Has Feminism Jumped the Shark?

 

shutterstock_143044900A new video, “F-bombs for Feminism”, made the rounds on social media yesterday. (In case the title didn’t alert you, be warned that this is not something you necessarily want to watch without headphones!)

Following in the footsteps of Beyoncé, who last year made the “shocking” comment that “gender equality is a myth,” “F-bombs for Feminism” is a ridiculous attempt to wake people up to women’s rights. The group who created this video, FCKH8, gathered a group of little girls wearing princess dress-up clothing and using “offensive” language to bring attention to all the “really offensive” ways our patriarchal society discriminates against and mistreats women. And they play all the big hits: pay inequality, rape and sexual assault, and being pretty.

FCKH8 makes use of all the usual statistical suspects: “Women make 23% less than men for the exact same [expletive] work.” And, “One out of five women will be sexually assaulted or raped by a man. Stop telling girls how to dress and start teaching boys not to [expletive] rape.”

And no feminist video would be complete without a confused section on women’s bodies, suddenly wanting to turn the conversation away from — wait, I’m confused — our bodies? Funny how it was the feminists who were leading the parade of slut walks around the globe, and yet I heard crickets from them when Miley Cyrus embarrassed herself gyrating and twerking nearly nude at the MTV Music Awards last year. I wish they’d get their message straight on that one.

I won’t bother trying to counter the section on pay equality. If a reader really wants to learn about the wage gap, they can read the endless work we’ve done on the subject at the Independent Women’s Forum. And if you’re interested in a thoughtful conversation about sexual violence and rape – a serious criminal act that shouldn’t be made light of by little girls with attitude – you can read this publication IWF put out after our event on the same issue.

What I will comment on is that we’ve allowed the conversation about gender and equality in America to get to this point. The video closes out with “adult” women offering the message: “Instead of cleaning these girls’ mouths out with soap, maybe society should clean up it’s act.” Wow; how mature. Do they think that life in America is truly this awful? And do they think average hard-working woman juggling life and family will really relate to this?

What’s actually offensive is not that they’ve used little girls in this way. Yes, it’s crass and sad, but I’m not losing sleep over an eight year old yelling expletives at me. The real crime here is the message they’re promoting to women and girls.

As the group’s name suggests, they believe American society and the workplace are openly hostile to women. Women are regularly and consistently mistreated, paid unfairly, and not rewarded for their accomplishments. They perpetuate the myth that women – and little girls – are all victims and men are all perpetrators. Good luck having any kind of healthy relationship with that mindset! And in true feminist form, they have removed all agency from women, making them, ironically, child-like victims.

IWF understands there are women and their families who face real economic challenges, especially when the economy is still teetering and failed government policies are limiting our choices over health care, education, and even saving for retirement. And we think there are real, substantive ways we can improve things for women, such as those in our new book, Lean Together. But life in America is pretty good. Women have an unprecedented opportunity to learn, to work, and to succeed. And women are increasingly outpacing men educationally, professionally, and even financially.

The only thing that should be shocking in this video is how openly political and vitriolic the conversation about women – and by extension women voters – has become. From the War on Women to FCKH8, gender feminists have started to show their true colors, motivated by anger and resentment rather than good will. One can only assume liberal feminists see their relevance rapidly fading away and are grasping at straws. But really it just looks like feminism has finally jumped the shark.

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  1. Matede Inactive
    Matede
    @MateDe

    Feminism has jumped the shark. Which is why it drives older feminists crazy when young women refuse to be identified as a feminist. Younger women has seen feminist to be a bunch of manhating shrews, who ironically seem to look very masculine.

    I think the next generation is tossing feminsim by the wayside because they don’t see it as very appealing and it’s not.

    • #1
  2. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Feminism jumped the shark when feminist groups rallied around Bill Clinton in the wake of bimbo eruptions and rape charges. At this point, the sharks are just circling its dessicated corpse, wondering if it’s just too foul to eat.

    • #2
  3. Sandy Member
    Sandy
    @Sandy

    I fantasize that this foul-mouthed garbage is the last rant, and though I’m not holding my breath on that, I’m encouraged by what has happened to Udall via the Denver Post and, maybe,  Colorado voters.  Senator Uterus, indeed.

    • #3
  4. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    circuspants

    H/T to Ricochet member David Deeble.

    • #4
  5. user_517406 Inactive
    user_517406
    @MerinaSmith

    I didn’t watch the video, but using little girls in this way does disturb me deeply.

    • #5
  6. user_1938 Inactive
    user_1938
    @AaronMiller

    Feminism is the shark.

    • #6
  7. user_998621 Member
    user_998621
    @Liz

    Aaron Miller:Feminism is the shark.

    You said a mouthful, there.

    • #7
  8. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    The biggest problem is that feminist organizations such as NOW and civil rights organizations such as SNCC/NAACP accomplished their missions quite successfully in the 60s and 70s and are just desperately trolling for work now.

    Dealing with the overwhelming and heartbreaking oppression of women in Muslim countries and the complete breakdown of social order in urban ghettos isn’t nearly as *sexy* or simple or politically rewarded.

    • #8
  9. Sandy Member
    Sandy
    @Sandy

    Merina Smith:I didn’t watch the video, but using little girls in this way does disturb me deeply.

    Yes. Child abuse, in my opinion.  I just took Sabrina’s word for the contents–that was enough.

    • #9
  10. user_44643 Inactive
    user_44643
    @MikeLaRoche

    Feminists jumped the shark, hogtied it with pink breast cancer awareness ribbons, and forced it to take mandatory diversity classes.

    • #10
  11. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    Mike LaRoche:Feminists jumped the shark, hogtied it with pink breast cancer awareness ribbons, and forced it to take mandatory diversity classes.

    I was not at all happy with the visuals of pink arm sheaths at the most recent Seahawks game. They clashed horribly with the cool lime green accessories and you know I despise fashion faux pas.

    • #11
  12. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Authentic people curse. Inauthentic people who have internalized society’s methods for preventing free expression use euphemisms. Cursing indicates outrage; outrage is proof that one has grasped a truth in need of expressing, preferably at a decibel levels that prohibits a reply.

    In the name of free speech, you know.

    • #12
  13. user_44643 Inactive
    user_44643
    @MikeLaRoche

    EThompson:

    Mike LaRoche:Feminists jumped the shark, hogtied it with pink breast cancer awareness ribbons, and forced it to take mandatory diversity classes.

    I was not at all happy with the visuals of pink arm sheaths at the most recent Seahawks game. They clashed horribly with the cool lime green accessories and you know I despise fashion faux pas.

    And they look just as horrible with Texas Tech uniforms.  A pox on whoever came up with that idea in the first place.  If there is no crying in baseball, there should be no pink in football!

    • #13
  14. Quinn the Eskimo Member
    Quinn the Eskimo
    @

    Two quick comments:

    1. Modern feminism celebrates women degrading themselves.  As long they control their own degradation, it’s OK.  It’s almost like some feminist thought that men were disgusting and the only way to achieve equality was to be as disgusting as they thought men were.  The swearing princesses are part of the same phenomenon that made the Beyonce thing from earlier this year such a big deal.

    2. This video is a reminder that, for some people, everything can be sacrificed on the altar of political conviction: decency, decorum, the proper upbringing of their children.  For people like that, this is very small potatoes.  Feminism is dismantling due process on college campuses and it’s likely an opening act for something worse.  Far enough down the road, it probably ends in violence.

    • #14
  15. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    The way I see it, feminism is sort of like the Centers for Disease Control.

    Infectious disease is no longer a primary health threat for Western society.  As such, the CDC finds itself with less to do, so it wastes its time and resources on other health “problems”, like smoking and obesity.

    However, infectious disease still exists, so it would probably be a bad idea to get rid of the CDC completely.

    The challenge is to keep the CDC working at top efficiency in the area of infectious disease, when its services are required so rarely, but are still needed.

    It’s similar with feminism. There is still a need for a small number of people whose work is to put the political priorities of women (as a political group) first. The challenge is how to keep these people focused on genuinely important issues considering that most of the real problems have already been addressed, and not drifting into the weeds because they need “to do something”.

    • #15
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