About Manspreading​

​I’m presenting my Mockumentary Journalism project as my QWERTY project because humor can help get the point across in a powerful way. As a young woman living in the Bronx, I’ve come to notice that manspreading is just one of the smaller, yet thought-provoking, male habits that women have to deal with daily. Living on Fordham Road with men sagging their pants should not be my problem, so I wanted to present this annoyance in a satirical way. This represents my best work because the project takes something ordinary and puts it in the context of a larger conversation.

​

Process​

Ivy and I co-wrote the newscast-style script to give it a hard-hitting, journalistic point of view with an anchor and cutaways to interviews, a press conference and more. We also split the different production tasks. I filmed the video at school with my theatrically-inclined friends and teachers, knowing that they would do the script justice. Everyone really got into it, owning their characters and improvising at times. I directed and filmed it on my iPhone in multiple takes and Ivy cut and edited it into one cohesive video. We were really happy with the result!

The time you felt the most powerful

Both Ivy and I have mothers who had very powerful influences on us growing up, and because of that, we feel like we've always been mentally, emotionally and politically aware of our surroundings. They're two of the strongest women we know. And because of my mother, I feel like I’ve grown up to be an empowered young woman, which led me to Girls Write Now. Throughout the program, and especially with this particular project, Ivy and I have been even more compelled to speak up and share our views on being a woman at this point in time.

​