A new video “F-bombs for Feminism” made the rounds on social media yesterday.
(In case the title didn’t alert you, be warned that this is not something you necessarily want to watch without headphones!)
Following in the footsteps of Beyoncé who last year made the “shocking” comment that “gender equality is a myth,” “F-bombs for Feminism” is a ridiculous attempt to wake people up to women’s rights. The group FCKH8 gathered a group of little girls wearing princess dress-up clothing and using “offensive” language to bring attention to all the “really offensive” ways our patriarchal society is discriminating against and mistreating women.
And they play all the big hits: pay inequality, rape and sexual assault, and being pretty.
FCKH8 makes use of all the usual statistical suspects: “Women make 23% less than men for the exact same f*cking work.” And, “One out of five women will be sexually assaulted or raped by a man. Stop telling girls how to dress and start teaching boys not to f*cking rape.”
And no feminist video would be complete without a confused section on women’s bodies, suddenly wanting to turn the conversation away from (wait, I’m confused) our bodies? Funny how it was the feminists who were leading the parade of slut walks around the globe, and I heard crickets from feminists when Miley Cyrus embarrassed herself gyrating and twerking nearly nude at the MTV Music Awards last year. Ugh. I wish they’d get their message straight on that one.
I won’t bother trying to counter the section on pay equality. If a reader really wants to learn about the wage gap they can read IWF’s endless work on the subject here. And if you’re interested in a thoughtful conversation about sexual violence and rape – a serious criminal act that shouldn’t be made light of by little girls with attitude – you can read this publication IWF put out after our event on the same issue.
What I will comment on is that we’ve allowed the conversation about gender and equality in America to get to this point. The video closes out with “adult” women offering the message: “Instead of cleaning these girls’ mouths out with soap, maybe society should clean up it’s act.” Wow – how mature. Do they really think that life in America is truly this awful? And do they think average women who are working hard each day and taking care of their families will really relate to this?
What’s actually offensive is not that they’ve used little girls in this way. Yes, it’s crass and sad, but I’m not losing sleep over an eight year old yelling “f*ck” at me. The real crime here is the message they’re promoting to women and girls. As their name suggests, American society and the workplace are openly hostile to women. Women are regularly and consistently mistreated, paid unfairly, and not rewarded for their accomplishments. They perpetuate the myth that women – and little girls – are all victims and men are all perpetrators. Good luck having any kind of healthy relationship with that mindset! And in true feminist form, they have removed all agency from women, making them – oh, perfect! – child-like victims!
IWF understands there are women and their families who face real economic challenges – especially at a time when the economy is still teetering on stability and failed government policies are limiting our choices over health care, education, even saving for retirement. And we think there are real, substantive ways we can improve things for women. (See our new book Lean Together here.) But life in America is pretty good. Women have an unprecedented opportunity to learn, to work, and to succeed. And women are increasingly outpacing men educationally, professionally, even financially.
The only thing that should be shocking in this video is how openly political and vitriolic the conversation about women – and by extension women voters – has become. From the War on Women to FCKH8 gender feminists have started to show their true colors in which anger and resentment drive their motivations rather than good will. One can only assume liberal feminists see their relevance rapidly fading away and are grasping at straws. But really it looks like feminism has finally jumped the shark.