Prom Proposal

Published on May 18, 2015

Youtube Video Transcript:

First of all, I wanted to say congratulations to Dallas. Her #DownWithTheDresscode movement, along with the petition she inspired me to start, caught the attention of our local news station, who reached out to our school for comment, and our principal was forced once more to surrender. I'm pretty sure he hates us for putting him in the spotlight twice now and illuminating the sexism underlying his policies and traditions, but I'm glad he's making positive changes for the school, and I hope he learns to be happy about it.

I hope that at prom we don't only see girls like Dallas at prom in pantsuits; I hope we see some dudes embracing their femininity and wearing dresses! Let's take Dallas's #DownWithTheDresscode movement even further, and show the public school systems that we can express ourselves however we want to, that our genders are not defined by clothing! That dress codes shouldn't be founded on sexist thinking!

Okay, so I know I normally do my videos focusing on topics about embracing our femininity. But this week, I was inspired by Dallas's thoughts to appropriate masculinity. I've come to appreciate her thoughts on how it isn't fair that men are always the one who get to lead and take charge. Something that I've never liked about being a female is that it's considered weird for me to be the one who asks someone to a dance, for example. Why can't I ask someone to prom just because I'm a girl?

So, Dallas: now that we know you're going to prom since you're allowed to wear a pantsuit, I wanted to ask you: will you go with me?

* * *

Adree completely surprised me by asking me to prom on Youtube, since my hopes were nearly dissolved. A whole bunch of buttheads ruined it for me on twitter beforehand, tweeting spoilers all over the place.

Neat Pete @Who_is_pete_23

.@AdreeSchmadree_dancer just asked @DallasDelaney to prom!!!

Dallas Delaney @DallasDelaney

DUH OF COURSE I WILL, @AdreeSchmadree_dancer!!!

Bada$$ Benny @BennnnnnnnnyB

In affirmative consent, u should say "yes" and not "of course" @DallasDelaney

Dallas Delaney @DallasDelaney

Shut up @BennnnnnnnnyB

Dallas Delaney @DallasDelaney

.@AdreeSchmadree_dancer Does this mean I get to kiss you some more?

Adree Richards @AdreeSchmadree_dancer

OF COURSE @DallasDelaney

Simone @FreshOutofParis

What do you mean by "some more"? What's been going on behind the screen, you two?

Adree gave Benny some confidence, apparently, because he tweeted Sydney with a proposal, which was weirdly romantic:

Bada$$ Benny @BennnnnnnnnyB

@Sydney, prom & pedicures?

Sydney Reicher @SydRBaby

Yes please!

Right after that, I got a text from Benny and Alex.

Group

To: Alex, Benny

Wed, May 18, 11:48 PM

Benny

Have u been kissing and not telling?

Dallas

Perhaps...

Alex

Wow, your like the worst friend ever!

Benny

Seriously! No more secrets. I always tell you mine!

Dallas

We just kissed for a little bit last weekend. She made the first move 👍

Benny

How was it???

Dallas

👌👌 \m/

Benny

Finally getting some action!

Alex

Oooh what are u guyz gonna do on prom night? 💋👭

Dallas

Idk...none of your beezwax

Alex

Hey we're your bffs. It IS our beezwax

Dallas

It looks like Benny's finally getting some real action, too!

Then, I texted Adree:

Adree

Wed, May 18, 11:55 PM

Dallas

I totally thought you had friendzoned me

Adree

I thought U friendzoned ME!!!

Dallas

We aren't very good at reading each other...

Adree

We'll get better 😀

The day after that, Dylan told me to bring Benny to lunch with us, so I did.

When we got to the car, we saw that someone else was in there, and it didn't take long to realize it was Sydney.

"What's up?" Benny said.

"I figured we could all go to lunch together," said Dylan.

Then the four of us went to get pizza slices for lunch, and Benny and Sydney giddily sat together, talking. Mostly it was her talking, as Benny was trying to listen as intently as he could, which meant he really had taken my criticism to heart. I was pretty sure they were talking about what to wear to prom. I heard Sydney joke that Benny should wear heels, and he agreed.

That night was Alex's last Tumblr post, where he decided to talk about what President Obama had said at a Nordic Summit once. Apparently, Obama pointed out that "Finland has perhaps the most heavy metal bands in the world per capita and also ranks high on good governance," and then he said, "I don't know if there's any correlation there," but he seemed to imply that there was. And that really excited Alex, because his whole project had started out as "metal is better," and one of our past presidents seemed to be implying that yes, metal could be better, there might be a correlation between a country's level of metalness and its quality of governance and life.

Then Inspired By Finland was finished, but I vowed to forever continue using the #InspiredByFinland hashtag, because that place was full of inspiration.

"I can't believe your project is over!" I told him. "Finland is perfect."

"Well, not perfect. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but there are some downfalls. Like...it has a super high suicide rate. Crazy, huh? I guess some researchers call it the paradise paradox, where people who live in paradise who aren't as happy as everyone else feel much worse about their lives. Maybe I shouldn't have omitted that from my project. I think Ms. Brooks wanted me to be objective."

"Don't ruin this for me, Alex."

Technically, my project could be over, too, as I'd fulfilled all of the writing requirements with the number of vlogs I had created, but it didn't feel finished yet. I wanted something better to conclude it.

Too bad I had prom on my mind.