FCKH8 Uses Little Girls As Props in Abhorrent Viral Video About Rape

What’s the worst way to fight sexism?
Certainly this deeply disturbing viral video, produced by
progressive clothing line FCKH8, is a serious contender.

The
video has been panned—by all people of taste—for its startling
use of young girls, ages 6-13, who are made to rattle off the usual
false statistics about sexual assault and the gender pay gap. The
video’s gimmick is that the girls are dressed up as polite
princesses, but launch into profane tirades to make their points. A
sampling (each line is spoken by a different kid):

“What is more offensive? — A little girl saying fuck
— Or the fucking unequal and sexist way — Society treats
girls and women? Here’s some words more fucked up — than the word
‘fuck’ — pay inequality!

As expected, the sight of little girls cursing like drunken
sailors
enraged some social conservatives. But with respect to my own
libertarian sensibilities, the swearing is by far the least
offensive thing about the video.

Using kids as props in ideological propaganda videos is
disgusting. It’s inherently exploitative, since there is little
chance the youngest of the girls understands a thing about the
perspective she’s selling. Worse still, the girls are being taught
that screaming expletives at people who disagree with them is an
effective or praiseworthy form of advocacy. As someone who
frequently writes about women’s issues relating to campus due
process, I can say for a fact that the current debate between
far-left feminists and their critics does not need any additional
hysterics. And while I would never deny that a well-timed
fuck or two can help get a point across, cursing shouldn’t
be an 11-year-old’s crutch in a public policy debate.

But worst of all is the actual point the profane princesses are
trying to make about sexism. The almost-certainly-false statistic
about rape makes a groan-inducing appearance: The girls gleefully
count off “One, two, three, four five,” before proclaiming that,
statistically speaking, one of them will be raped. “Which one of us
will it be?” wonders one of the girls. So, in addition to using
kids as props in service of a distorted perspective on feminism,
the video’s producers want a bunch of little girls to think one of
them is going to be raped.

The insanity of it all speaks to the obvious falsehood inherent
in the one-in-five statistic. If two in every ten women actually
experienced sexual assault while at a college, for instance, the
problem would demand immediate intervention, not some
laughably inadequate quibbling over the definition of consent.
If one in every five cars broke down and caused its driver serious
harm, automobile factories would be condemned as public health
hazards. Similarly, if colleges were veritable production lines of
rape, it would be necessary to shut them down.

Thankfully, the statistic has been
repeatedly debunked. No, American women don’t have to endure
Somalia-levels of rape; rape has declined substantially in recent
decades and continues to fall. Whatever the severity of the campus
rape problem, it is assuredly not as bad as two biased surveys with
small sample sizes and self-selection problems suggested it
was.

Trying to scare people into believing they are in much greater
danger than they actually are is contemptible. When children are
the targets of such efforts, it’s even worse.

At the end of the video, the ringleaders of this horror show
appear on camera to tell viewers that if they reacted negatively to
the swearing, rather than the sexism, they are part of the problem.
And “fuck that sexist shit,” says one of the kids.

It’s worth keeping in mind that these people probably aren’t as
crazy as they seem. FCKH8 is a brand that uses videos to sell
T-shirts to self-identified progressives—or at least, the kind of
progressives who think buying T-shirts counts as activism, bless
them. I don’t hold FCKH8’s business model against it; selling
T-shirts to rabid anti-capitalists is always good for a laugh
(see:
Guevara, Che). (Predictably enough, the money-making aspect

was the only thing Jezebel didn’t like about the
video.)

But for fuck’s sake, don’t use children as props, don’t make
them scream obscenities and lies, and don’t try to frighten them
into thinking they are in imminent danger of being raped.