Często wątpię w to, co potrafię. Jednego jestem pewna – pisać umiem. Czasami przychodzi takie miłe potwierdzenie w postaci… Miesięcznego stypendium na kursie praw człowieka w Sarajewie. Jak to się stało, że tam wyląduję, jak wyglądała rekrutacja – o tym później.
Przykro mi, że
ten blog tak smutno zamilkł (praca zawodowa kradnie stanowczo zbyt wiele minut z mojego życia), dlatego wrzucam coś, z czego jestem bardzo zadowolona – esej w języku angielskim, który napisałam na cudowną okazję, jaką była rekrutacja na program Humanity in Actions.
Nie chcę obiecywać, że nadrobię milion irańskich wpisów w pięć dni, ale mam szczerą nadzieję, że mój czas przestanie się tak żałośnie kurczyć…
A teraz: włącz spot, przeczytaj mój esej i podziel się przemyśleniami.
FCKH8T action from 2014: “Potty-Mouthed Princesses Dropping F-Bombs for Feminism”
Women’s rights are human rights. In 21st Century people need to be reminded about it, which is terrifying.
When I first saw the campaign I was positively shocked. I laughed but also I was touched by how accurate the girls’ (and boy’s) arguments were. It was an innovative way of talking about women’s equality issues. Sadly, the difficulties women all over the world face seem to be endless.
Opening FCKH8 video we see little girls in princess’ dresses showing up one after another, saying just one word: “Pretty”. “What a stereotypical cliché” you could think at first. But then, the “f-bomb” from the title has been dropped.
They are furious
Girls are listing main points of women discrimination and they are not angry. They are furious. You should be too. Why? Because it’s is 21st century and we are still facing inequality between men and women. Girls shout about: pay gap, violence, judging women by their appearance, using comparison “like a girl” as a negative expression.
If you feel offended by “little girl saying ‘f*ck” but you do not feel furious when women are still facing social, political, economic inequality you become a perfect example of a person who had been targeted by the creators of the campaign.
Swears are swears just because during historical development of language they have been changing their meaning. They received negative connotations and lost positive meaning. We use or do not use the specific groups of words under specified circumstances. We created frames of typical social situations: not using swears words during public appearance, speeches, lectures. People would not like if politicians use swears to underline some points. But when we see a person, who dropped a coffee and her/his reaction is loud swear we are not offended. So why be offended by girls who do not agree on a misogynist world they are supposed to live in? They want to change it but they need adults’ help. Children are often not heard unless they do something wrong. Swearing brings attention. Maybe that is the only way for you to listen?
“the f-word”
The moment girls are counting to 5 (“1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted”) gives me shivers every time I watch. Do you really think “the f-word” is worse than victim blaming?
I like the empowerment I feel after watching it. Girls are confident and powerful. The way they behave is an attempt to fight the social acceptance for girls’ and boys’ behaviour. If a boy shouts he is confident and he know what he wants. If a girl stands up for herself she is bossy or hysterical. In the video they are pointing out straight the causes of anger. Adults, who constantly suppresses their need to express what they want should learn a lot from them.
I do not see this video as a controversial one but I know it is in an opinion of many. Controversy carries discussion with it. Video became viral, people talked about it. On YouTube there are several arguments about the campaign.
Women are allowed to use f-word as much as anyone else. They have right to be angry and to talk about discrimination in an angry way. They do not have to “be ladies” to be treated seriously. The “lady argument” of people who did not like the campaign is another muzzle of the correct behaviour put on women’s action: if you want to fight for your rights do it but in an elegant way so everybody likes it.
“Well… HELLO?! And hell no!”
