In case you hadn’t heard of them, FCKH8 are a not-for-profit t-shirt company that combats social hatred through garments with ace slogans like, ‘Girls just want to have FUN–damental rights’ and ‘racism is not over, but I'm over racism'. Their fans include Zac Efron and Jane Lynch and to date they’ve raised over $250,000 for LGBT charities. Nice work!
Today though, they’ve released a video called F-Bombs for Feminism which is, in a word, odd. In it, five little girls dressed up as princesses (pink dresses, tiaras, blue eyeshadow you probably wore back in Year Seven like the fashion-forward gal about town you were) shout out grim stats about the reality of being a woman whilst dropping the word ‘FUCK’. A lot.
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The message is this; if you’re offended by little girls shouting ‘FUCK’ at you then you should also be offended by the fact that women are paid 23% less than men at work, the fact the one in five women is sexually assaulted or raped, and the fact that teaching women to be ‘pretty’ means that they’re are judged more on their waistlines than their aspirations. Solid messaging, and important points to be made. Plus, the shock factor? Always an excellent tool to grab the attention of people not necessarily immediately familiar with your cause. Providing it’s done right.
Because there’s some lines in the video that, coming from the mouths of children, are kind of a tough watch; such as when the 6-13 year old girls count out the numbers one to five and ask which one of them is going to be raped or sexually assaulted, or the time one of the youngest girls screams out we should be teaching boys ‘Not to fucking rape’.
We’ve got zero issue with six year old girls dropping the work ‘fuck’ like they've spent the last fifteen years drinking whiskey in the company of grizzled hard asses like Jack Nicholson and Sean Bean**; the way our culture uses swear words has lessened the impact of the words’ original meanings to almost zilch. What we do find a bit 'off' though is using a six year old as a mouthpiece to talk about rape before she even understands the implications of sex. Even with parental consent, is it right to ask children to take part in a conversation that needs to be had by adults?
At the end of the video, two women show up and say, ‘Instead of cleaning these girls’ mouths out with soap, maybe society should clean up it’s act’. And hey, they’re right; society should clean up it’s act when it comes to women but we’re certainly not asking these little girls to clean out their mouths with soap for something that adults have clearly asked them to do. Plus, the fact that the women then try to get you to buy their t-shirts at the end kind of robs the video of the justification behind their decision to make such a serious point in such a subversive way.
Anyways, right message, weird deliverance. The point is that FCKH8 knows we've got a lot of work to do in order to get women to a place where they're treated as equals and feel safe from the threats of sexual violence and the point is they're not afraid to go the extra mile to make sure people know what absolutely isn't acceptable. We just wish it had been done a little differently.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
Emily Ratajkowski Goes All No-Duh On Us And Says Clothes, Sex And Dancing Don't Alter Your Feminism
‘Confused Cats Against Feminism’ Is The Best Thing You’ll See All Day
Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.