Why ?

The aim of anti-slapping is, primarily, as its name suggests, to actively oppose happy slapping. In reply to video images depicting violent acts, we’ve produced and are broadcasting images showing gestures of respect and kindness towards others using the same protocols and technical means as the happy slappers do. These images are shown on the Internet site, on the blog and information is spread by word of mouth. Cellphones, TV , magazines and newspapers also aim at making us question filmed violence, those who indulge in it, those who watch it ,without forgetting those who are indignant and those who don’t accept it.

The anti-slappers’ challenge is to show their films as widely as possible until they reach the point whereby people who indulge in or watch happy slapping are sensitized, this particulary concerns adolescents who appear to be the most concerned by this phenomenon.

Anti slappers are aware that this is a game in the same way that happy slapping is considered a game by its followers. The fact that it’s a game doesn’t minimize the consequences, whether the image content is « anti » or « happy ».

The ground on which the game is played is that of images and entertainment. ? A question must be asked: the spectacle of violence, could it one day be converted into a spectacle of non-violence? And this same spectacle of violence, so often denounced by the media, isn’t it fed by the very same medias who only offer that?

The practice of anti-slapping also suggests experimenting with the pleasure we feel ourselves when we offer free acts of kindness towards someone, just like the pleasure that can be aroused in the receiver.

Those involved in anti-slapping don’t wish to judge happy slapping and its followers, but they intend to question them, and hopefully encourage followers to find alternative means of expressing themselves, in non-violent acts.

Will they one day be able to pride themselves on sharing peaceful and altruistic images with their mates, rather than aggressive ones?

A wave of non-violence filmed. Could this become a trend which creates opportunities to build, often broken, bridges with those around us ? Could this be a chance to awaken our sensitivity to others’ joy and suffering, with the same intensity we feel