Smack my Bitch up!

"Smack My Bitch Up" (2007) Directed by Jonas Akerlund utilizes the first person perspective as the main attraction. This film technique isn't a new attraction, as other films such as "Enter the Void" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" also use this technique as an attraction. The reason why this technique is effective is because we are used to films as an exploration of narratives containing other characters that we haven't met in real life- films allow a fantasy, a peek into the private lives of others, an observational surveillance in which we can watch, but our personal choices have no impact on the story that unfolds. The most important thing is that we temporarily lose our identity when we are watching a film, and that is a liberating thing and an attraction in itself.

The first person perspective allows a further step of losing identity. It literally forces the spectator to become another person. The same loss of control still resides, but this time, we feel as though we are integral to the story, functioning as the main character of the film and we are better able to identify and empathize with the character. This is an attraction because in every day life, it is impossible to be another person. In a normal narrative, although we are privy to somebody else's life we don't normally have access to, we're just an omnipresent spectator, but we are used to seeing people from that point of view. Film in the first person perspective allows us to see through the eyes of someone else (most effective when it's representational of someone we have difficulties understanding in real life, for example, a paraplegic, hardcore drug user, or someone who is dead) which is entirely different, engaging, and thrilling.

In this video, we take on the perspective of someone who lives a reckless life of hard partying, drugs, fighting, and promiscuous sex. The song itself garnered controversy for its misogynistic lyrics which are easily interpreted as advocating violence against women (though the band countered such a statement by claiming "smack my bitch up" actually means doing anything intensely), and the way the main character treats women (groping them at bars, going to strip clubs and trying to pick up women) infers that this is a misogynist. Drawing upon our assumptions and stereotypes, we imagine this to be a male of a lower socio-economic standing who has little control over his impulses and who clearly disrespects women. We watch his night of partying in awe, until he kicks the hooker out that he brought home after they sleep together. The video ends as the camera looks into the mirror and we see that we have been seeing through the eyes of a woman.

This is an ending that comes as a shock, and has landed this video on many lists of best music videos of all time. I remember seeing this video in my early teens, and actually being scared at the ending because it goes so against all of our expectations. What could this be saying? Could it be challenging the notion of misogyny and implying that women can do just as many things we associate with a very testosterone-driven male to do? Is this a feminist video, or if we go even further, is this a misogynist video implying that women are reckless and promiscuous? It's unclear.

What is clear is that this ending reinstates a sense of self-awareness at the end. We've spent the duration of the video being someone else, and our mind filled in the rest of the blanks about who we were based on our actions. Suddenly, at the end of the video we become ourselves again, someone watching the video, and we realize we weren't who we thought we were all along. This creates a bigger psychological distance between the main character and ourselves than could have occurred in a narrative from the 3rd person perspective, despite the fact that we've just spent 4 minutes being them. This choice is interesting because it calls it calls into question the truth of what is presented, and the ability for film/video footage to mess with our perceptions even when we think we know the characters quite literally, from inside and out.  This reinvigorates first person perspectives, helping us to realize the falsity that can be construed and to be aware of it as an artistic device, an attraction.