Material Girls

On this week's episode of Material Concerns, Gaby joins Hannah and Marcelle for a long check-in and some Old Man Yells at Cloud, the segment where they complain about stuff—and boy do they deliver! Join them over on Patreon at patreon.com/ohwitchplease for Part II, full of even more complaints, some Oops All Oops, and to see if Gaby got engaged last weekend!! Support Material Girls To learn more about the show, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca (you can also find transcripts here!). You can gift a Patreon subscription at this link: https://www.patreon.com/ohwitchplease/gift! Music Credits: “Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020 Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We simply could not pass up an opportunity to discuss queer filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun's latest horror, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. To make sense of the film and its engagement with sex, identity, femininity and transness, we dig into the history of gender representation in slasher films and spend most of the episode thinking through The Gaze, a concept coined by English art historian John Berger (in his 1972 book Ways of Seeing) that was later picked up by feminist film theorists. Hannah and Marcelle consider how cinema, and the experience of both watching and being watched, reinforces and potentially destabilizes sex differences — and further, ask how Schoenbrun's work as a trans filmmaker plays with that relationship in ways previously sidelined by theorists and other artists, alike. If you haven't seen Camp Miasma, no worries! There are no spoilers in this episode. All you really need to know is that the movie stars bicons Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder and that is probably 90% of the reason our team was really into it. *** Works Cited Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” Representations 20 (1987): 187-228. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928507. Doyle, Jude. “Notes on Camp: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun, 2026).” The Jude Doyle Newsletter Experience 29 August 2026. https://jude-doyle.ghost.io/notes-teenage-sex-and-death-at-camp-miasma-jane-schoenbrun-2026/. “Jane Schoenbrun.” Wikipedia. Accessed 1 September 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Schoenbrun. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16, no. 3 (1975): 6–18. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6. “Ray Blanchard.” Wikipedia. Accessed 1 September 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Blanchard. Steinbock, Eliza. “Towards Trans Cinema.” In The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Gender, edited by Kristin Hole, Dijana Jelača, E. Kaplan, and Patrice Petro. New York: Routledge, 2017. 395-406. *** Music Credits: “Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020 Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's Material Concerns, Coach talks at length about her experience at Edinburgh Fringe, Marcelle showcases her scrapbooking talent and methodology, Hannah celebrates her impending freedom from massive professional responsibility! Join us for a long check-in and then a powerful creature report. Part II is over on Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Part II features the rest of Creature Report and a Mailbag Teaser answering the question: What are your ingredients for a good hang with friends? What about a good holiday with friends? (Thanks Lili from the UK for the fab question!). Support Material Girls To learn more about the show, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca (you can also find transcripts here!). You can gift a Patreon subscription at this link: https://www.patreon.com/ohwitchplease/gift! Music Credits: “Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020 Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve been in a bookstore recently, chances are good you’ve seen a table stacked high with thick hardcovers with black covers and neon lettering. So of course, we had to talk about the currently unfolding contemporary phenomenon: the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman! Hannah leads us in a conversation all about LitRPG, transmedia storytelling, and participatory fan culture. Plus, she and Marcelle dig into the stellar audiobook production of the series and why these books are getting men reading. If you’ve never heard of Dungeon Crawler Carl or you’re already a fan, this episode is for you! Related Listening: Fourth Wing x Author Function Wicked x Paratexts Dungeons and Dragons x Ludology Works Cited Danis, Sam. “Dungeon Crawler Carl creator Matt Dinniman says LitRPG is just getting started.” Audible Blog, 11 February 2025, https://www.audible.com/blog/matt-dinniman-dungeon-crawler-carl-audio-interview. Freeman, Matthew. Historicising Transmedia Storytelling: Early Twentieth-Century Transmedia Story Worlds. New York: Routledge, 2017. GodTaoistofPatience. “[Royal Road] The History of Royal Road, or how a translation site of a niche Korean Novel became one of the pillars of Web Fiction in the West.” Reddit, 19 April 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1sq1xd9/royal_road_the_history_of_royal_road_or_how_a/. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2006. Jenkins, Henry. “Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/Culture.’” Cultural Studies 28, no. 2 (2014): 267–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.801579. Maas, Jennifer. “‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ TV Series Casts Audiobook Star Jeff Hays as Princess Donut’s Voice.” Variety, 23 July 2026, https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/dungeon-crawler-carl-tv-series-princess-donut-jeff-hays-1236819828/. Mulroy, Clare. “LitRPG is hot. Why fans can't get enough of books like 'Dungeon Crawler Carl'.” USA Today, 9 May 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2026/05/09/best-litrpg-books-dungeon-crawler-carl/89776156007/. Schneider, Michael. “Peacock Gives Series Order to ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ TV Series From Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door, Chris Yost.” Variety, 18 June 2026, https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/dungeon-crawler-carl-series-order-peacock-1236785705/. *** Music Credits: “Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020 Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Baby's back! Gaby joins Hannah and Marcelle for a long, Canadian-forward check in and a very important (and also Canadian) Consumer Retorts. Join us on Patreon for Part II and plenty of BoCo (bonus content, just a new thing we're trying out). Support Material Girls To learn more about the show, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca (you can also find transcripts here!). You can gift a Patreon subscription at this link: https://www.patreon.com/ohwitchplease/gift! Music Credits: “Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020 Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.