Activist t-shirt brand FCKH8 has stirred up some controversy with a new video that features little girls dropping f-bombs left and right (and seemingly having a blast while doing it).
The point of the profanity is that gender inequality should be more offensive than a child saying the word “fuck,” but it also serves to draw attention to the message, which otherwise offers up facts that aren’t anything new if you’ve been paying attention. The girls address such issues as the wage gap, objectification and sexual assault. The most shocking moment comes not from the girls use of profanity but when they say one in five women will be a victim of rape and sexual assault and then count off and wonder aloud which one of them it will be.
Unsurprisingly, FCKH8’s video has met with its fair share of criticism. The profanity proved too much for YouTube viewers, and the site has since removed the video. It lives on, however, at Vimeo, where the comments section is ripe with accusations of child exploitation (FCKH8 is a for-profit company) and open misogyny. Of course, the video was designed to stir up controversy and draw attention to the company, which donates five dollars from each fifteen dollar t-shirt to charities, so the backlash is entirely expected.
“Some adults may be uncomfortable with how these little girls are using a bad word for a good cause. It is shocking what they are saying, but … 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,” video producer Mike Kon told Adweek.
Funnily enough, Adweek points out that FCKH8’s PR team couldn’t bring itself to be as brazen as the girls in the video, censoring the word “fuck” in its official press release.