A provocative video of young girls dressed in princess costumes and pearls dropping F-bombs in frustration over gender inequality gained national attention last week. But instead of focusing on the offensiveness of the campaign, those who oppose the video should focus on solving the problem it highlights.

Critics consider the video as exploitative toward children but aren’t discussing the real problem at hand — gender inequality. But what was more angering to some was that these young girls were being coerced to curse and that it was for a for-profit T-shirt company, FCKH8.com
The company that created this marketing campaign, FCKH8.com describes itself as, “… A for-profit T-shirt company with an activist heart and a passionate social change mission: arming thousands of people with pro-LGBT equality, anti-racism and anti-sexism T-shirts that act as ‘mini-billboards’ for change.”

In the two-and-one-half minute video, a range of girls appearing to be between the ages of six to 13 stand defiantly with fingers waving saying, “Women who graduate university with straight As get paid as much as men who only got Cs, so bad grades equal more bank.”
Most of the backlash on this video comes from people describing it as corrupting beautiful little girls, like Fox News did on Oct. 22.  This is precisely what the video is trying to undermine — stop calling girls beautiful and pretty and start taking them seriously.

These young girls reciting these statistics will be our future. This is what they stand up against if we don’t take action.  It may be alarming to see young children, regardless of gender, cursing but sadly that is what it takes for a problem like gender inequality to be talked about. This is more of a flaw of society than this marketing campaign.  If FCKH8.com didn’t have to use cursing children to get the national attention it deserves, it probably wouldn’t go to these lengths.  It’s not exploitation, it’s a tool to get people to listen.
The video has done precisely what it wanted to do — shock, anger, upset and start conversations. Depending how the video resonated, the anger was either directed toward the social injustices, the children cursing or the fact that the video is part of a for-profit campaign.
Anger over little girls swearing in a video for a for-profit company is misplaced.  The company gives one-third of the proceeds to “…Charities that are fighting everyday to make the world more equal for women and girls,” according to its website.

Even though FCKH8.com may be making money off of T-shirts, they are supplying people with a way to voice their opinion on important causes, which could evoke conversation and change. And as a business, the company needs to make profit to be able to run. This makes critics’ complaints very weak. The problem at hand is gender inequality, not a $15 T-shirt.

FCKH8.com may be a for-profit company but at least this company is trying to take a position on gender injustices, which is more than what most companies are willing to do.

The fact that children swore and were doing it for an advertisement should not divert from the message that women still face difficulties achieving the same success as men. If we don’t work to solve this problem now, these cursing little girls will become cursing adults fighting for the same injustices.

Julia Smith is a junior newspaper and online journalism and sociology dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at jcsmit11@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @jcsmith711.

Published on October 28, 2014 at 12:01 am