In this meta horror commentary edition of Summer "Camp" we are talking about The Blackening and The Cabin in the Woods!

Discussion points include how The Cabin in the Woods has aged over the past decade-plus and how we feel about its messaging now, The Blackening's unexpected hopefulness and positioning within both the meta-horror and the Black film spaces, and how both films take a classic, even cliched, horror premise and turn it on its head.

We also talk about this particular type of horror setting and why it's so pervasive in the genre, as well as our favorite types of horror settings.

And of course, we spend way too long talking about the things we've been watching, but this time we have two weeks to catch you up on!

Further Reading:

Postmodern nihilism in The Cabin in the Woods

Variety interview with DeWayne Perkins

The Blackening review

Horror references in The Cabin in the Woods

Join us for our final Summer "Camp" episode on Jupiter Ascending and Attack of the Clones! Follow us on Instagram if you dare.

CONTENT WARNING: this episode contains discussions, though NOT graphic descriptions, of sexual assault and violence against women, rape and rape culture, trauma, and women’s loss of bodily autonomy as portrayed and commented upon in these films. If these topics will not be a good experience for you to hear about, please take care of yourself and skip this episode. We'll see you next time!

We're calling this the "feminist body horror" edition of Summer "Camp" and looking at two modern classics within this subgenre: 2009's Jennifer's Body and 2007's Teeth. We look at the parallels between these two films, both in their commentary on women's bodily and sexual agency within patriarchal culture in the movies themselves, and in how the films were received and perceived by pop culture audiences. We also looked into the mythos of the "vagina dentata," the archetype explored in Teeth, and into how Jennifer's Body star Megan Fox was treated by the media and culture at large in the years surrounding the release of the film, and we are here to talk all about these topics and more!

Further Reading:

Reassessing Jennifer's Body in the wake of #MeToo (article from 2018)

Video + transcript of the 2019 conversation with Megan Fox and Diablo Cody

Academic article on the cultural context of Teeth (PDF)

Exploring "vagina dentata" mythos around the world

Queer Movie Night podcast episode on Jennifer's Body

The Whorrors podcast episode on Teeth

Follow on Instagram for some occasional supplementary content and memes.

Welcome "camp"ers to Pop DNA Summer "Camp"! To kick off our summer series all about our favorite campy movies, we first give a brief explainer of what we mean by "camp." We quote Susan Sontag and it's very professional. Then we look at two movies that portray creepy sentient dolls that turn murderous, the original 1988 classic Child's Play and the instant classic that sparked a million memes, M3GAN.

Further Reading:

Sontag's original essay "Notes on 'Camp'"

M3GAN director on the comparisons between the two films

Why M3GAN is a queer icon

Discussion of Child's Play in context of 1980s horror films

Follow us on Instagram to find out what our next double feature will be, and join us all June and July for more Summer "Camp"!

Wrapping up our Taylor Swift series, we decided to look at Swift's relationship with her fame and her fandom, and how both fit into the broader context of how we talk about famous women.

From the way our society likes to mock teen girls and young women and the art they like, to the cycles of public opinion we see around female pop singers like Lizzo, Britney Spears, Beyonce, and Swift herself, we've got a lot of internalized misogyny to unpack. We also look into the psychology of parasocial relationships and the Taylor Swift conspiracy theories that fans were right about. And, yes, we do talk about the Matty Healy thing (briefly).

Further Reading:

Stop Indiscriminately Hating Things Teenage Girls Like

Why Are Teen Girls in Crisis? It’s Not Just Social Media

Why do we Hate Women’s Voices and How I Reclaimed Mine

Demographics of Taylor Swift Fandom

Psychology of Parasocial Relationships

The Karma Album Conspiracy Theory

Next week we'll start our summer series, Summer "Camp," with discussions of some of our favorite campy horror films! Follow on Instagram for more.

Did you know that we're kinda theater kids? And also huge literature nerds? And that Taylor Swift is both of those things, too?

This week we look at the theatricality of Swift's tour shows, specifically with the set and costume design of the Eras Tour, and how those elements help tell the story. Then we dive into the literary sensibilities of the albums Folklore and Evermore, viewing these works as collections of short stories about, in Swift's own words, a "mythological American town."

We also acknowledge the deeply upsetting news of Swift's publicized connection with a certain problematic person, leaving space for how we as fans and consumers of her art can feel about that news and the real harm done to specific communities. We will discuss this further next week.

Further Reading:

The article we reference at the top of the show

Architectural Digest breakdown of Eras Tour set design

Swift's interview with Apple Music about writing Folklore

Quote about Swift watching Sense and Sensibility while writing Evermore

Follow along on Instagram as we attempt to stick with a consistent posting schedule.

This week we're diving in to the evolution of Taylor Swift, and we've got graphs!

Over the course of her 17-year career, Swift has evolved as an artist and as a public figure, with distinct "eras" emerging in her music and aesthetic. We take a look at her early career as a teen country music artist, her transition to pop, and her deepening explorations and fine-tuning within both genres to find her current adult artistic voice.

Find the timeline and word cloud images we discussed on our Instagram, and maybe hang out a bit.

Further reading:

Data + statistics on the evolution of Taylor Swift

Taylor's code-switching

Breakdown of style aesthetics for each era

We're doing something totally new this month--discussing the works of a musical artist! And who better or more newsworthy to be our inaugural artist but Miss Americana herself, Taylor Swift.

In part 1, we talk about the very recent announcement of Speak Now (Taylor's Version), look briefly at our personal connections with Swift's music, and take a very scientific BuzzFeed quiz to find out which Taylor Swift Era we are (but then we both self-identify as different ones).

We also give an overview of topics we want to explore in more depth in coming episodes, including:

Watch this video from The Take for a great primer on the Taylor Cinematic Universe. Follow us on Instagram for sporadic and sometimes relevant content.

It's Rhonda's Birthday Bonus, so she roped Erin into talking about Twilight! As long-time listeners know, Rhonda is contractually obligated to bring up Twilight at regular intervals, and after this episode her quota will be met for quite some time.

In our scholarly and insightful discussion, we talk about every Twilight consumer's burning question: Team Edward or Team Jacob? We also talk about our personal experiences with the books and movies, theorize about what makes the series so compelling to so many, and even (casually) dip into the literary history connected to Twilight.

We also acknowledge the problems with the series, including racism against Indigenous people and internalized misogyny, and talk about whether we think the recently-announced TV adaptation will be able to sufficiently address those issues.

Further Reading:

Hollywood Reporter article announcing the new TV series

Rhonda's blog post from 2020 reflecting on the series (links to other posts)

A Case Study from Evergreen State College analyzing the Twilight series' portrayal of Indigenous people

Post from the Burke Museum at the University of Washington on cultural theft in Twilight

The Quileute Nation's official website

We wrap up our series on A League of Their Own this week by discussing romance!

Erin gives us a rundown on the documentary A Secret Love, which chronicles the real-life love story of Rockford Peach Terry Donahue and her lifelong partner Patricia Henschel. Then Rhonda deep-dives into the reference made to Pride and Prejudice in the first episode of the show, and how this reference foreshadows or contextualizes the romance storylines.

Further Reading:

We also found this article on parallels with another literary reference, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Follow on Insta and join us next week for Rhonda's Birthday Bonus!

We're continuing our discussion of A League of Their Own with a look inside the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and a few of the real women who played in the league over its 12 seasons. We also analyze how accurately the movie and TV series portrayed the realities of the league.

Check out our recommended reading list below for our sources and further background on the history.

Recommended Reading:

This 2018 Chicago Tribune article offers lots of valuable background

The Hidden Queer History Behind A League of Their Own

Official League profile of the Rockford Peaches

Rockford Peaches official website

LA Times profile of Maybelle Blair

Follow us on Instagram for our current read-and-watch recommendations.