The British soccer hooligan is the
quintessential yob” (Hundley 2005). Similarly, popular responses to the
phenomenon have tended to accentuate the connections between Britain’s hooligan
culture, its large numbers of disaffected youth, and lingering social problems
associated with class divisions. A bit of sniping against British haughtiness can also
be found. As one American commenter on a happy slapping discussion board states,
“Happy slapping ‘went too far’ the moment it was created. Its nice to see that the
‘highly evolved’ and ‘intellectually superior’ brits have a dirty secret sweeping the
nation.”5 Blogging on AdWeek’s Web site, Steve McClellan sardonically writes,
Only in a land where rugby and soccer matches regularly incite riots could the
so-called “happy slapping” craze catch on. But yes folks, The Guardian reports
it’s all the rage (rage being the operative force here) among the youth of our
mother country. Apparently the laddy-gangs of London get their jollies by
surrounding someone, slapping them around and then getting their victims’
reactions on their cellphone cameras and often posting those reactions on the
Web. (We tried to link to one of these videos but it seems like the links go down
almost as fast as they are posted.) The whole thing is kinda twisted, don’t you
think? But what a natural ad tie-in for a phone company! At least The Guardian
seems to think so. The online version of their April 26th story on the happy
slappers is anchored by a Vonage ad (free calls to the U.S. and Canada!). At the
August 5, 2005.
See http://forums.prowrestling.com/showthread.php?t=12775.
5
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Static. Issue 01
end of the piece is list of “useful links,” to Web sites for T-Mobile, Vodafone,
British Telecom, Virgin Mobile, Nokia and Ericsson. So if you yearn for the life
of a happy slapper, better get a move-on—these fads tend to fade quickly. But
not to worry, the companies cited above have all the gear you need to do it
right. 6
McClellan’s cynical suggestion may not be that far off the mark. In my review of
happy slapper blogs, I found frequent suggestions that a “Happy Slap” TV network
should be created to play the best of the worst happy slaps. Undoubtedly, the
producers of such a network would find sponsors.
Mediation, of a different sort
The recent spate of happy slapping violence is, unfortunately, a rather predictable
outgrowth of alienation among the youth of 21st century Britain. Globalization, massmediated technology, and lowest-common denominator “prank TV” are nothing more
than chimerical scapegoats for indigenous angst being expressed in the form of videoed
bullying. Undoubtedly, youth culture is today dominated by video games, action
movies, gangsta rap, and a host of other violent images (one must only watch the
evening news broadcast to see how violent our world is) and Berger states, “continual
exposure to violence de-sensitizes individuals and acts as a disinhibitor” (Berger 199495). As Mastronardi states, “Due to the dominance of mass media forms such as
popular music, fashion, television, the Internet, and video games in the lives of young
people in industrialized societies today, it is fair to say that mass media forms
constitute their primary cultural resource” (Mastronardi 2003: 83). Certainly there is
nothing new about the existence of violence in our collective consciousness, but one
must consider the mediating factors which lessened the impact of such violence on the
psyche of young people; parents, the local community, and the church all played their
role in explaining the world and its inherent violence in days gone by—today it is the
telly, the Internet, and video games. Blaming MTV and T-Mobile may be easy, but
it’s not helpful.
6
See http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2005/04/only_in_a_land_.html.
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Works Cited:
Berger, Arthur A. 1994-95. “Violence.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 51(4):
453-55 (Winter).
Daily Post. 2005. “Teachers call for end to ‘happy slapping’ craze,” 28 July.
Retrieved via Factiva.
Hundley, Tom. 2005. “‘Happy slap’ yobs breed fear, anger.” The Chicago Tribune,
19 June. Retrieved via Factiva.
James, Elizabeth. 2005. “Evil hoodlums.” Daily Star, 19 August. Retrieved via Factiva.
Mastronardi, Maria. 2003. “Adolescence and Media.” Journal of Language and
Social Psychology, 22(1): 83-93.
O’Doherty, Caroline. 2005. “‘Happy slapping’ may be traced by phone companies.”
The Irish Examiner, 4. August. Retrieved via Factiva.
O’Neill, Brendan. 2005. “Humiliation on film.” BBC News (UK Edition), 25 February.
Quinion, Michael. 2004. “Chav.” World wide Words web site, 13 March. Available
at http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm. Downloaded on 8
August 2005.
Wheeler, Virginia. 2005. “Slap thugs kill Brit in wheelchair.” The Sun, 6 July.

Happy slapping - Static

Transcription

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