Can Your Daughter Walk Alone? #Feminism @FCKH8

For the last day this video from FCKH8.com has been floating around in my Facebook stream. It features little girls in princess dresses talking about every thing from pay inequality to sexual assualt with a liberal use of the F word. It is jarring to see these little girls use such salty language, but really shouldn't we be more concerned about the content between the expletives. That little girls are still living in a world where they will be paid less than their male counterparts, are still getting the message their appearance is the most important issue of their lives and can expect to be a victim of sexual assault should be the more upsetting issue. Which is, of course the point of this video.

Having a 10 year old daughter I like to think things are so much better now than when I grew up in the 70s and they are in many ways, but I think we can all agree we've still a long way to go. The video has a line about it being great that woman have the vote but now can we have the right to walk to the car. That made me catch my breathe. Because I don't feel safe walking to my car or even walking around my own block at night. I'm a 45 year old woman and I need someone to walk to my car with??? And sadly I would advise my daughter not to walk alone either.

I wish I could say I'm just paranoid about being accosted, but if I look back over my life, it is a warranted fear. At age 7 a man pulled his car up to me and a friend walking home, he was masturbating inside. When I was 10 I was again walking home and another man pulled up in his car to launch into a verbal assault of a sexual nature. When I was 19 I was mugged on a side street of Sunset Blvd. with a friend. When I was 20 I was mugged again in a grocery store parking lot. Finally, when I was 28 as I was walking into my apartment a man ran up and flashed me. So the fact that I don't want to walk to my car alone isn't crazy it's self preservation.

With all of those incidences behind me I still consider myself lucky I have never been raped. Because as a girl or a woman all of the things that have happened to me are the least you have to worry about when you are walking to school, the store, or really anywhere. That's right, every time you see a woman walking alone she is constantly aware of foot steps behind her, blind corners, the bushes, and any possible danger. She jumps in her car quickly and god forbid a van has parked next to her. (Van=serial killer)

So forget pay equality, and body image, and slut shaming and all the rest of it. Just ask yourself one question what kind of world do our girls live in when their own mothers don't feel safe walking to their cars? With that in mind it's a wonder all little girls aren't talking like the ones in this video.