FEMINIST FRIDAY: Barbie Ferreira’s Intersectional Series & A Pakistani Female-Driven Western

Welcome to another edition of Feminist Friday, our favorite way to end the week where we get to share our favorite feminist videos we’ve been fan-girling over. This week we’re getting intersectional with model Barbie Ferreira‘s new Vice/Go90 series, checking out Britain’s first Urdu-language Oscar submission, and a music video from an Indian artist who is sticking it to the patriarchy using animation.

You may already be familiar with Barbie Ferreira from her body positive campaigns, and now she is dipping her toe into other mediums. She has teamed up with Vice for a series airing on Verizon’s Go90 platform called ‘How To Behave’, which she describes as “definitely feminist propaganda” to Broadly in an interview.

In the series she explores existing societal norms and juxtaposes them with something completely opposite to encourage different points of view.

“I wanted to take this show in a direction where we explore feminist issues and intersectional feminist issues, and people of all identities and walks of life tell us about them. It’s not just me as a white woman with privilege as a model, but I get to have a personal journey and let these people tell their own stories,” she told Mic.com.

For example, one of the episodes revolves around money and Barbie speaks to a financial advisor as well as a dominatrix, in an attempt to expand audience’s ideas of the theme and feature women on both sides of the spectrum. But she also says the show will not push a certain idea of feminism down anyone’s throat, nor will it be “preachy”.

“It just shows real people in real life, how they work, and their take on feminism. I go to up-tight offices and sex dungeons. I’m really proud of it because it’s like a 360 view of everything—my personal journey, and this broad view of feminism, and women in the US, and how there are different walks of life and yet how everyone’s similar,” she said. Watch the trailer below, and stream the series on Go90.

Our second feature this week is a music video from artist KOMOREBI, aka Tarana Marwah, from India. Her track ‘Time’ features Sohrab Nicholson and is animated by Siddhant Agarwal. Tarana told Scroll.in how the aesthetics for ‘Time’ are derived from her love of Japanese Manga and anime elements, while also balancing feminist messages throughout the lyrics.

“[It is] a slap back to patriarchy with a subversive, feminist video, which shows a sharp dichotomy between pleasant and the uncomfortable,” she described.

“The video hints at themes of domestic violence, and capitalistic industries, where art tends to lose its meaning to money, and sexism often marks its presence,” writes Satvika Kundu for Scroll.in.

The 23 year-old Delhi-based musician believes art is often bound closely with politics, which is why she allows her music and artistry to challenge sexism toward women.

“Don’t you tell me what to do
Pay the bills so you’ll see through
Money doesn’t rule the world
Too bad then that you’re a girl

Time to call the children home
Time to disconnect our phones
Time to pack up all our clothes
Time to record our woes
Call a Lawyer, get it signed
We don’t have reasons, we don’t have time.”

The final video we want to feature is the trailer to director Sarmad Masud’s ‘My Pure Land’, a film set and filmed in Pakistan, based on a true story. The British-Pakistani director, who may very well become an Oscar contender as the film has become Britain’s first Urdu submission (in the foreign language category), spoke to Al Jazeera in depth about his filming process, the story and the significance of the Oscar buzz.

The film centers on three women’s battle over a home in Sindh and is being described as a “Pakistani Feminist Western”. It tells the tale of Nazo Dhajero, the most powerful force of a female trio fighting to protect the family home because her father and brother are in jail. Alongside her younger sister Saeda and mother Waderi Jamzadi, she picks up a gun and attempts to fight off 200 bandits led by a bitter uncle who wants to claim the house.

Sarmad told Al Jazeera he first came across the story in a newspaper article, contacted the journalist who write the piece and was connected with the real life Nazo Dhajero. He was so impressed by her courage and bravery that he wanted to turn her ordeal into a film. When asked about the “feminist western” description the film is being given by critics, Sarmad offers a more nuanced perspective.

“At its core, it’s a sweet story about the relationship between a father and his daughter. It’s a patriarchal society and despite that, such strong women come out that society. Nazo Dharejo is another woman who threw all conventions out the window. It’s a counter-narrative. I did think it was a western from the off. It’s a lawless country in that anything can happen, there was the good versus evil element, the badlands of Pakistan, and the landscape is so barren,” he said.

Keep an eye on this film to see if it officially gets nominated for an Oscar, and in the meantime you can watch the badass trailer below:

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