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This Great Big Story was made possible by P&G.
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Love Over Bias
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- The beach is not a very safe space.
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Anyone can relate to feeling uncomfortable on the beach.
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Men, women, queer, otherwise.
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And it's also a very gendered space,
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like the moment you put your toes in the sand
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you know it and you feel it
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and you know that you have to kind of
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pick one side of the spectrum.
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Either you're more on the masculine side
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or you're more on the feminine side.
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What does that do for everyone that
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doesn't exist on one clear side or the other?
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(upbeat music)
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(cool music)
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I am Ari Fitz,
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and I run a fashion project called Tomboyish.
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It in so many ways aims
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to tackle the way that we see beauty
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and the way that we see masculinity and femininity.
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A couple years ago, I really started to balance
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my own masculinity and femininity,
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and I felt really good, and I felt like myself.
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I wanted to help other people get there too.
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To me, getting dressed in the morning
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is kind of like putting on my suit of armor.
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As a queer person,
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as a woman, as a person of color,
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I feel like there are so many things
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in this world that wants to silence us,
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silence me, minimize me,
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and minimize my experience in this world.
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What we choose to wear signifies that
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we are here, we are present,
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and we're not going to be silenced,
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we're not going anywhere.
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'Sup, Ben?
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Hey!
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So the project I'm working on is a really dope,
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super hot lookbook that features all things
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swimwear for those who don't exist
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on the hyper masculine side or
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the hyper feminine side, like myself.
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Because I know what it feels like
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to step out on a beach and not feel confident.
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We have to get creative.
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We have to find items that most of the time
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you wouldn't really think are like swimwear
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or beachwear pieces,
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and we have to make them ours.
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Swim vests,
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also bodysuits.
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And then from there, just accessorize.
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(shouting and laughing)
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It's a beach.
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It's meant to be fun, it's meant to be light,
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it's summer.
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The stress and the trauma that people experience
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when they go to a beach is just like,
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it's so unnecessary.
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The more I can do to just get that out of the way
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and make the beach fun again,
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that means that my job is done.
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Do you, boo, just rock it!
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Just make sure you're like,
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rocking it with like, you know,
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some confidence, and you got it.
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(cool music)
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(chime)