Due to people misunderstanding the purpose and content, we have decided to discontinue the blog for the time being.

A Response to Criticism

With the recent release of the Sem Girl Says video, and I have received a bunch of criticism for starting and running A Sem Girl Says. The general accusation is that with all the social pressure that is already put on girls, posting the funny things they say is just another way to criticize and make fun of them. I would like to use this post as an attempt to clear the fog a little bit, and maybe explain a couple of the misunderstandings.

I did not start this to demonstrate that girls in general are dumb. They are not, and I will stand by that statement.

I did not start this to demonstrate that seminary girls in particular are dumb. I recognize that they just say silly things sometimes and that these quotes do not represent seminary girls as a whole.

I have not and do not make up any of the quotes, so I am not manipulating the facts on the ground.

I did not start this, as one person recently claimed, to convince girls that they are worthless. I hope that is not the way this is interpreted.

The video was not published without the permission of all the girls. All the girls were sent the video long before it was posted to give them an opportunity to ask that their part not be included. In fact, the video was taken down again, after receiving 25,000 views, because one girl decided that she no longer wanted to be in it. So it's down. As soon as one said they were embarrassed by it, their request was carried out. I think it is clear that anybody who says "it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a beshert" is not stupid, dumb, worthless, or any other negative thing that I apparently think of sem girls and is clearly kidding around.

This is not an attempt to embarrass specific people. I have never included a person's name on the facebook or twitter. If anybody asked me to take down a quote I would do so immediately, which by the way, has not happened.

The overwhelming majority of comments about A Sem Girl Says by sem girls that I've heard or seen have been about how much they enjoy it and wish they could be on it. I do not get the sense that sem girls in general are offended by this, although it's possible that I've grossly misjudged the situation.

While I disagree with it, the criticism is important. Here is the most recent, and most important one.
This was posted on the facebook wall.

Overheard at a sem girl poetry slam, recorded on an iphone:
"A sem girl once said
There’s a man in her head
He stalks her in corners
Listens to her, records her.
Who is this creepy man?
It’s a spiritual guy who’s got a plan
To help these girls understand
That they must leave the holy land. 
Israel just makes her lose her brain
Oh My Hashem this girl drives him insane!
He Wishes she had a piece of sense
Her stupidity makes him oh so tense.
Is this the future of his people? he cried.
Oh how I wish his stupid blog just died!
Each comment more vulgar
Who would think this guy is older.
Come to study in Yeshiva for a year
Come here and life becomes clear
This guy doesn’t have to take back a thing he wrote
Because everything he says is under the guise of a joke.
Convincing girls there worthless
Oh I wish I knew he heard this! 
Well I guess I just fall into the sem girl trap
When I sit here and right all this sem girl crap"

I have definitely heard this, and I hope I have given an appropriate response. If there are people who feel that this post does not resolve the issues that are bothering them, please email us at asemgirlsays@gmail.com. This way we can get a better sense of what is really going on.

Until next time,

ASGS

"Like, how do I tell time on a phone?"

Two years ago, I attended a yeshiva in Israel for a year. That year was full of new experiences, learning, and fun. My yeshiva was not located in Jerusalem, and I appreciated that because I was able to focus on my studies. When I did get the chance, however, to take the trip into jerusalem, I learned very quickly about a very specific demographic. That is, the seminary girl. My experiences with seminary girls often resulted in me shaking my head with disappointment in the school systems that failed in teaching these girls any sort of intelligence. That's a little extreme, but it felt like that sometimes. My friends and I would get back from our trips to Jerusalem, and discuss the funny seminary girl experiences we had. It never became a big thing, but we would usually get a good laugh. At the end of the year, we returned to our hometowns, and didn't really think about this anymore. Once in a while, my friends and I would reminisce about our year, and about some funny seminary girl stories. They (the stories) were missed dearly.

Last year, I decided to return to Israel for the upcoming (this) year. I realized that I would have another opportunity to have funny experiences with the seminary girls. I was upset that I would not be able to share these stories with my friends. So I decided that I would have to find a way to send them descriptions of these events. That is why I created A Sem Girl Says.

A Sem Girl Says is both a Facebook page, and a Twitter account. On both of these websites, we document the great lines that we have heard or that have been reported to us. This blog is an opportunity to centralize both websites, and to post longer events and stories. We hope you will enjoy the quotes that we post.

To be clear, all of these quotes have been heard from direct sources. They have not been made up.

A Sem Girl Says