#GirlsShitToo

Look What Adree Can Do

Look What I Can Do! (Adree Style)

Published on February 17, 2015

Youtube Video Transcript:

Hi everyone! Adree here with Embrace Femininity.

So, while I applaud Dallas's attempt at her #LOOKwhatIcando! challenge, I think that most of us can agree it was a failed attempt.

Why?

Because the images that were favorited and retweeted and privileged above the others were the pictures of cars being fixed. Of woodwork being made. Of masculine sports.

Dallas, we need to pave more room for feminine skills to be valued. Your challenge certainly didn't do that.

Maybe that had a lot to do with the initial picture you posted of yourself putting together a mountain bike from scraps. If you wanted to be a good model for your viewers, then maybe you should've posted a picture of something that has resulted from the exercise of your feminine skill set.

I'm going to use my platform to shed more light on those Twitter users who deserve more light.

Like this one of Bri, who posted a picture of the Thai-inspired peanut-encrusted salmon dish she made for her family of six. Cooking for six? That would be difficult! And yet, that dish is beautiful, and delicious, and her family looks so happy to be receiving a delicious and nutritious meal.

And then there's this one, where Meirav posted a picture of herself body painting on a movie set. Because she is a makeup artist, and so doing cosmetics is her skill. What do you have to say to her, Dallas? Is her skill set not valuable?

And we can't neglect this one—where Mindy posted a picture of herself having a baby, in her bathtub, smiling like it's no big deal. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, look what Mindy can do.

Finally, I'll post a picture of myself. As you might be able to tell from my Twitter name, I am a dancer. My sport is considered very feminine, and mostly girls or gay guys do it. I think that more straight guys might do it if they didn't think that so many people would automatically assume they were gay for it, and if the world wasn't so homophobic. But yeah, dance is difficult. I have a bumper sticker on the back of my car that says if dance were any harder, it would be called football. I've been criticized for that sticker before, because a lot of football players at my high school are offended by it. But it's true.

So let's sift back through the fruits of Dallas's challenge, and bring to the surface some of those images that were neglected because they showcased feminine skills. These images deserve recognition.

____________________

Perusing the fruits of my #LOOKWhatICanDo challenge, I saw the truth of Adree's accusation: most of the favorited images were of skills that would be considered masculine. I didn't know if that was my fault for posting that original picture, or if it evidenced that society really did favor masculine over feminine. It made me think about the tweet I'd gotten when I started my project that said something like, "Do we really need a reason to favor masculinity any more? Ugh."

I realized that was right: society did favor masculine way too much.

"I hardly got any favorites," said Dylan when we were at a sandwich shop for lunch; he had posted a picture of himself doing a watercolor painting of Serene Beach. "I guess watercolors are too feminine. Eric and Sharkbite both got lots of favorites for their surfing shots."

"Yeah, Benny's shot on the halfpipe got favorited a bunch, too. But not by Sydney, who he can't go ten seconds without mentioning. He was upset about that."

"Maybe I should just tell Sydney that Benny likes her," Dylan said, since Sydney was one of his good friends.

"No! I'm not even supposed to tell you that."

"Benny's such a girl," Dylan said. Part of me agreed. For being such a masculine dude, with his boxers always showing and his hair always hat-matted and his walk always sluggishly rhythmic, Benny was acting like a stereotypical girl.

But I disagreed with the stereotype. "You shouldn't use 'girl' in a demeaning way like that."

"Fine. Benny is being pretty silly. Better?"

"Better. And just so you know, I'm going to retweet the picture of you painting. You deserve some recognition for your talent."

"Yeah, I wish I got as much attention for my watercolor as you do for being you." Dylan nodded to a group of guys that were staring at me and whispering to each other. One of them did that stupid thing with their eyebrows (the up-down-up-down movement) and another winked. They looked about Josh's age. "Fans?" he asked.

"Not sure," I said, not feeling good about the attention from them. Then I saw Dennis, who said, "Nice rack, Delaney!" His eyes had honed in right on my chest.

The most grossed-out feeling overcame me as I realized why those guys were staring and otherwise being totally lewd. "Ugh," I said, crossing my hands over my chest. "They're staring because I'm not wearing a bra—you know, because I'm letting go of my femininity—and the air conditioning is on way too high in here. This totally doesn't feel as liberating as girls say. No more white raglan shirts! Just big black band shirts."