#GirlsShitToo

Down With the Dresscode

That weekend, I made sure I had no plans. I needed to spend Saturday finishing my "How I Plan to Change the World" essay for the Emily Hearst Scholarship application, and I needed to figure out a vlog for Sunday.

I spent all of Saturday writing, revising, making unnecessary trips to the refrigerator, writing some more, making half-hearted and unsuccessful masturbation attempts, revising, pulling my hair out (literally), crying, worrying, watching Buzzfeed shorts, lurking everyone's snaps, and rewriting. Finally, I had something. I didn't know if it was good enough, but it was what I had.

How I Plan to Change the World

By Dallas Delaney

I planned to change the world by showing girls and women that they could be just like boys and men. Through social media activism, I tried to show an audience of girls and women that the subtle perks of masculinity could belong to them too.

But now I plan to show the world—not just girls, but all of the world, boys included—that they can change notions of masculinity and femininity and which belongs to who. I hope to encourage everyone to come together and look critically at both of these concepts and help decide which qualities of masculinity and femininity are worthy.

Which qualities should we all hope to possess, in a future where gender distinctions won't be so prominent, where they won't be so harmful—a future with more sex equality? That is the question I hope to lead the world to answer. That is the future I imagine for the world.

The next day, I turned in my application, so glad that the Hearsts accepted online applications, which had given me an extra day to write my essay. I wasn't sure if I liked the essay I'd written, but I knew the best course of action was to not think about it. After all, I needed to think about my vlog, which needed to be published that night. And thinking too much about my "How I Plan to Change the World" essay would just drive me crazy, because I would just think about the million ways that I could've made it better.

So I started instead thinking about my vlog, and finally decided that, yes, I was going to bring more focus to my principal, or at least to his sexist dress code. I didn't feel sorry for him anymore, and I didn't mind paving the way for others to attack his ideas. What was he going to do, give me OSS for the last weeks of school? Ban me from prom? I was already not going.

Also, I still wanted to keep my options for prom open; maybe I really could get him to change the dress code and then go to prom with Benny, with both of us in pantsuits.

Down With the Dress Code

Published on May 15, 2015

Youtube Video Transcript:

Dallas here with Girls Drool and Shit Too.

So, on Friday the dress code for my high school prom came out. And guess what? Apparently, I can't wear a pantsuit. I have to wear a dress. Please gag me, now. You all know how I feel about dresses. I hate them.

I hope you all remember that I don't condemn them, and I again apologize for that one time when I said I don't like them because they make us vulnerable to rape. Adree was right when she said that's a bad line of thinking that leads to victim-blaming.

The main reason I don't like dresses is personal. I think they're uncomfortable. They're too feminine, and too feminine is an uncomfortable feeling for me.

But I know a lot of you like that feeling: feminine. And I totally support your choice to wear dresses.

So, what I want to change what was previously #DownWithTheDress, and instead morph it into #DownWithTheDressCode.

Because our dress code, like so many dress codes, is bogus. Girls can't wear hats, but boys can? Boys can't wear wildly colored shoes, but girls can? Girls like me, who die of discomfort in dresses, can't wear formal pantsuits?

I feel like I'm being discriminated against here. Because I will tell you something: there is no way I will go to prom if I am forced to wear a dress.