Welcome to another edition of Feminist Friday, that part of the week where we get to sign-off by sharing our fave videos of the moment. We’re always on the hunt for the best intersectional feminist and female empowerment content to share with our readers, so give us a holler if you have any tips for us!
This week is about giving voice to women and the LGBTQ community in a way that puts them at the center of the stories, rather than as the “otherized” background stories. We live in a world where the “white savior complex” is still very real in Hollywood and mainstream media, so any time we find content that promotes under-represented voices, we feel it is important to promote those.
Our first video is the trailer to the world’s first transgender sitcom, ‘The Switch’. This ground-breaking series, starring Nyla Rose, Amy Fox, Vincent Viezzer, and Lindsay Coryne, hails from Canada and has been available on-demand and on digital platforms since August 15. This half-hour series features a predominantly transgender cast, which means this is no token not to the trans community. It is wholly and unapologetically about their lives.
Unfolding over 6 episodes, ‘The Switch’ follows expat Sü (Nyla Rose) as she settles into life in her adopted Vancouver. Along the way, she botches the metric system while online shopping for hormones, tries to pay off debts by moonlighting as a text-message dominatrix (until her boyfriend suspects she’s texting her ex), sets up a double-date that leads to a fistfight over the bill, and finds out that someone is trying to mess with her medical records – which is a problem because she’s fudged her paperwork so she can be considered for gender reassignment surgery. She has to fix all this without getting deported…while living with a roommate who’s a wanted eco-terrorist.
Watch the trailer below to get a taste of this hilarious series:
Our second video comes from country singer-songwriter Aubrie Sellers, who is the daughter of country artists Jason Sellers and the legendary Lee Ann Womack. Her album, out now, is called ‘New City Blues’ and includes a few tracks which are packed full of female empowerment.
Aubrie is challenging gender stereotypes and was inspired to flip the gender script on old 1950’s movie clips for a couple of her own music videos which recently debuted on CMT.
“I was inspired by these old films to take the female characters and modernize them and rewrite these stories with some girl power. On my debut album, I wrote a lot about women and their roles in society. It’s something that I think about a lot and will probably continue to write about on my next album,” she told CMT.com.
She teamed up with Los Angeles-based director Millicent Hailes for the music videos to her songs ‘Magazines’, which rolls its proverbial eyes at celebrity culture and addresses the pressures women feel about looking and acting a certain way, and ‘Paper Dolls’. Her website leaves no doubt about what the artist, who Elle Magazine called a woman “on the verge”, is all about.
“In this world of pretty little girls who are seen and not heard and reality stars who are famous for nothing, the 24 year old songwriter ain’t buying in,” says her bio.
She is ready to disrupt what audiences and music fans expect from especially female country artists, and isn’t afraid to cause some discomfort.
“I prefer to create friction. Because if you’re not pushing buttons, you’re just making something pleasant, it’s probably been done before… and it’s not making anyone feel anything,” she said.
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Our last video is the trailer to a forthcoming indie coming-of-age film called ‘Porcupine Lake’, by Slovakian-Canadian filmmaker Ingrid Veninger. This is the writer/director’s 6th feature film, which will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The film centers around 13 year-old Bea (Charlotte Salisbury) who is on the edge of growing-up, and isn’t sure she likes what she sees, especially with her parents inching ever closer towards a divorce. The summer starts out boring and lonely, same as it ever was, until she meets the outspoken and boisterous Kate (Lucinda Armstrong Hall).
A spark, a glance, an introduction, and that purest of experiences – “best friend forever” – happens, with an intensity that concerns all the adults around them. But in their own world, the girls share personal secrets, fears, grievances, and daredevil challenges. By the end of the summer, Bea and Kate have irrevocably influenced each other, and the course of their lives has changed in ways they can’t yet foresee.
Through an intimate and authentic portrait of Bea’s awakening into selfhood, this story invites us to imagine a new model for a young girl’s first love story — one told from the inside out.
“It’s a positive and hopeful story about strength and trust and the secret world of girls. In light of ever-present intolerances and increasing violence, I wanted to make a film that celebrates love and courage and curiosity,” said Ingrid about her film. Watch the trailer below:
