Hannah was raised in a very conservative community and experienced several instances of gender inequality. As an adult she moved to a much more progressive city and finally found the community that she had longed for. One night she and her boyfriend attend a very special event that becomes a little more special than they imagined.
Hannah was raised in a very conservative community and experienced several instances of gender inequality. As an adult she moved to a much more progressive city and finally found the community that she had longed for. One night she and her boyfriend attend a very special event that becomes a little more special than they imagined.
In our third season of the podcast, we bring you I Did It for the Story as part of Story District Presents. All new episodes will feature true stories told live on the Story District stage and insights about storytelling from the host, Amy Saidman, Story District's Executive Director.
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Hannah: I grew up in a really conservative community in southeast Louisiana. I had a high school teacher call women's rights advocates feminazis. I had a middle school teacher seat a boy next to every girl so that they could help us with our math. I had a male teacher tell me that if I had sex before marriage, I would be a used car and no man would want to drive me.
But I was no longer in Louisiana. I was in a progressive East coast city of Washington, DC
Amy: You're listening to Hannah Malus. Hannah told this story in Story District's 2023 Women's History Month show, She Comes First. She Comes First is our annual showcase of dope women sharing their true stories on stage. Our next show takes place in Washington, DC on March 27th, and you can get tickets to the show at storydistrict.org. If you're new to this podcast, we aim to do two things. First, you'll hear the rest of Hannah's story, and then I'll come back to share some thoughts about the art of a well told story. Why me? I'm Amy Saidman, the director of Story District, and I've been doing this for 20 years. Find out more about our classes, consulting services, and shows at storydistrict.org or follow us on Instagram. In the meantime, let's get to this week's story.
Hannah: I was sitting in my DC group house that I had found off of Craigslist, scrolling through Facebook when I see it. Rock and Row, a dance party for reproductive freedom. Pro choice prom, and I knew I had to go for two reasons. One, I actually missed my junior prom in high school because I had won an essay contest about what patriotism means to me.
And they flew me and a bunch of other nerds out to Philadelphia to learn about our founding fathers the same weekend as my junior prom. So I didn't get to go. The second reason I had to go to pro choice prom is that if you haven't gathered, I grew up in a really conservative community in Southeast Louisiana.
I had a high school teacher called Women's Rights Advocates, Feminazis. I had a middle school teacher seat a boy next to every girl so that they could help us with our math. I had a male teacher tell me that if I had sex before marriage, I would be a used car and no man would want to drive me. But, I was no longer in Louisiana.
I was in a progressive east coast city of Washington, DC and I realized now was my chance to find the radical feminist community that I had always been looking for. So I go ahead and I buy two tickets to pro choice prom, because if pop culture has taught me anything, you have to take a date to prom.
And so, I invite my new boyfriend to go with me. He is working as a freelance journalist in Baltimore. He is six feet tall, classically handsome, big. Full beard, blue eyes, just takes up a lot of space in any room he's in. Uh, but he is a feminist ally in a good sport. And so he agrees to be my date to pro choice prom.
So we dress in our finery and we roll into the event and we are greeted by a sea of sparkly women. I immediately noticed that my boyfriend is maybe one of a handful of men in the room, but it's fine because he's an ally. So we continue into the event. Everything is decked out in pink. There is an all female punk rock band playing on stage.
You can take photos holding signs saying, My body, my choice. You could sign up to Canvas with Planned Parenthood. It is a great event and we are having a fantastic time. So eventually everyone's attention is drawn up to the stage and the MC announces that they're going to crown two pro choice prom queens.
And so in the spirit of radical egalitarianism, they're going to do this by just drawing names out of the hat of attendees. So she draws the first name and she reads out Sarah Brown and Sarah makes her way to the stage and she is She holds her head high and she tells us this amazing story about how she has overcome violence and abuse and how she is so grateful to be with us tonight at this event with her loving and supportive girlfriend and the crowd burst into applause.
We are all cheering on Sarah and I am feeling fantastic and I'm thinking, wow, like I finally did it. This is the community that I've been looking for my whole life. I found it. Yeah. Then, it's time to crown the second Pro Choice Prom Queen. So, the emcee draws another name out of the hat, and reads out Jamie Lee.
And everyone is clapping, looking around for Queen Jamie, and I turn my head to the left and look at my boyfriend. Jamie Lee. He looks startled, but before either of us really know what's happening, he's making his way to the stage. And as Jamie climbs the steps, the applause in the room abruptly dies down.
Jamie is standing on stage with his neatly trimmed beard in the suit he insisted on wearing as the emcee hesitantly puts a crown on his head. The air is sticky with tension. It becomes obvious that crowning a man to rule over feminist pro choice prom was not really in the plan for the evening. And I just want to tell everyone, no, no, like, he's one of the good ones.
He just signed up to Canvas with Planned Parenthood. Like, go talk to them. Or, like, when we met at a bar a few months ago, instead of giving me his phone number, he gave me his email address. Any man who socially emails is not a threat to the feminist cause. But I can't say that to any of them, and Jamie comes off stage real quick and we think, Okay, well, that was weird, but at least it's over.
Until The MC announces that there will be a dance for the two prom queens. Jamie is panicking, but lucky for him, I have an idea. I grab him by the lapels of his suit and I say, you have to abdicate the throne. Jamie looks confused, but I, I explained, there's no way you can continue to take up space at this event.
This is what you need to do. I prepare him a beautiful speech. I tell him exactly what to say. I prep him. I make sure he's feeling good. And I send him back on stage, Jamie gets back on stage and asks the MC for the mic. And she just looks at him like, you asshole, like, what more do you want from us? But she gives him the mic.
And Jamie then delivers the speech and he says, I recognize that this event tonight is not meant to celebrate me as a man. I want to make sure we're celebrating the women who are here tonight. And so I want to abdicate the throne and I want to give my crown to my fellow prom queen's girlfriend who's here with her tonight and let them have the dance.
The crowd goes wild with applause. A few minutes ago, this man might as well have been Mitch McConnell on stage. And suddenly he's being lauded as this feminist icon. People are taking photos with him. People are buying him drinks. He is eating it up. And I'm in the background, fuming. Because that was my fucking speech.
I saved him. I made him a hero and he didn't mention that to anyone. And that is when I learned you can leave your conservative Southern hometown. You can move to an ultra progressive East coast city. You can attend feminist pro choice prom. And a man will still take credit for your idea.
Amy: All right, Hannah. Hannah absolutely nailed that story. This is one of those stories that I just consider like a perfect story. It's so well constructed. And it's got all these unexpected twists. So I'm not even sure where to start on what I want to point out in this story. Um, but I'll start with the rule of threes.
Haven't talked about the rule of threes yet. This is a very common device that if you want to establish something, there's a set up of three. Escalating events or something. Three is the best number. Two is not enough and four is too many. So that's why you have the three little pigs, the three bears. It's, um, it just works.
So she does that specifically in the beginning when she establishes a little bit about her hometown. And actually that leads me to commenting on just how she does a good job of establishing our point of view. Talk about that a lot in the other episodes that we've done, but. She makes it clear why this event is important to her.
It's important to her for a few reasons. Number one, because she didn't get to go to prom, but number two, because of the environment she grew up in. But if she just left it at that, it wouldn't be enough for us to embrace her point of view or understand her point of view. If she just said, Oh, I grew up in a conservative town, that could mean so many things.
So by giving us three examples, we get it. And those are great examples to me, at least I'm like, Oh God, that's, that's a situation, um, that would make someone maybe hungry for a different environment. And so I'm really relating to her, but I'll add that what you want to avoid is adjectives. So if you, if you rely too much on an adjective, like it's a conservative town, that's not.
That's very vague. So giving examples is important in storytelling. Being specific is important in storytelling. So I think that's actually a great lesson that she shares in this story. But the other stuff is just, she just does a great build. I get a sense of where we are. She does a great job of scene building.
Um, she establishes her boyfriend, the events unfold in real time. She shares her sense of surprise when. His name gets called and her sense of rage when he gets all the credit for this amazing speech that she gave him. Uh, and that's a real key tool as well. When you're telling your story, you need to be surprised.
Like, you know what happens now, but you're trying to tell this story in the moment that it's unfolding. So you don't know what happened then you have to have the ignorance of the moment. So that sense of discovery. And I think she does a great job with that. So that's what I'll leave you with today. I hope this story is getting you to think about your own stories.
And if you're interested in telling them and you want some help, you can find us at story district or you can reach out. We do coaching. We have classes, we have in person classes in Washington, DC, and we'll start doing our online classes again soon. So you can get them from anywhere. We also work with companies.
Um, businesses, organizations, federal agencies to work with your teams. We customize it for whatever your needs may be. You can find us again at story district. org. You can email us at info at story district. org. Keep listening, subscribe to the podcast, tell your friends and leave a review. Thanks a lot till next time I'm Amy Saidman, and this is, I did it for the story.