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00:25I was 13 years old, and I was in love.
00:33With my bike.
00:49When I was riding my bike, I felt like I was flying.
00:54I felt like I was free.
01:05It was summertime.
01:07And like most days that summer, my bike rides ended up at Christina's house.
01:12And on this day, Christina had a plan.
01:16Today was the day we were going to shave our legs.
01:29We were becoming women, and shaving was required.
01:39Somehow Christina always knew what was up next, and I always followed her lead.
01:47Christina went first.
01:50She was confident, reassuring.
01:54Being a woman isn't so hard.
01:59But then, let's just say things didn't go as planned.
02:24She was confident.
02:39Before I became a woman, life was a whole lot simpler.
02:45Even as a kid, I was perplexed by the world of adults.
02:50My mom seemed very different from my dad.
02:55This made no sense to me whatsoever, because us kids, we were all the same.
03:11My brothers and I liked doing the same things.
03:17They just didn't like doing them with me.
03:21But Terry did.
03:23We'd been best friends for as long as we could remember, and we loved all the same things.
03:35We even wore the same clothes, except when we weren't wearing them.
03:46By the time we were 11, we'd made it to the top.
03:52We were the oldest kids in the school, and we were the best.
03:56At everything.
04:00We'd been kids our whole lives after all, so we knew what we were doing.
04:15But then suddenly, everything changed.
04:21And in my limited experience so far in becoming a woman,
04:26nothing good ever came from it.
04:33So why would I shave my legs?
04:37Around this time, my favorite book was about a gang of outsiders.
04:41I could relate, because at my new school, I was part of a gang, too.
04:47But instead of being tough and cool, we were goofy and mischievous.
04:51And the title of our book, if we'd had one, would have been The Free Spirits.
04:58We bonded over things like our desire to swing as high as we could,
05:03and then to jump off at an alarming height.
05:06The curiosity we had about the inner lives of our pets.
05:10These furry family members who we loved fiercely.
05:19Getting away with sneaking onto the local rink after hours,
05:23so that we could skate under the stars.
05:31And our love of art.
05:35Art was expansive.
05:38It could be beautiful or disturbing.
05:44It could be abstract or surreal.
05:49But more than anything, art gave us the freedom to express ourselves.
05:54A freedom that extended to our hairy legs.
05:59I graduated high school never having shaved them.
06:02And not knowing that I had gotten away with something.
06:06In fact, I was confident that wherever I went,
06:09I'd find fellow female hairy-legged friends.
06:16So when I got to university,
06:18the first thing I did was look for them.
06:21But pretty soon, I started to wonder if I was wrong.
06:25It appeared that the shins of every woman on campus were shorn.
06:32Except for mine.
06:34I wish there will be no way for others.
06:37And then I spotted her.
06:42I wasn't alone.
06:44There were at least two of us.
06:46And after a few days of observation,
06:48I found even more.
06:50I deduced that these fellow female hairy-legged students
06:54could be placed into three categories.
06:56The first were the ists.
07:00These included feminists, pacifists,
07:03animal rights activists,
07:06environmentalists, communists, and anarchists.
07:09Identified through political buttons,
07:12sandals made from recycled car tires,
07:15and the communist manifesto.
07:19The second group were the hippies.
07:22Nature lovers, tree huggers, flower children,
07:25folk singers, and vegetarians.
07:27They cooked with lentils,
07:29were into toe jewelry,
07:31peace on earth,
07:32and transcendental meditation.
07:35Oh.
07:39But the hairy-legged women who intrigued to be the most
07:43were the rugby players.
07:46They were fierce, powerful, loyal, and bold.
07:52Easily spotted by their injuries,
07:55their muddy knees,
07:56and of course, their striped jerseys.
08:01The women's rugby team was known to take anyone
08:04who wanted to play.
08:07Including me.
08:08Someone who had never played the game before,
08:10didn't really catch on to the rules,
08:13and was scared of the ball.
08:15For a while, I got away with letting others
08:17play the game for me.
08:23Until I caught the ball.
08:35It was a short season.
08:41So, I thought, maybe I was a hippie.
08:44I'd always been a free spirit,
08:46was a huge fan of peace on earth,
08:48and I loved folk music.
09:05But unfortunately, the hippies didn't want me.
09:11I was getting discouraged.
09:15Maybe I should start shaving my legs.
09:19But every time I thought about it,
09:21I'd get this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.
09:25It just felt wrong.
09:31Around this time,
09:32one of my roommates was taking a women's studies class.
09:37At first, I couldn't really see the point.
09:40Being women ourselves,
09:42didn't we already know what there was to know?
09:46Eventually, though,
09:47my curiosity got the best of me.
09:49And before I knew it,
09:50I became totally engrossed.
09:53But it was this line
09:54that blew my mind.
09:57One is not born,
09:58but rather becomes a woman.
10:03Because this meant
10:04that one is not born
10:05to shave the hair on her legs.
10:07One becomes a shaver
10:09of the hair on her legs.
10:11The uneasy feeling in my stomach
10:13when I thought of shaving my legs
10:15was the feeling of injustice.
10:18And this is how I became an ist,
10:21a feminist.
10:22And being a feminist
10:23made me believe in my hairy legs
10:25more than I ever had before.
10:31Learning about feminism
10:33took me on a journey.
10:37I read books by feminists
10:39who were paving the way
10:40for equal rights,
10:41fighting so women could vote,
10:43work,
10:44and have control over our bodies,
10:47including having hairy legs.
10:51I learned that femininity
10:53is just a story
10:54written by our culture,
10:56consisting of certain practices,
10:58none of which I had to do,
10:59including shaving my legs.
11:02I learned about patriarchy
11:03and capitalism
11:04and how they work together.
11:07First by convincing women
11:08their legs should be hairless,
11:10then by selling them a way
11:11to get rid of that hair.
11:13And finally,
11:14by making this practice
11:15a lifelong pursuit,
11:17they could make themselves
11:18a lot of money.
11:19The money I'd save
11:20for not shaving my legs
11:22could be put towards
11:23something worthwhile,
11:25like saving the whales.
11:31I learned that if the problem
11:32was patriarchy,
11:33this meant men,
11:36which was confusing
11:37for my boyfriend at the time.
11:46Mmm.
11:47Mmm.
11:50Mmm.
11:50And for me.
11:55I knew that by marching
11:56on my hairy legs,
11:58I was making a difference.
11:59I was helping to make the world
12:01a more equal and safe place
12:03for everyone.
12:04My hairy legs had a purpose.
12:07But what I didn't know
12:08was that it was easy
12:10to have hairy legs
12:11when I was surrounded by them,
12:13because eventually
12:14I left university.
12:16And I wasn't.
12:22Mmm.
12:22Mmm.
12:23Mmm.
12:23Mmm.
12:26Mmm.
12:26Apparently in the real world,
12:27women shave their legs.
12:29They had reasons like,
12:31shaving my legs
12:32makes me feel clean.
12:34It's customary.
12:35It's what women
12:36in our culture do.
12:37I'm a feminist,
12:38and feminism is about choice.
12:41I love the feeling
12:42of smooth legs.
12:44Hairy legs were just a phase.
12:46This is the real me.
12:49I didn't judge them.
12:52For all I knew,
12:53Simone de Beauvoir
12:54shaved her legs, too.
12:55Mmm.
12:57I also discovered
12:58that in the real world,
12:59people had opinions
13:01on hairy legs.
13:03And then someone
13:04I never could have predicted
13:05started to think
13:06my hairy legs
13:07looked disgusting.
13:09Me.
13:11Because if enough people
13:12tell you a part of you
13:13is disgusting,
13:15you might just start
13:16to believe it, too.
13:21I couldn't deny
13:22that my hairy legs
13:23had gone from
13:23making me feel free
13:25to making me feel
13:26like a freak.
13:30And it was women
13:31who shaved
13:32who looked far freer
13:33than I felt.
13:35And all I ever wanted
13:37was to feel free.
13:44It was time.
13:52I wanted to feel comfortable
13:53in my own skin again.
13:57I wanted to feel
13:58more like myself.
14:22but as the hair on my leg
14:24began to disappear,
14:25I didn't feel more like myself.
14:28I felt less
14:30because I was disappearing.
14:34This is what I knew
14:35for sure.
14:37My hairy legs
14:38made me feel
14:39like I did
14:39when I was a kid,
14:41before becoming a woman
14:42tried to pull me
14:43away from myself.
14:44My hairy legs
14:46made me feel
14:46free-spirited
14:47like the flower children,
14:49powerful like the rugby players,
14:51and fierce like the feminists.
14:53My hairy legs
14:54made me feel expansive,
14:56like when I was a teenager
14:57and I discovered art
14:58and it helped me
14:59to make sense of it all.
15:01My hairy legs
15:02made me feel free.
15:04My hairy legs
15:05made me feel...
15:10There will always be
15:11a part of me
15:12that falls
15:13outside the frame
15:14of someone else's idea
15:15of who I should be.
15:17And my hairy legs
15:18were the first line
15:19of defense
15:19in protecting
15:20who I was becoming
15:21and what I believed in.
15:26If shaving my legs
15:28was someone else's story,
15:30then not shaving my legs
15:32was my own.
15:32And it's in this story
15:35I find my freedom.
16:29it's in this story
16:32I'm Room
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