Deutsche Telekom takes on the trolls

This new film for Deutsche Telekom’s #GegenHassImNetz [#AgainstOnlineHate] initiative focusses on digital misogyny and violence against women.

Created by Jung von Matt Hamburg and directed by Zornitsa Dimitrova through Simon & Paul, the 89-second film, called Was sich liebt [What Loves], shows how the violation of boundaries can be trivialised in everyday life, can then continue in digital spaces, and how looking away becomes part of the problem.

At the heart of the film is a German phrase, 'was sich liebt, das neckt sich', which roughly translates in English as 'teasing is a sign of affection'. We first hear the phrase on a playground after a boy pushes a girl and pulls her hair. It then reappears in other situations; at a family gathering, at school, in private chats and in gaming communities.

With every repetition, the phrase becomes an excuse for sexist behaviour and a means of normalising violence. Dismissive comments and sexist language give way to unsolicited sexual images, the sharing of intimate material, doxxing and direct threats and, eventually, the violence enters the physical world.

“The film should be as uncomfortable as the subject itself,” says Dimitrova. “If it is uncomfortable for us to watch for 89 seconds, we have to ask what it is like for people who have to deal with this every day.”