FEMINIST FRIDAY: A Woman’s Place Is In The Revolution – Our Fave Videos Of 2018

Welcome to another edition of Feminist Friday, our final column of 2018! We’ve spent the entire year paying homage to the work and feminism of women and female-identifying individuals around the world, both in front of and behind the camera, in a range of different industries.

Since this is our last FF column of the year (don’t worry, we’ll be back for more in 2019!) we thought we’d center it around the theme of women who are shaking up and changing the world. As the saying goes, “a woman’s place is in the revolution” and we have seen evidence of this throughout history in many, many countries.

Our first video we want to share this week, since we are huge film buffs, is the trailer to a documentary called ‘I Am The Revolution’, directed by Benedetta Argentieri, which premiered at the DOC NYC festival in November. ‘I Am The Revolution’ is an inspiring documentary about three women fighting for freedom and gender equality – Selay Ghaffar, Rojda Felat, and Yanar Mohammed- while living in three of the worst countries in the world for women: Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Each country reflects the groundswell of feminist revolutions: political revolution in Afghanistan, armed in Syria, and grassroots activism in Iraq. Taking a journalistic approach, the film challenges the images of veiled, silent, and timid women in the Middle East and instead shows the strength of women rising up on the front lines, in remote villages, and in city streets, to claim their voice and their rights.

As Arvind Dilawar from Shadowproof.com explains, this documentary shows a much-needed nuanced view of women’s lives in a region that often gets portrayed through a very skewed Western lens.

“Argentieri avoids the pitfalls of too many Western observers, who view the Middle East as a homogenous and patriarchal domain, where all women suffer silently. In fact, the women of the region are fighting for their rights so doggedly that they should win the admiration of feminists everywhere,” writes Arvind.

The second video this week is a taste of what’s to come in 2019. In the November mid-term elections, an historical number of women won seats for the United States Congress, a number of which also made history in multiple ways. As we gear up to see the impact of more women in political power, Elle Magazine interviewed and profiled some of the most notable winners, showcasing exactly why having over 100 women elected to Congress for the first time in US history is a major step forward.

“On November 6, 2018, 35 new women were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, making this incoming class the most diverse by race and gender in the body’s 230-year history. They join nearly 70 women incumbents, resulting in over 100 women representatives. To commemorate the milestone, ELLE.com captured 27 of these Congresswomen-Elect reciting the preamble to the Constitution,” writes Elle.

Finally this week, ending on a high note, and a musical one at that, with an artist who has undoubtedly been one of the most talked about, and listened-to musicians in 2018. We’re talking of course about feminist pop queen Ariana Grande, who is known not to shy away from talking about gender equality and feminist issues in interviews as well as her lyrics.

Her music video for ‘Thank You, Next’ broke records for the most viewed video of 2018 in the first 24 hours of its release (now has over 195 million views on Youtube), but it was her track and video for ‘God Is A Woman’ that had us crushing on this megastar, with over 180 million views.

Jam-packed with empowering visuals of female sexuality, the female warrior spirit, and even a voice cameo from Madonna who recites the same bible excerpt as Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Pulp Fiction’ while Ari grabs a sledge hammer and literally smashes through a glass ceiling, this music video is making us think that the patriarchy has been wrong this entire time. Judging by the feminine power we see rising around the world, perhaps god really IS a woman. To that we say “amen”. So won’t you join with us as we tip our hats to 2018 and raise our hands and our fists to ring in the new year!