Martin

Gloria Martin
Professor Downing
Intermediate Composition 067
9 November 2014
Princesses and F-Bombs
Is there anything more darling then a little girl dressed up like a princess? According to
liberal feminists, a little princess spouting f-bombs is both adorable and appropriate in bringing
awareness to the feminist message. Recently, a video was made by FCKH8.com, an online
clothing store, which featured young girls ages 6 to 13 spouting F-bombs and facts about income
inequality, sexual objectification, and rape. The subject matter itself was not inappropriate but
questions were raised concerning young girls using the f-word. Therefore, the question posed is
whether or not the video Potty-Mouth Princesses Drop F-bombs For Feminism was effective in
supporting feminism in a positive way.
The best way to look at the effectiveness and validity of the video is to examine the
feminist message portrayed in the video using Tolman's model. The central claim of the video
was So what is more offensive? A little girl saying fuck, or the fucking unequal and sexist way
society treats girls and women? (FCKH8.com). Take note, as listed in the claim, a goal of the
video is to offend the audience. The claim is backed up by three main facts about the unequal
treatment of women.
The first data point is Women are paid 23% less than men...for the exact same fucking
work (FCKH8.com). President Obama himself recently addressed the issue of unequal pay for
women and the lack of inexpensive daycares to an audience in Rhode Island. He stated, and
sometimes, someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then

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leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. And that's not a choice we
want Americans to make. Likewise, the President addressed the reason why, on average, men
earn more than women. Often, women make the choice to raise their children at home instead of
pursuing careers.
Thus, many women make less than men because they choose to become homemakers
instead working outside of the home. Also, many women choose not to do more labor-intensive
jobs, like working on an oilrig, a fishing boat, construction, or other manual occupations.
Frequently, women choose careers in education, nursing, childcare, and other jobs which do not
pay as much as manual labor. It is important to note that the feminist ideology often pushes
women away from homemaking and raising their children. Instead, feminists guide women
towards pursuing careers in corporations and politics because they see the position of a
homemaker as a subordinate. On the other hand, feminists and pro-choice advocates should
follow their own bumper stickers and allow women to work where they want, without
identifying certain careers as inappropriate for women.
The second point made in the feminist video was "One out of every five women
will be sexually assaulted or raped by a man (FCKH8.com). This statistic is frightening. As a
woman, I should be afraid to step out of my own door for fear that I will be raped. Actually, this
statistic was taken from a report, which stated that one in five women will be raped in college
(which is still frightening). The results were gathered from two different studies. The first was
the Campus Sexual Assault Study, which found that 19% of the women reported experiencing
completed or attempted sexual assault since entering college, a slightly larger percent in those
experiencing such incidents before entering college (Anatomy of Sexual Assault Stats). These
results were tallied from an online survey, which asked questions of students from two different

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colleges.

Also, most of the students who reported assault, stated that they did not identify

those incidents as being rape. The other study was also not a scientific study but a survey by the
National Intimate Partner In Sexual Violence Survey. The survey stated, nearly one in five
women (18.3%) and one in 71 man (1.4%) in the United States have been raped at sometime in
their lives (Anatomy of Sexual Assault Stats). Accordingly, the survey used vague wording, or
asked questions that defined rape as promiscuous sex. Instead of simply asking participants
whether they had been raped, the survey asked questions such as when you were drunk, high,
drunk, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever had sex with you? (Anatomy
of Sexual Assault Stats).
Other outlines for categorizing rape included: someone had made a promise, threatened
to tell lies, or stated they would be sad if refused in order to get sex. Do the surveys actually
represent the majority of people in America and colleges? No. Anytime a survey is used in order
to gain information, it will never be an accurate description of a population. Surveys are not
entirely accurate because there is no way to test or prove someones answer. Accordingly, the
questions posed in the surveys use vague descriptions of sexual assault and classify certain
questions as being rape.
In reality, it is not uncommon for people who are drunk or high to have consensual sex.
Many people who go to bars and drink have the intention of having sex. Also, it is not
uncommon for people to lie in order to get someone else to have sex with them or to make
promises. These descriptions of rape are inaccurate and take away a true concern from people
who truly have been raped or assaulted. Consequently, if the one in five statistic was true, as a
woman I'll be terrified to walk out my door or go to college for that matter.
The third fact posed by the f-bomb spewing girls was society teaching girls that our

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bodies, boobs, and butts are more important than our brains leads us to thinking our worth comes
from our waistline and my asspirations in life, should not be worrying about the shape of my ass
(FCKH8.com). This last fact is indeed true in the sense that media focuses on sexually
objectifying women in order to sell products. But this video takes the medias influence as taking
away all choice from women to say no to sexual objectification. Even though, as a woman,
when I see Victoria's Secret advertisements with thin women, it tends to make me feel less than.
Nevertheless, it is still my choice to allow my mind or my choices to be affected by what others
say I should look like.
An example of the sexual objectification of women in culture is a recent Victoria's Secret
advertisement for their new Body bra. The advertisement showed multiple women standing
behind slogan the Perfect Body, Perfect Fit, Perfect Comfort, Perfectly Soft (Bahadur). The
advertisement received negative backlash because of how they portrayed thin women as having
the perfect body. Victoria's Secret changed their slogan and the new advertisement still features
the same skinny women but now declares A Body For Every Body, Perfect Fit, Perfect Comfort,
Perfectly Soft (Bahadur). In contrast to the Victoria Secret advertisement, an underwear
company Dear Kate, came out with a advertisement showing women of all shapes and sizes
with the logo The Perfect Body (Bahadur). Therefore, women are often sexually objectified in
the media but is still the women's choice to go and buy those sexually objectifying clothes and
conform to the skinny is beautiful stereotype.
When feminists say that women are defined by the media, it is not empowering to
women; instead they turn women into victims of society. The feminism and f-bomb promotion
was backed up by three claims, which when analyzed, proved to either false or misleading
Accordingly, when applying Tolman's model to the video, the reservation used was an adult

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woman stating, Instead of cleaning these girls mouth out with soap, (gasp) maybe society
should clean up it's act (FCKH8.com). Therefore, the company knew that people would
attacked their exploitation of young girls, and instead pointed out the errors of Americas sexist
society. The question remains, was the audience able to get past little girls spewing f-bombs? The
results can be found in the videos two warrants.

The first

warrant was the company attempting to bring awareness to feminism by using the shock value of
little girls saying the f word. The backing for this unspoken warrant is found in the reservation
which criticized America as being sexist. The second warrant was hidden behind the first. This
second warrant was the ultimate goal of the video. The true warrant was the company's usage of
little girls to bring awareness to feminism in order to influence people to buy their feminist Tshirts. At the end of the video, they promoted feminist T-shirts that cost fifteen dollars - out of
which, five dollars would be given to a charity that supported feminism. This second warrant
takes away from the message of feminism and creates a negative vibe about the video.
Overall, society was not in favor of the video because the exploitation of the young girls
and the video simply being a marketing ploy to sell a t-shirt. Even Al Sharpton on the MSNBC
agreed that the facts of the feminist video were true but the video should not have used these
young girls to sell a t-shirt. Another person on Al Sharpton's panel agreed, and stated that
because the company with simply selling a t-shirts by using little girls saying the f word
undermines the integrity of the message (Msnbc.com). Yes, many liberals liked the video and
thought that little girls saying f words was adorable, but more were turned off by the sales pitch.
In conclusion, if the audience would also look at the facts they would become even more
disgusted by this feminist marketing campaign. Accordingly, the videos used three facts which
were either untrue or deceptive in nature. Hence, the company hid their money scheme behind a

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feminist message, which exploited the innocence of young girls by giving them a f bomb riddled
script.

Works Cited

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"Anatomy of Sexual Assault Stats." TheBlaze. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.
Bahadur, Nina. "Victoria's Secret 'Perfect Body' Campaign Changes Slogan After Backlash." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Nov. 2014. Web. 06 Nov. 2014.
"FCKH8.com." FCKH8.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.
"Little Girls Drop F-Bombs for Feminism." Msnbc.com. NBC News Digital, n.d. Web. 08 Nov.
2014.
"LYBIO.net Is A Movement For Internet Online Accuracy For Speeches, Text, Words, Quotes
and Lyrics." LYBIO.net Is A Movement For Internet Online Accuracy For Speeches, Text,
Words, Quotes and Lyrics. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. (F-Bomb Princess transcript)
"Remarks by the President on Women and the Economy -- Providence, RI." The White House.
The White House, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.