I have never seen the movie that the trailer is advertising (Selah And The Spades) but this audio struck me when I heard it.
I grew up in a relatively small town called Landisville, in Pennsylvania. It is a mostly rural area with lots of farms and it's one of those places where it feels like everybody knows everybody and most people hold traditional, conservative ideals. Due to being raised here, I feel that there was a lot that I did not know about the world and had no interest in learning.
Once I left my small town and moved to Arizona for college, I started to realize things. It was not a conscious realization but slowly I began to gain new knowledge and see things from a different point of view than how I had for my entire life.
Before...
...I thought girls complaining of being cat-called were doing it to let everyone know that they were pretty and that everyone wanted them...
...I thought my principal asking me if I didn't respect myself because I wore shorts to school in middle school was my fault...
...I thought my cross country coach forcing girls to run with shirts instead of sports bras in 90+ degree weather while the boys ran shirtless was fair...
...I thought my male classmates taking charge on every group assignment was just how things were supposed to be.
Slowly, I began to see things differently.
I found myself developing my own opinion and ideas on issues I had never thought twice about before.
As I began to develop self-confidence and learned that I had a voice, I began to follow feminist influencers and continued to learn that girls were people, too and were deserving of everything that boys were.
I started to analyze my past from my new perspective and realized that girls are, in fact, treated differently just for being girls. With examples from my own life to back it up, I felt more confident to speak out.
I started talking more about about women's equality and began speaking up when someone said something to me that I didn't like.
So, when I heard this audio, it hit close to home.
I felt like it explained my unidentified struggle in my teenage years. It said all the words I couldn't and taught me that other girls experienced the same thing.
While I love that I there is a community of girls to connect with over a passion for equality of the sexes, it is sad that so many women face discrimination.
These shared experiences come from ideals that have long been ingrained in our society.
As we continue to talk about and educate others on what it means to be a feminist and to be equal, we will slowly see change within our society.
I hope that one day, sexism will be a thing of the past. But for now, we must keep talking about it.