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The ManKind Initiative, a UK organization devoted to fighting domestic violence against men, recently put out a video that’s been getting a lot of attention in the media and online, racking up more than six million views on YouTube in a little over a week.
The brief video, titled #ViolenceIsViolence, purports to depict the radically different reactions of bystanders to staged incidents of domestic violence between a couple in a London plaza. When the man was the aggressor, shoving the woman and grabbing her face, bystanders intervened and threatened to call the police. When the woman was the aggressor, the video shows bystanders laughing, and no one does a thing.
The video has been praised by assorted Men’s Rights Activists, naturally enough, but it has also gotten uncritical attention in some prominent media outlets as well, from Marie Claire to the Huffington Post.
There’s just one problem: The video may be a fraud, using deceptive editing to distort incidents that may well have played out quite differently in real life.
A shot-by-shot analysis of the video from beginning to end reveals that the first “incident” depicted is actually a composite of footage shot of at least two separate incidents, filmed on at least three different times of day and edited together into one narrative.
A careful viewing of the video also reveals that many of the supposed “reaction shots” in the video are not “reaction shots” at all, but shots taken in the same plaza at different times and edited in as if they are happening at the same time as the staged “incidents” depicted.
Moreover, none of the people depicted as laughing at the second incident are shown in the same frame as the fighting couple. There is no evidence that any of them were actually laughing at the woman attacking the man.
The editing tricks used in the video were brought to my attention by a reader who sent me a link to a blog entry by Miguel Lorente Acosta, a Professor of Legal Medicine at the University of Granada in Spain, and a Government Delegate for Gender Violence in Spain’s Ministry of Equality. He goes through the video shot by shot, showing each trick for what it is.
The post in Spanish, and his argument is a little hard to follow through the filter of Google Translate, so I will offer my own analysis of the video below, drawing heavily on his post. (His post is still worth reading, as he covers several examples of deceptive editing I’ve left out.)
I urge you to watch the video above through once, then follow me through the following analysis.
The first “incident” is made up of footage taken at three distinct times, if not more. The proof is in the bench.
In the opening shot of the video, we see an overview of the plaza. We see two people sitting on a bench, a man in black to the left and a woman in white to the right, with a trash can to the right of them. (All of these lefts and rights are relative to us, the viewers.) The trash can has an empty green bag hanging off of it.
As the first incident begins, we see the same bench, only now we see two women sitting where the man was previously sitting. The trash can now has a full bag of trash sitting next to it.
In this shot, showing bystanders intervening in what is portrayed as the same fight, and supposedly depicting a moment in time only about 30 seconds after the previous shot, we see that the two women on the bench have been replaced by two men, one in a suit and the other in a red hoodie. The full trash bag has been removed, and the trash can again has an empty trash bag hanging off of it.
Clearly this portion of the video does not depict a single incident.
What about the reaction shots? The easiest way to tell that the reaction shots in the video did not chronologically follow the shots that they come after in the video is by looking at the shadows. Some of the video was shot when the sky was cloudy and shadows were indistinct. Other shots were taken in direct sunlight. In the video, shots in cloudy weather are followed immediately by shots in roughly the same location where we see bright sunlight and clear shadows.
Here’s one shot, 9 seconds in. Notice the lack of clear shadows; the shadow of the sitting woman is little more than a vague smudge.
Here’s another shot from less than a second later in the same video – the timestamp is still at 9 seconds in. Now the plaza is in direct sunlight and the shadows are sharp and distinct.
If you watch the video carefully, you can see these sorts of discontinuities throughout. It seems highly unlikely that the various reaction shots actually depict reactions to what they appear to be reactions to. Which wouldn’t matter if this were a feature film; that’s standard practice. But this purports to be a depiction of real incidents caught on hidden camera and presented as they happened in real time.
The issue of non-reaction reaction shots is especially important when it comes to the second incident. In the first incident, we see a number of women, and one man, intervening to stop the violence. There is no question that’s what’s going on, because we see them in the same frame as the couple.
In the second incident, none of the supposed laughing onlookers ever appear in the same frame as the fighting couple. We have no proof that their laughter is in fact a reaction to the woman attacking the man. And given the dishonest way that the video is edited overall, I have little faith that they are real reaction shots.
The people who are in frame with the fighting couple are either trying resolutely to ignore the incident – as many of the onlookers also did in the first incident – or are clearly troubled by it.
I noticed one blonde woman who looked at first glance like she might have been laughing, but after pausing the video it became clear that she was actually alarmed and trying to move out of the way.
There is one other thing to note about the two incidents. In the first case, the onlookers didn’t intervene until after the man escalated his aggression by grabbing the woman by her face. In the second video, the screen fades to black shortly after the woman escalates her aggression to a similar level. We don’t know what, if anything, happened after that.
Is it possible that the first part of the video, despite being a composite of several incidents, depicts more or less accurately what happened each time the video makers tried this experiment? Yes. Is it possible that onlookers did indeed laugh as the woman attacked the man? Yes.
But there is only one way for The ManKind Initiative to come clean and clear up any suspicion: they need to post the unedited, time-stamped footage of each of the incidents they filmed from each of their three cameras so we can see how each incident really played out in real time and which, if any, of the alleged reactions were actual reactions.
In addition to the editing tricks mentioned above, we don’t know if the video makers edited out portions of the staged attacks that might have influenced how the bystanders reacted.
The video makers should also post the footage of the incidents that they did not use for the advert, so we can see if reactions to the violence were consistently different when the genders of attackers and victims were switched. Two incidents make up a rather small sample – even if one of these incidents is actually two incidents disguised as one.
Domestic violence against men is a real and serious problem. But you can’t fight it effectively with smoke and mirrors.
Well, you know, pointing out that it’s not okay to use a serious issue like domestic violence against men to trash feminists; or that using deceptively edited video is a sleazy tactic that will only discredit what it’s trying to draw attention to; or that utilizing blatantly false statistics isn’t only sleazy but a blatant attempt to demonize women; is obviously just man-hating.
Also, people involved with the group have a history of making some pretty backwards statements about feminism and women.
Oops, ninjaed.
@steve,that’s the video i was talking about earlier. Its really sad.
Anand, again, I thought you’d flounced?
Anand just can’t resist coming back to provide support for the MRA trolls. I really call bullshit on his claims of neutrality more and more each time he posts.
@weirwoodtreehugger – mankind is an anti-feminist group in so far as they want to extend adequate support and recognition to male victims of domestic violence – feminism seems opposed to that – so, yes – I guess that makes them anti-feminists.
I will say this as well – why are you people so bloody nasty ? like really horrible and sarcastic – and smug ? you think people read these blogs – read this site and think “wow, feminism is great what great people feminists are ” ? – pfft. – they will read this stuff and think “feminists are @ssholes”
“woody has youtube videos” – why is that bad ? whats the big joke with that ?
and then you imply MRAs are all homophobic. what an absolute joke. this whole site is an advert for mens rights – you are practically recruiting for the mens rights movement.
you want to talk about homophobia – how about the “dont be that guy” campaign – portraying men as r*pists on every one of their posters – including a scenario with two gay men – what, lesbian r*pe doesnt happen ? you conveniently miss out lesbian r*pe. why ? because it doesnt fit the narrative – your narrative is men bad, women good. in all cases. and that is transparently obvious. and that narrative marginalises lesbians/female victims of sexual assault by another woman.
now cue the obvious response of “you dont really care about gay men and women, youre just trying to bash feminism” – you people are SO predictable, honestly.
just like the other day I posted a link to a video of a boy being sexually assaulted in public – and rather than acknowledge the point I was trying to make, instead chose to attack me for posting a link to it. okay, even though that video is all over the internet, links all over the place – perhaps IT WAS inappropriate to post here – BUT you focused on the fact I posted on it and ignored the point I was making.
and thats you guys all over – constant deflection and word games. deflection and childish insults and in-jokes – little in-jokes from your reddit cliques that no one has any clue what you are talking about – or interest in other than other reddit trolls. or tumblr feminist trolls.
this whole site is an absolute joke.
rant over. your move, “manboobz”
and I notice, Im still on moderation. I read your comments policy – and I have taken the point about the video I posted previously onboard. I will not break any of your rules.
@woolyred
why can so many trolls not read the header? This site is about mocking misogyny. We’re not here to coddle your feelings.
It was directed at men, you dumbass. That’s why lesbians weren’t on there.
omg that’s hilarious. XD
portraying rapists as men is not homophobia.
acknowledging that rape can happen in a same gender relationship is a good thing and not homophobia
stop astriking out rapists like you think it’s a slur. it’s really creepy.
*cough*
Grumpycatisagirl — yep, that’s the one, thanks!
“your narrative is men bad, women good”
Someone please fetch my eyes, I think they landed under the couch, the NWO clone made them roll too hard…
@Marie – Im not a misogynist. Im simply not a feminist. you people need to stop overusing that word misogyny – you’ll wear it out one of these days.
Hmm, let me think about it.
Do I think that this site is about letting people know what great people feminists are?
Gee, it’s almost like there’s something missing in your understanding of this site.
On the other hand, this is the least self-aware thing I’ve ever seen written down.
::Sigh:: This is going to be tiresome, I can tell.
Anyone who actually thinks the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign is saying all men are rapists is too far gone into the MRA ideology to be reasoned with. Anyone who can see absolutely nothing wrong with postings video that depicts child sexual abuse – something that people here have completely denounced – because he thinks its some kind of “gotcha.” Nevermind that its completely disrespectful to the victim. Nevermind that it may be triggering. Nevermind that no one here wants to participate in spreading that video. There’s feminist to be bashed!
Anyway, woodyred, no, I don’t think much of an organization whose former chairman and now trustee said this.
And if you think this blog, that’s points out all the horrible things MRAs, PUAs and fellow travelers believe and say, in their own words, is an advertisement for the men’s rights movement, well, thy days more about you than it does about us.
You don’t get to decide that, actually. People watching your actions get to decide that.
You can complain all you like, but remember this?
See? You already believe the same thing.
Misogynist. Why do you hate women?
@woolyred
yeah, not taking your word for it. Especially since you simplify this whole site down to ‘men bad, women good’. You seem to think any critique of mrm and/or men is ‘men bad, women good’. So…really not taking your word for it.
Also, unless you are gay, plz shut up about the mrm supposedly not being homophobic. Cuz I”m a lesbian, and I think adding lesbian rape ex to the ‘dont be that guy‘ campaign would be skeevy as hell.
Oh yes, please ‘splain to us poor little ditsy-headed women what misogyny is.
It’s not like we women have any actual lived experiences of it.
Why thank you. We do our best to amuse.
Woody,
What do you think of Paul Elam’s “Bash a Violent B*tch Month?”
Did all the MRAs condemn that?
How does promoting violence against women help male DV victims?
How has anything the MRM have done help male DV victims?
@Howard Bannister – oh I dont get to decide that. ha.
@Marie – “unless you are gay, plz shut up about the mrm supposedly not being homophobic. ” – wtf ??
theres a word for people like you lot you know … you tried to ban it – but Im gonna say it … Im gonna it, guys … Im gonna drop the B word….
bossy ! ha
@woolyred
lol gay people deciding what homophobia is instead of straight people is bossy? Go fuck yourself.
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No, you don’t. You come in here with a load of defense for a movement that is centered around violent rhetoric, in the wake of an act of violence against women fueled by it.
That’s hatred. That’s an act of hatred.
You can polish it and pretend it’s something else, but we won’t be joining in your little pretend-time.