#GirlsShitToo

Collabing for Feminism

Collabing for Feminism

Published on March 6, 2015

Youtube Video Transcript:

Dallas: Hey, everybody, Dallas Delaney here! Adree and I decided to collaborate on this vlog. So most of you have probably heard that Melcie Tate was interviewed, and she talked about us. She accused us of being slacktivists promoting a tween brand of feminism and distracting you all from real issues of concern.

Adree: Well, Melcie, we have something to say to you. We respect you, and will continue to respect you, because you are great. You travel around the world doing great things, advocating against pretty horrific stuff like child brides inside and outside the U.S.

Dallas: We know we stay within the comfort of our paid-for bedrooms, making videos that talk about things like girls being able to talk about bodily functions. It might seem like the stuff we talk about doesn't matter. It might seem like a luxury that we get to argue about this stuff while young girls are being forced to marry old dudes.

Adree: But we're going to embrace this luxury, not because we think it's more important than helping those ten-year-old girls, but because every step counts. Right? That's what Dallas said in her first video: this small stuff does matter, on some level. Won't improving gender equality on the subtlest levels help improve equality on much larger levels? Doesn't micro effect macro?

Dallas: When I started Girls Drool Too, it was because I saw something that didn't seem right to me, and I thought it was an area where I might actually be able to effect change. This small stuff adds up to much larger stuff. It manifests in serious ways.

Adree: It's like chivalry. It's easy to think there's nothing wrong with teaching little boys to always hold the door open for girls, and it's easy to deny that something bad can come out of what seems like a gesture of kindness.

Dallas: As we are right now—high schoolers, lacking funds, lacking the heightened critical thinking skills we will hopefully acquire in college—these small things are things we might actually be able to change. Can we really be expected to make any difference to those victims of forced underage marriage? Maybe we can, someday. Maybe we'll continue building our platforms and we can get there.

Adree: Maybe someday Dallas and I will be like you. Maybe we'll be able to think more macro, maybe we'll have the capability to do more, with our concerns transcending the high school setting that's currently our world.

* * *

After we released our vlog, Melcie Tate apologized to both of us on Twitter.

Melcie Tate @theMelcie

.@DallasDelaney @AdreeSchmadree_dancer I saw your videos. And I think they were great. And I want to apologize. (1/5)

Melcie Tate @theMelcie

.@DallasDelaney @AdreeSchmadree_dancer I rewatched my interview, and I said so many of the wrong things. (2/5)

Melcie Tate @theMelcie

.@DallasDelaney @AdreeSchmadree_dancer Truthfully, was in a bad mood& didn't know enough about what U R doing to comment on it (3/5)

Melcie Tate @theMelcie

.@DallasDelaney @AdreeSchmadree_dancer Now that I know, I think it's great. You girls R on your way to becoming strong women&activists (4/5)

Melcie Tate @theMelcie

.@DallasDelaney @AdreeSchmadree_dancer I look forward to seeing where your futures take you (5/5)

Afterward, Adree sent me a text:

Adree

Mon, Mar 7, 11:31 AM

Adree

CAN YOU BELIEVE SHE TWEETED US!?

Dallas

*Shocked*

Adree

I'm happy! 😃

Thanx 4 collabing!

Dallas

For sure!

Then the rest of the week went by so quickly, which was weird, since the week before break typically goes slow. Teachers busied themselves with figuring out student grades for the quarter, so in most of our classes we didn't have any assignments. Mr. Harber even let us watch a movie. Granted, it was Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches, but it still felt very un-Harber-ish.

Ms. Brooks said that we had nothing due for our projects and papers; rather, each of us had an individual meeting with her about our progress while the rest of us goofed off. During my meeting, Ms. Brooks told me she was really proud of my choices, especially the choices to retract ideas, engage viewers, and collaborate with Adree for the last vlog of the quarter. "If the two of you had written papers on your topics, you wouldn't have had the opportunity to actively seek the middle ground between your ideas, like you are now. I don't think anything exemplifies the success of my reformation of the senior paper more than your projects."

Soon it was the last day before break, and the last chemistry class, too. Valerie, Trish, Reba, and I had spent the week talking about the success of my and Adree's vlog, but on this day Reba surprised me by asking, "Dallas, when did you realize that you liked girls?"

I felt weird, because Valerie was right there, and she looked up to see what I would say. Of course I was looking right at her. Awkward. "Um...I don't know. When I realized my fantasies were fixated on girls?" The honest answer.

"Jeez...how long have you been having sexual fantasies?" Reba asked, and in a tone that made me feel like a sexual deviant.

"Fantasies aren't always sexual," I said. "Don't you ever fantasize about having intimate conversations with people?" In the fantasies I'd often had about Valerie, or even in the fantasies I was starting to have about Adree, we were talking, and I was making them laugh or wonder, telling them something they'd never heard before.

"Yeah, it's absurd to think all fantasies have to be sexual," Valerie interjected, smaring at Reba (heavy on the glaring). "I've always fantasized about being rewarded for my future contributions to the world. Those are my favorite fantasies—the ones that keep me going. I used to fantasize about receiving praise for my hunger alleviation efforts, but Dallas and Adree are stealing that light." She shot me an accusatory look, which turned into a smile. "Anyways, those fantasies aren't sexual."

"Well," said Reba. "I guess I'm just still surprised that girls can like vagina. I don't even like my own vagina, let alone anyone else's."

I almost laughed, except then I realized there was nothing funny about the fact that Reba didn't like her own vagina.

Valerie didn't seem to care about that; she was just annoyed. "Reba, I'm sure there's a lot more to being a lesbian than just 'liking vagina.' We can't just go around reducing each other to our body parts, especially our genitalia. Would we ever go around saying that we just like 'penis'? No. We like humans for who they are, not their underparts."

It felt good to have her defending me. I forgot about Reba's self-hatred, and found myself wishing Valerie had gotten diarrhea a lot sooner.