‘Like a virus, online misogyny goes viral’: Shocking documentary about cyberbullying hits cinemas

AlloCiné: How it was born Hail Bitch: Misogyny in the Digital Age ?

Lea Clermont Dion : I received death threats because I spoke in public in Quebec. I’m a feminist and I didn’t think that asking for gender equality would cause so much hate. This was the catalyst for this quest to find out the extent of misogyny online. Along with the film, I completed my doctoral dissertation in political science, which focused on, among other things, cyber-violence against women.

Guillen Maroist : When Leah asked me to investigate online misogyny with her and make a documentary, I immediately said yes. At the time, in 2015, the suicide of two young girls, Amanda Todd and Rehte Parsons, was widely reported in Canada and the United States. Like everyone else, I was shocked. I was under the impression that this was a phenomenon that affected young girls more, but I quickly realized through research that cyberbullying affects women of all ages, especially those who speak loudly and forcefully in public. The goal of abusers is to silence women, to “return them to the kitchen”. A very effective strategy: More and more women choose not to pursue a public career for fear of online attack and stalking. The impact of this new form of violence against women is extremely devastating, but nothing is being done. We made this film to stop trivializing it.

You have chosen a universal approach to develop your opinion. Why not focus on Canada?

Lea Clermont Dion: Because this is an issue that has no borders. Like a virus, online misogyny goes viral.

Guillen Maroist: By following the daily lives of four women from different backgrounds and cultures, we understand that online misogyny is a phenomenon that affects the entire West, even the advanced countries in terms of women’s rights.

Were you surprised by the scale of the phenomenon?

Lea Clermont Dion: And really. I did not believe that this phenomenon was so common. I didn’t expect that hatred towards women is on the rise. It’s worse since the pandemic. Studies show that misogyny is reaching unprecedented levels.

Guillen Maroist: In 2015, when we started the project, I was already appalled by what was spreading on social networks. We were under the impression that we were dealing with a “remote network” that would be quickly regulated. The worst thing was that during a pandemic, the phenomenon grows exponentially.

What did you learn from making this documentary? Did you expect such a deluge of violence? In what emotional state do we come out of such a documentary?

Lea Clermont Dion: I learned that violence against women has certain characteristics. They target women’s bodies and their sexuality, which is directly related to the desire to control the discourse. To reduce them to an object rather than a subject means the desire to exercise dominion over them. Furthermore, I learned that this hostility towards women is taking a new form today thanks to digital tools. Violence can be graphic, audible, and spread quickly. I have discovered a whole slew of anti-feminist groups who want to see women’s rights rolled back. They do not hide this ideology and perceive feminism as a threat. I was very affected while making this film. I dreamed about the horrors I read… I need a break from so much hate. My children gave me hope.

Guillen Maroist: The biggest shock was the realization that there is a real danger of rolling back women’s hard-won rights. It’s one thing to observe everything that happens on the Internet, the unbridled misogyny that runs rampant there. It’s scary to see young people adopting these behaviors and the backsliding of women’s rights in certain countries, starting with the United States, is scary. But I experienced, during the many film debates surrounding the film’s release, an equally powerful sense of hope and mobilization. From women, but also from men. We made this film to make people stand up. And this is what is happening more and more.

How did you choose the different witnesses?

Lea Clermont Dion: We selected the participants after conducting extensive research involving more than a hundred experts and victims. The idea was to construct the best narrative thread to understand the phenomenon. We also kept the protagonists who had something to say.

Guillen Maroist: Our main challenge was to find women willing to be photographed in their everyday lives while they were still victims of cyberbullying. We followed them, on camera, in real time, so that viewers could experience the horror of their situation up close, to give a measure of what the victims were experiencing: a state of terror.

We imagine that you had very (too) rich material and had to make a choice. Considering making a sequel You’re welcome, bitch ? Is the version being considered as a docu-series?

Lea Clermont Dion: Not on my side! I always wanted to make a film.

Guillen Maroist: Me too ! There will be no continuation, I will not be able to sink into this hatred again. But the film is not without a sequel: it begins life in cinemas in France and several countries. People, in associational or personal mode, create a lot of initiatives around the screening of the film. It warms our hearts.

How did you come up with the title of your documentary?

Lea Clermont Dion: I will reply to my colleague, because the idea came from him.

Guillen Maroist: We needed a title that was as shocking, as uncomfortable, as disturbing as the hate that exploded at women on the internet. We worked for 6 years under the working title “Misogyny 2.0”. I was inspired by Jean-Luc Godard’s title, Hail Mary. By replacing Marie’s name with Slut, we had both the most common slur against women and a re-appropriation of the slur at the same time. This title is also a salute to all women who experience cyberbullying and refuse to be silenced.