#GirlsShitToo

Girls Can Open Doors, Too

Adree Richards @AdreeSchmadree_dancer

This video is about shutting the door on #GirlsShitToo #GirlsCanOpenDoorsToo #EmbraceFemininity

Girls Can Open Doors, Too

Published on February 3, 2015

Youtube Video Transcript:

Adree here with Embrace Femininity.

Days ago, I was going to make this video about how we can still be equal even if we are different, responding to Dallas's #DifferentButEqualFails vlog.

But this whole crisis with our principal, Mr. Runsberger, has made me realize something—Dallas might be right. Just like separate but equal was never really equal, different but equal isn't either. Saying boys will be boys and ladies need to act like ladies isn't fair treatment. Some boys might be masculine and some girls might be feminine, and vice versa, but we need to be treated equally.

The fact is that we are all different. We all have different appearances, talents, preferences, beliefs. But we shouldn't be treated differently, not when "differently" actually means unfairly.

This reminds me of a couple of weeks ago, when Dallas created her #WhatLittleGirlsRMadeInto challenge. She retweeted some guy's tweet about how little girls are made into helpless women who always need to have the door held open for them, and some of you might have noticed the two of us got into a little feud about this. Because I'd always thought that girls deserve to have the door held open for them. That's what my mom taught me: find a guy who will hold the door open for you. I've held her lesson close to my heart, so I really shook my head when Dallas and I started that tweeting feud, because I couldn't believe Dallas was one of those feminists, those "crazy" against-chivalry feminists.

But now I think she's right to believe that boys shouldn't be expected to be chivalrous, and that girls shouldn't be raised to think that they need someone to hold the door open for them. If we think that we need someone to hold the door open for us, then we'll think the same someone can close the door on us. Because that gives them the power. They let us in, and they keep us out.

Doesn't it make more sense to have everyone treated equally? Instead of saying that boys need to be chivalrous, why not teach boys and girls that everyone should be courteous? Instead of saying that boys will be boys and ladies need to act like ladies, why don't we say that everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves the way they want to, and to explore the world of knowledge the way they want to, and to write their lives the way they want to? Can't we celebrate all of our differences while still treating each other equally?

Don't you see what you've done, Dallas? You've opened my mind a bit. And I think I've opened yours, too.

So don't you dare stop making your vlogs just because Mr. Runsberger told you that you need to act like a lady! You said it yourself...#GirlsShitToo. Ladies shit just like guys do. Ladies cuss just like guys do. Ladies take risks, just like guys do, and make awesome activist projects. Don't let our principal tell you different. Don't let him make you think that you need his permission to do this project. Don't think that you can't go on just because he shut the door. 

Because girls can open doors, too, Dallas.