FEMINIST FRIDAY: 3 New Intersectional Web Series’ To Fuel Your Digital Content Obsession

Welcome to another Feminist Friday! That time of the week where we sit back, open up our fave digital screens and check out some new video content. This week it’s literally all about the content, with 3 new web series that we can’t get enough of right now.

First up is a queer comedy series from creator writer Gretchen Wylder called ‘These Thems’ – an ensemble series that “effectively combines comedy with education, teaching its audience about gender nonconformity and various queer identities while delighting and captivating through sharp humor”, according to a glowing review from NewFest.

The series follows the lives of four queer friends in NYC throughout 7 episodes. After realizing she may be a lesbian, Gretchen quickly befriends non binary dog walker Vero, who decides to stop training dogs and start training the straights. Vero takes Gretchen under their wing and introduces Gretchen to the queer world as she navigates what it’s like to be newly out at the age of 30. Vero’s childhood friend, Asher, isn’t out as trans at work and is faced with the decision to out himself when an opportunity for a LGBTQ account pops up. Gretchen’s gay best friend and roommate, Kevin, is looking for love and may have found it in Asher.

The series explores themes of queerness, gender identity, coming out, sexual empowerment, acceptance, and self expression. The story is told through a comedic lens, with accurate representation: All queer characters are played by LGBTQ+ actors. Behind the camera, the entire filmmaking team was queer-identified and/or POC. Take a look at the trailer below and be sure to subscribe to watch the entire series:

The second web series we’re showcasing this week is called ‘Step Into My Office’, tackling workplace harassment (with a twist!), created by Misha Calvert. She created the series response to the experiences of real women across multiple industries. She takes these real experiences of sexism in job interviews and the workplace and flips the audience’s preconceived notions by reversing the genders of the characters.

“One of the best ways I’ve found to heal from trauma is through humor,” said the award-winning creator, “and the gender swap helps with that.” In the world of this series, the men are the victims of bullying and assault at the hands of their female employers and often have little recourse to battle against their antagonists.

When asked about being a female creator in the entertainment industry, Misha said, “I don’t think about the fact that I’m female. I only measure myself against what I might accomplish on any given day, with no comparisons to my future self or other filmmakers, either male or female.” Her work focuses on character-driven comedy that champions the female perspective.

Step Into My Office features Lisann Valentin (Narcos), Robin Rose Singer, and Cronin Cullen, among other New York talent. The series premiered at Catalyst TV festival in 2018 and more recently screened at the NYC Web Fest in early October. Watch the trailer below:

The final web series we’re showcasing this week is the award-winning #LoveMyRoomie, created by Yhá Mourhia Wright and produced by her company YháWright Productions! #LoveMyRoomie is a reboot of the digital sketch show, “#LoveMyRoomie Digital Sketches” (2016-2017), according to the website. The eight-episode reboot follows Giselle, U’Moriah, and Yasmine – three roommates who are social late bloomers on the cusp of self-discovery as they navigate the frenzied roller coaster of life.

The women find themselves under pressure to assume adulthood independence while establishing their individuality. Unspoken struggles with sexual exploration, familial obligations, and mental illness challenge the women’s bond.

As Black women, and descendants of the African Diaspora, they face coping with their individuality and what society imposes upon their diverse identities. There are very immense differences in their hobbies, their familial structures, their ethnicity and – their personalities. It is crucial that people see that Yasmine, though a woman of color, is Dominican and does not necessarily share all of the same experiences as Giselle and U’Moriah.

Starring Ashley Versher, Katherine George, and Yhá Mourhia Wright, this is the kind of series we love to fangirl over and amplify on our website, because as we’ve seen with female creators (especially women of color) like Issa Rae and the team behind the ‘Brown Girls’ web series, the digital space has become a welcome ground for new talent and underrepresented stories, which are finally getting noticed by networks like HBO in a way that we’ve never seen before.

Take a look at the trailer below and be sure to support #LoveMyRoomie (set to launch in 2020) and the rest of the web series in this Feminist Friday edition!