#GirlsShitToo

How Feminism Changed My Life

Challenge: How Feminism Has Changed My Life

Published on May 11, 2015

Youtube Video Transcript:

Hi ladies and men! Adree here with Embrace Femininity.

Since Dallas and I just talked about how much feminism does for people, I want to show the skeptics just how feminism works for each of us on an individual level. So please participate in my challenge to show our viewers, from fellow feminists to complete skeptics, just how feminism has changed your life.

You can post tweets, pictures, or blogs — just try to use the hashtag #HowFeminismChangedMyLife, and make sure to crosspost links from other social media platforms. Thanks!

Adree's challenge was a huge success. So many people were sharing and cross posting their stories, on Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, and Facebook. Most of my friends and I participated.

Dallas Delaney @DallasDelaney

I officially have more female friends, and I love more bands w/ chicks in them. B/c women rock. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Dylan Brynt @DillieB

I dgaf when I'm laughed at + chastised 4 being "too sensitive" and wearing nail polish. Big boys DO CRY. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Valerie Devant @VVDevant1

I feel confident having whatever combo of feminine and masculine qualities I want to possess. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Bada$$ Benny @BennnnnnnnnyB

Getting better at talking 2 girls. What I have to say is not more correct/important. Was an interrupting ass b4. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Alex the Kettle @deathblackthrash6666

I'm more metal now #HowFinlandChangedMyLife

Alex the Kettle @deathblackthrash6666

OK OK fine. I accept that girls have the right to masturbate as much as guys do. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Jade A. @JadeAnderson

I seek justice for myself in all situations - romantic, sexual, social, economic, political, religious, etc. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Brad Martin @BradlyMartin1979

As the father of a girl, feminism helps me to help her navigate this world that teaches her looks are everything. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Laura Fulton @Italians_are_the_raddest

As the mother of a transgender son, feminism helps me be best parent and advocate I can 4 my son. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Nick Garvey @Timeistheultimatetest

As a 21yo male, feminism helped me make sense of the sexual abuse I endured in my fraternity. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Adriana Bonilla @Adrianna_B_Bonilla

Studying racism and classism in education; feminism provides me w/ a great framework for analyzing issues! #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Some of Adree's viewers wrote longer posts for other platforms, like Youtube, Tumblr, and Facebook.

Lanie Carter

As a woman suffering from one of the many "women's diseases" (endometriosis) that have for so long been dismissed as women's hysteria, I need feminism to help me show people my suffering is more than just hysteria. I need to bring awareness to my disease so that it and others like it will be further funded and researched, and taken seriously. I need it so I can encourage and support women who will go into epidemiology. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Shamika Brice

I was constantly in relationships where I was expected to submit to the will of my superior, aka my boyfriend. Feminism showed me I didn't have to accept this fate. What's more: it gave me tools I needed to successfully negotiate the different aspects of my relationships. I am currently in a relationship with a man who is a feminist himself, and communication—not hierarchy—has become the thing that keeps us stable. #HowFeminismChangedMyLife

Lyla Hartwell

I got an opportunity to travel to join the Peace Corps and travel overseas, and my father forbade me from going. Meanwhile, my brother was serving in the army and was dispatched to Afghanistan. I actually listened to my father and didn't go. He had told me I was being selfish by putting my life on the line. Why was I being selfish? Because I'm supposed to have children, I guess, and by putting my life on the line I was denying their births and the continuation of my family line. Then I was at a family reunion and my relatives kept speaking about how "brave" my brother was for putting his own life on the line to serve our country. When I got another opportunity to do volunteer work in Syria, I gladly accepted. And when my father told me that if I went he would disown me, I told him I felt sorry for him and his twisted views. Sure, there was great risk in going to Syria. But it was my risk to take, just as my brother's risk was his. This is #HowFeminismChangedMyLife—I learned to take control of it.

I couldn't even read them all on Thursday morning; there were too many. But I thought Adree's idea for the challenge totally slayed, and I wanted to go up to her in class and hug her and kiss her on the cheek and tell her that, but I was feeling friendzoned. So instead I just said, "I liked the idea for your vlog last night, Adree."

"Thanks," was all she said back, with the most horribly friend-ish smile.