Potty-mouthed princesses as young as six years old are sounding off on sexism and gender inequality in a controversial feminist ad-campaign that has gone viral.
The video is the brainchild of an organization called FCKH8, a “for-profit t-shirt company with an activist heart and a passionate social change mission.” The ad features several little girls dressed in princess outfits who curse like sailors and demand society to stop treating women unfairly. But what does a little girl dropping the F-bomb solve? Nothing. It’s merely inappropriate; furthermore, it is a futile and disgraceful attempt to raise awareness about societal inequities.
“The whole idea was using a bad word for a good cause to get people’s attention,” video director Luke Montgomery said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “Why does society find the use of a four-letter word more offensive than the fact that one out of five women will be sexually assaulted or raped?”
According to Montgomery, having children dress up as princesses and drop the F-bomb is an attempt to bring awareness to the injustices women still face today. He added that women are still paid 23 percent less than men for the same work.
“In 2014, that is what’s shocking – not the F word,” Montgomery said.
So what is more offensive and shocking: An innocent little 6-year-old girl spewing cuss words or the fact that women and girls are still the victims of sexual assault and rape? Without question, sexual assault is far more grotesque.
But critics of the “F bombs for Feminism” video certainly have a right to be offended. The ad’s deplorable exploitation of the child actresses in the video should be denounced as well. Clearly, the ad was meant to provoke people and was designed for shock value. But FCKH8’s real interests here are abundantly clear: they have merely used social media to sell more t-shirts, while exploiting little girls in the process. Pushing little 6-year-old girls to cuss on television may be a brilliant marketing strategy, yet it is highly unethical.
Will a t-shirt company that uses questionable methods to sell a political agenda solve gender inequality? Absolutely not. Will “cussing for a cause” remedy the problems women face in the workplace? Nope.
Real problems require real solutions.
Otherwise, “F-Bombs for Feminism” is just a bunch of poster children shouting and swearing in order to make some businessmen more money.