If you haven’t seen the video below, please scroll down and watch it, then read this blog post again. It is important that you do before making a judgement. This video titled ‘F Bombs for Feminism’ has been causing quite the stir on social media and online generally.
It features a group of cute young (clearly underage) girls dropping F-bombs in the name of feminism. At first when we heard about this, we were pretty shocked that young girls were being told to curse on camera. But then when you watch the full video and see some of the statements they are making, the line becomes a little blurred.
We were immediately attracted to this because of the feminist aspect. We were curious to see what it was about. To be honest it is hard to overlook the fact that young girls are allowed to curse on camera, because it means a parent consented to their underage daughter being used as a tool for a message that didn’t need to feature underage girls. But we digress…
The thing about feminism today is that is already has enough negative stigma surrounding it, that it is easy to see why many feminists don’t necessarily like way the message was presented.
But fundamentally, what they are talking about IS important, so we can’t ignore that. Sometimes in society we do often get caught up in the exterior qualities about something and never actually get to the root of the issue or focus on what lies beneath.
If you have ever seen the movie ‘Machine Gun Preacher’ which is the real life story of ex-drug addict turned preacher Sam Childers who goes to Africa and rescues young children kidnapped and taken away to become child soldiers, you will remember how powerful it was. You might also remember as the end credits roll there is real video footage (as opposed to the Gerard Butler footage from the film) of an interview with Sam. The journalist asks him about his thoughts on how people criticize his methods and sometimes even goes to unethical or illegal lengths in his rescue missions.
He answers by telling the journo that when he returns a child back to his parents, the mother and father don’t question how he got the child back, they are just happy he did. Stay with us on this tangent because there is a point to us mentioning this. Should the execution of the F Bombs For Feminism video be questioned so heavily or did they want to purposely cause controversy in the hope that it will spark important discussions?
It should also be pointed out that the organization behind the video, FCKH8.com are a for-profit t-shirt company. They make that abundantly clear on their website. They are an apparel company fueled by activist hearts who see their tees as walking billboards for important messages. And fair enough, because if there’s an industry that could do a hell of a lot better with the messages it puts out for women, it’s fashion.
FCKH8 are also well known for their videos and campaigns for marriage equality and championing the cause of the LGBT community.
They state that the proceeds from the sales of this t-shirt, which have no doubt sky-rocketed because of this video gone viral, go to charities that support five anti-sexism charities and organization.
The girls in the video also point out that there are words and phrases far more controversial that the “F bomb”, such as the “unequal ways society treats girls and women”, which gives more context to the F-bombs.
But should the issue of rape and sexual violence be presented in such a humorous way? The girls say one in 5 girls get raped, and point out it could be one of the them (as there is five of them). Is it pushing the line for a parent to allow their child to be in a video saying that they could potentially be raped? Perhaps that is another issue that heavily blurs the lines.
On the other hand there women who are so darn sick of saying the same statistics and messages over and over again, only not to be heard or shut down by naysayers, that perhaps the only thing left to say is f**k this!
At the end of the video we see adult women address the watcher of the video for the thoughts you know we are all thinking (“we can’t believe they let these girls curse on camera!”).
“Instead of washing these girls’ mouths out with soap, maybe society needs to clean up its act” which is a pretty fair point and ends on a call-to-action of sorts.
The video’s producer Mike Kon told the Daily Mail he already expected a diverse array of responses to the video and knew people would hone in on the f-bombs being dropped.
“It is shocking what they are saying, but the real shock is that women are still paid less than men for the same work in 2014, not the use of the F-word.”
“The big statistic that one out of five women are sexually assaulted or raped is something society seems to find less offensive than a little four letter word and we love how these girls draw attention to that imbalance,” he said.
He is right, sometimes we are offended by the wrong things and it can often deflect for the real issue at hand. Most of all, we are happy to see conversations about inequality and feminism being played out in such a public forum and encouraging open dialog.
The video also features a 12 year-old boy wearing a pink gown standing up against sexism saying, “When you tell boys not to ‘act like a girl,’ it’s because you think it’s bad to be a girl.” Good messages all around.
So in light of these opinions, now watch the video below and tell us what you think of ‘F Bombs For Feminism’:
Wow, that’s amazing. It’s such a good time to be a woman.