“Radical feminists” miss the cause

Simple Pickup Films is known for the group’s breast cancer awareness stunt in which they motorboated women for donations. The three guys behind the project are once again in the spotlight for attempting to raise awareness of female genital mutilation. 

Jason, Jesse, and Kong have a YouTube channel and website, which is currently down “thanks to radical feminists” as the group mocks, dedicated to help men pick up women and look like stereotypical idiotic frat boys in the process. Their videos range from “How to be a Good Wingman,” “How to Kiss a Girl You Just Met” to “The Perfect Sex Playlist.” The trio even has different scenarios for picking up girls from Batman to a wheelchair and a fat suit.

This time, the guys at Simple Pickup took the Sybian, a female sex toy, to Venice Beach and asked women to publicly and on-camera ride the vibrating saddle. For every second on the Sybian, Jason, Jesse, and Kong would donate $5. In total, the group raised $1,335, which is equivalent to 267 seconds. 

The groups hasn’t ended the fundraising quite yet. The trio will donate $100 for every 100,000 views the video receives in the next 30 days. So far, with just 4 days after the video was posted, it has been watched 2,771,177 times. 

It may seem like a noble cause, it promotes female pleasure and raises money for a charity organization, however the execution and intent are questionable. The Orchid Project, an organization that works against female genital mutilation has already released a statement that says it will decline the group’s donation. The reason behind  the Orchid’s Project choice is because “the average age of cutting is between 5 and 8 years and so sexual imagery is not appropriate.”

Similarly, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation returned Simple Pickup’s $7,000 donation after the motorboating stunt “out of respect for the sensitivities for the community [they] serve.” To which the group found one woman who was battling breast cancer and donated the money directly to her.

Although the fundraiser for female genital mutilation is still going on, it is a mystery where the money will go since the Orchid Project rejected the means of raising awareness.

The video itself hypersexualizes women and subjects them to the male gaze. Afterall, male passersby are shown enjoying the view of women riding the Sybian. However, the women are fully consenting adults, so it’s safe to say that the video promotes healthy female sexuality. It doesn’t, however, promote putting an end to female genital mutilation as it states in the beginning.

It fails to educate on some key facts about female genital cutting. There was no mention that an estimated 125 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to the United Nations.  Or that it causes severe bleeding and health issues including cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths. The video does not mention that even American citizens are sometimes shipped off to international schools or vacations just to be mutilated.

The main issue with the video is not necessarily about so called “radical feminists” and the perception of women’s sexuality. The disturbing part is the lack of education and thought to end the cause of female genital mutilation.