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9 to 5 x Labour Feminism with Zena Sharman
This week we are joined by the incomparable Zena Sharman (she/her). Zena is an essayist and non-fiction writer who is a fan and student of the film 9 to 5 (1980). If you don't know the movie, you almost certainly know the song of the same name written and performed by one of its stars, Dolly Parton. And if you don't know the song, you most definitely know the two other leads of the movie: Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda! And if you don't know them, well hell, we can't wait to introduce you!
In the episode, Hannah and Zena lead us through a history of the feminist labour organizing that directly led to the film's creation. They introduce us to Karen Nussbaum who co-founded an organization called 9to5 in the early 1970s. Nussbaum and Jane Fonda became friends and allies through anti-Vietnam war organizing and developed 9 to 5 (the film) in effort to surface the struggle of working women at the time.
Hannah then draws on work from historian Dorothy Sue Cobble who argues that contemporary disillusionment about feminism has a lot to do with historical amnesia about the actual diversity of feminist organizing. Hannah suggests that the 1980 screwball comedy 9 to 5, with its depiction of women from notably different backgrounds and with pointedly different gender presentations, might be exactly the feminist text we need in our present political moment. The conversation also touches on queer-coded characters in the story and the super queer team behind the film.
Come for the love of Dolly Parton and stay for the rich conversation about labour organizing, cultural consumption, moral purity and coalition building!
More Zena
Zena is the editor of several anthologies, including The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory & Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health and Lambda Literary Award-winning The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care. You can buy her newest book, Staying Power (Arsenal Pulp Press), here! Full link: https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/S/Staying-Power
Related Episodes
Works Cited
Cobble, Dorothy Sue. The Other Women's Movement : Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sfu-ebooks/detail.action?docID=740297.
Scott, Katherine. “A timeline: The pandemic’s impact on women in the workforce.” Canada Centre for Policy Alternatives 2 July 2024. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/a-timeline-the-pandemics-impact-on-women-in-the-workforce/.
Sharman, Zena. Staying Power: On Queerness, Inheritances, and the Families We Choose. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2026.
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!). Want to support the podcast and our tiny, hard-working team? Check out all the content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease. Bonus episodes, bloopers, merch, watch-alongs, and more! Need a last minute gift for a friend or family member? 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”.
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Material Concerns: The Complainasode Pt. I
38:19|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 GirlsTo 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 ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma x The Gaze
01:05:04|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 CitedClover, 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 ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Material Concerns: Fringe, Scrapbooking, and Clapping for Hannah Pt. I
39:04|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 GirlsTo 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 ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Dungeon Crawler Carl x Transmedia Storytelling
01:02:40|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 FunctionWicked x ParatextsDungeons and Dragons x LudologyWorks CitedDanis, 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 ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Brought to You by the Common Loon Pt. I
39:09|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 GirlsTo 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 ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Dopamine Decor x Pleasure Activism
01:04:49|Is your FYP and Instagram feed full of brightly colored decorations, furniture, and art? Are you finding yourself drawn to funky shaped furniture, maximalism, and painted doors? Boy do we have the episode for you! Today, Marcelle leads us through a conversation all about the “dopamine decor” trend! Through adrienne maree brown’s theory of pleasure activism, she and Hannah unpack dopamine science, homeownership amongst millennials, and why we turn to beauty when the world is hard.Related listening:Dopamine x Health Capitalism with Jesse MeadowsAthleisure x Optimization with Anne Helen PetersonPixar x Affective EconomicsWorks Cited:brown, adrienne maree. Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019.Cancilla, Julia. “The Surprising Science Behind the Dopamine Decor Trend.” ELLE Decor. December 20, 2024. https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/trends/a63250266/dopamine-decor-trend/. Accessed August 4, 2026.Cullinane, Alice. 2025. “Dopamine Decor: Why People Are Getting a Happiness Hit from Homes.” BBC News. December 14, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg2j5l4q7wo. Accessed August 4, 2026.Lee, Ingrid Fetell. “Does Dopamine Decor Really Work?.” The Aesthetics of Joy. March 8, 2024. https://aestheticsofjoy.com/dopamine-decor/. Accessed August 4, 2026.Mirdamadi, Michael, and Joshua Gordon. “Millennials in the Canadian housing market: An intergenerational comparison.” Housing Statistics in Canada. Government of Canada. May 6, 2026. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/46-28-0001/2026001/article/00001-eng.htm. Accessed August 4, 2026.***Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Material Concerns: After 8 AM Pt. I
38:02|Welcome back to Material Concerns! In this episode, Hannah, Coach and Marcelle get together for a nice long check-in, followed by Apocalypse Toolkit! Time runs short so the segment continues in Part II — where you can also find a Creature Report!Support Material GirlsTo 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 ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.The Odyssey x Canonicity
01:14:30|We're back from our Summer Break™ with an episode about Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. It's not easy to tackle the zeitgeistiness of a poem that's been circulating for thousands of years, but leave it up to Hannah and Marcelle to try anyway. In this episode, we chat about the creation of Homeric epics, authorship, the cultural force of the so-called Western Canon, and the fluidity of The Odyssey as a culture text in and of itself.***To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode!Material Girls is a show that makes sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both.Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.Works CitedBostick, Dani. “The Classical Roots of White Supremacy.” Learning for Justice. Southern Poverty Law Centre, 4 January 2021. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/stories/the-classical-roots-of-white-supremacy/. Hall, Edith. The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer’s Odyssey. London: I.B.Tauris, 2008. Kellman, Steven G. “The Literary Canon.” EBSCO Research Starters. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/literary-canon. Mahdawi, Arwa. “Why is Elon Musk so threatened by the casting of The Odyssey?” The Guardian 22 May 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/22/elon-musk-the-odyssey-casting. Mcleod, E.M. [@mcleodmouth]. “LUPITA GET BEHIND ME .” Instagram, 3 May 2026. https://www.instagram.com/p/DX4pI19pP0a/?hl=en. Wilson, Emily, trans. The Odyssey. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
The Vampire Podcast: Audience Q&A
39:54|Welcome to a very special bonus episode of The Vampire Podcast! In this episode, Hannah, Gaby, and Zoe dig into YOUR wonderful questions about The Vampire Lestat.Listen on for our thoughts on Gabriella’s role in the witch burnings Lestat went to as a child, Armand’s propensity for meddling, and just how many of you listened to the pod without watching the show (which we love, by the way!)We’re taking a quick break for the coming week and then we’ll be back with a Patreon-only bonus episode with a special guest.Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.