Eff It: A Lesson on Language, Society, Hate

*Censorship Disclaimer (see blow)  **Oxford Comma Disclaimer (see below)

Controversy! Debate! Read all about it!

An organization has released a video that is ruffling feathers around the nation!

Here is the scandalous (and totally NSFW) video in question. The organization behind the video is FCKH8.  It features young girls dressed as princesses dropping F-Bombs in the name of equality.  Their message is a simple one:

The words coming out of their mouths should NOT be more offensive than the treatment of girls and women in our society. But… rather than the message of equality and an end to violence against women, most viewers have focused on:

• Loss of Innocence!!! …listen to the language these young girls use!
• EXPLOITATION!!! …read comments left on every message board claiming that these girls are being used as puppets to push an agenda.

Pump. The. Brakes.

First… Let’s start with a lesson in language, shall we?

F*cking: (adverb) having intensive force, often applying to the whole sentence or clause.

FCKH8’s brand is a simple four-letter word that starts with “F”, rhymes with “duck” and is repeated to…well…make a f*cking point.

What were people expecting from an organization called FCKH8, in the first place?  The people at FCKH8 know that language is powerful and that certain words can be seen as aggressive. That’s exactly why FCKH8 uses that word.

People who use that word when championing a cause are often passionate, frustrated, angry, and tired, and by proclaiming they are so f*cking passionate, frustrated, angry, and tired, it reveals the level to which their intensity has been raised.

People who stand up for change and what they believe in are very seldom found to be so f*cking…indifferent.

FCKH8’s whole mission is to express how “done” they, and others like them, are with racism, sexism, violence, bullying, hate crimes, religious intolerance – and it can all be summed up by saying: "F*ck. Hate."

Language.  What a remarkable thing!  Especially when you realize that more people get caught in the web of words versus the message relayed.

See, the girls filmed for this campaign are growing up in a world where they are surrounded by language telling them they are the lesser…and they are painfully aware of it.

Don’t believe me?  How many times in school did you hear someone get bullied because he “threw like a girl”?  How many times has the phrase “don’t be a p*ssy” come out of your mouth as an adult?  Perhaps you’ve heard (or given) compliments with qualifiers like “Not bad… for a girl."

All of these phrases imply that, due to gender, nothing with a vagina can possibly ever be taken seriously, measure up, or perform to a level above a quaint parlor trick.

Loss of Innocence!

Many are claiming that “forcing” these girls to swear marks their “loss of innocence.”  The loss of innocence is not in the first time a little girl says “f*ck.”

Before the age of 7, loss of innocence is…

• when she’s told by her family members that she can’t play with the boys because she might get dirty.

• when she notices that “the boy” costume of Cookie Monster looks like Cookie Monster and “the girl” costume of Cookie Monster looks like a blue shirt with a cookie-print tutu.

• when she realizes there’s never been a woman president and that’s because grown men in her life say “no one wants someone emotional… y’know… around that time of the month” in office.

Age 12 through 18 it’s…

• when she first hears that ‘age-old’ advice about a man not wanting to buy a cow if he can get the milk for free because… you know…  no man would ever value her personality and brains more than her untapped vagina.

• the first time she glances in the mirror and hates what she sees because she doesn’t fit the Photoshopped images in magazines that are representations of how society expects her look.

• the first time she’s anxious around a male – not because of attraction, but because of fear.

Age 18 on…

• It’s when more family members ask her when she’s going to find a man than congratulate her on her Master’s degree.

• It’s when she is nervous to leave her drink alone at a club.

• It’s her first experience with men who legitimately hate women

Little by little that innocence is chipped away until she’s sculpted into the mold society has manicured, pedicured, waxed, honeyed, peeled, primped, and plucked for her.

• F-Bombs: 0
• Life’s lessons: A Million

Exploitation!

Along with being offended by a girl saying a word, there are people claiming that FCKH8 is using these young girls to push their cause.  So what’s the agenda?  What hellish scheme could they be concocting?  What is FCKH8 trying to force down the throats of the viewer?  It’s simple: We need to create a better future for women in this country, stop hating girls and women, vote for equal pay for equal work, and end the victim shaming and victim blaming when a sex crime has been committed.

The girls in this video aren’t being used to push this message – they are the message.

So, as the shock of watching a pretty little princess drop some dirty little words starts to wear off, I hope that society can see past the words to get the point.

*As much as I f*cking HATE censorship, and as censoring myself in this blog post seems REALLY disingenuous given the context, I am still obligated to keep square with FCC f*cking regulations.  I… like my job.*

**Complain all you want… it’s now inherent.**