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SMNTY Classics: The Curse - Supernatural Menstruation Horror · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told you projection of iHeartRadio, and today we
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: are bringing you a classic because of scheduling, sickness, all
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: kinds of stuff, which is kind of fitting I for
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the classic I wanted to bring back today because this
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: is one of the best puns I've ever made, in
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: my opinion, It's about supernatural menstruation in horror. And I know,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: like we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: You know, we love good horror. We love Halloween.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I especially love Halloween and Fall, and we're getting a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: little bit ahead of ourselves. But I have been thinking
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: about this lately because, as we mentioned in our recent
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: con Dragon Con wrap up episode, a lot of people
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: were dressed as horror like more than normal for Dragon Con.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: But I've also seen a lot of horror movies lately.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I know this is a press surprise, but I have
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: seen a lot of horror movies lately.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: They were coming out in droves right now, like yees,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: so many horror movies.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: So many horror movies.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And I read a whole article about like companies being
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: surprised at how well their horror was doing.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: All their like horror movies.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Just some things that they thought would just flop have
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: really taken off.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And you know that I'm there watching them.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Them all.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: There's one hold out that gonna I'm gonna watch this weekend.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: We'll see.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I did want to mention I brought it up before.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Deep bluesy Okay is a bad movie. It's really bad,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: but it's on my good bad Movies list, and it's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: inspired a new topic I want to talk about because
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: it's like their twenty fifth anniversary, so I don't know,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it's some anniversary. And the director was saying, like people
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: are now calling for the original ending to be released,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and I was like, the original ending, So I investigated
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and there.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I knew it.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I knew the Ladies Scientist wasn't supposed to die.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I knew it.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: They always felt kind of off to me in the
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: original ending. She doesn't die spoilers. I guess that movie's old.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: But they said on exit interviews everyone was like that
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: she needs to die, so they killed her off. They
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: reached the ending, and I want to come back and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: revisit that, which I know you've seen the outline and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: it looks really ominous, like deserves to die as the title,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Oh okay.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: I was like, you know what this, Yes, but I
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: feel like.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: That kind of mindset of like, when a man does it,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: it's all right, he deserves this redemption arc.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: When a woman does it serves to die.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: If you've never seen Deep Lucy, she was a scientist
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: that made some questionable ethical choices, but does have a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: journey of realizing she did wrong.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Oh I know nothing about this really bad. It's supposedly
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: good movie, so okay.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well we're going to do a whole It might
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: be a mini it might be a whole episode about it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: But I was also thinking about bringing this one back
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: because there's been a lot of articles in my very
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: niche circle about possession in horror movies and what it
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: represents and why we get it wrong a lot in
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: terms of who were having possessed, why they're possessed, all
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that stuff. So I want to come back and talk
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: about that too, which is another outline you might have
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: seen that might have made you nervous.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: The title like extracism.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, yeah, but I thought it was fitting
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: with you know, approaching this season, but also we are
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: approaching slowly but steadily the end of our long religious mini.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Series coming is coming. It is just long awaited, my
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: flat conclusion.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But it is coming, yes, But in the meantime, please
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and welcome to Stefan Never Told your production of iHeartRadio.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: For today's question, I'm asking one that I guess I
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: kind of talked about a little bit before. But do
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: you remember when you got your first period?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I was twelve years old, and I had been and
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: excited about it, mainly because I've watched way too many
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: sitcoms about how this is a celebration of womanhood and
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: how this is such a big deal.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: And I'm thinking my mom's gonna at least give me,
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: like I.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Don't know, a present of soores that tells me about it. Instead,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I got sent to my nurses office, who handed me
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: a pad. Who I went home and my mom was like, okay,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: well I'll buy you some pads and that was the
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: end of the story.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: And I was like, cool, cool, cool.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: And then after that I probably had some of the
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: worst crams ever and I hated everything.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Everything.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it took a little while before I started
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: wearing tampons, But man, those pads were so uncomfortable and gross.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was nine and we were going we were
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: going to a field trip to the Fox Theater. Oh yeah, yeah,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to go see the Nutcracker.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: And I was very, very excited.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: And my teacher came up to me and put her
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: hand on my shoulder and like whispered in my ear, honey,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I have to talk to you. And it was as
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: though someone had died, like she was breaking the news
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that someone had died and I had to go home,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and like I was wearing khakis, so it was really
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: obvious bloodstain. And yeah, I know I've talked about it before,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: but I thought you only got it once. So I
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was like at hurt and I had horrible cramps, but
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I got to stay home and I got Arby's.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I remember getting RV's nice.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: So I did have a celebration. That's nice.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I you know, I didn't realize it was
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: a real thing, and I did do the thing where
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I thought I was dying at first, but then it
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: was explained to me.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: So the second time I got my period was much much.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Worse when I realized, oh this is oh right, oh no.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: Right, why why is it continuing to happen.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, but yeah, today were finally talking about something
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I've wanted to talk about forever.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: It's happening, and we're.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Talking about my theory that almost all horror movies are
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: secretly about male writers and their fear of female bodies
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and particularly periods.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Yes, I think.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: I guess this is kind of like a two parter
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: because the next one is kind of on that same
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: idea at least sexuality.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a real revelation researching this that it's
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: you know, it's female bodies, but it's also just women horror.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: The genre is almost all about our fear of women.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: I mean that's fair.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they should be, damn right.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: But yes, note obviously not all women have periods, and
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: we are being hearted about this. And again, not all
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: people who have periods are women, and we acknowledge that,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: and that is a thing, and it is all true,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and we understand and respect that.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: But for this specifically, we are.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Talking about women's bodies, especially when we talk about the
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: old school horror movies who really really, really really really
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: were afraid of women.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and as we record this and as you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: listen to it, if you're listening to it when it
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: first came out.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: It's October. Happy Halloween, I know, my favorite time.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: It's October first, actually the day we're recording this, and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I'm already like, should I get a pumpkin? No?
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I was trying to get a pumpkin two weeks ago
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: and told someone told me no, like at the store.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because they were there, and I liked the little
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: mini pumpkins. I love those. I'm putting Gogle.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Eyes on there, like, oh wow, that's my Jacqueline Arns,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: essentially a little mini ones, and they're like smite the no.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: I want it.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: What touch to me is I don't want it to
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: rot before Halloween. And also.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Now that I'm getting so many groceries at once, it
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: was a lot to carry, right, and I am someone
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: who tries to make what I don't like to go
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: back and forth from my car to my apartment. That's ridiculous.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: One trip, one trip. Ant.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: Yes, I'm like, that's than your nickname.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: By the way, I definitely had two of my mini
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: pumpkins sitting on my balcony.
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: For two years.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Wow. And they didn't die.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: They didn't the last time. Actually, producer Andrew was here
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: over the house. So this was a while ago over here,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: and he and my partner went out and they were like,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: what is this And one had slowly started to decay
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: and the other one was okay, but I think they
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: had gotten.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Stuck to the railing of my bandness.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Oh wow. And when they took it off, they threw
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: it into the yard because you know, that's what you
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: do with gords, right, And apparently it was disgusting, like
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: the inside of it was really gross, but it was intact.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a shame. It was almost a part of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: your apartment.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Hus It kind of did grow into my apartment. And
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: look what you did, yell ruined my life.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: Happy Hallow reen.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes to the topic at hand.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: People and particularly dudes, I would say, I've been afraid
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of women's bodies and their periods forever.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Throughout history.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Periods have been viewed as a mark of womanhood, are
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: something shameful and even evil, something that you hide. Some
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: historians believe a few religions may have developed in part
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: due to disgust and fear around periods. Numerous superstitions about
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: periods have sprung up all over the world, like don't
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: bake bread while you're on your period.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Don't go to a funeral on your period, don't.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Call a man on the phone on your period, of
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: heaven forbid, as well as etiquette rules often preventing girls
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and women from interacting with boys and men during menstruation,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: which I thought was when I think about that, that's
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: so interesting to me. It's like this passing of sin.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And there is also minophobia, which is legit phobia, fear
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of periods, and just the fact that we call it
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the curse, which I will say is I kind of
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: jokingly been reclaimed I feel like in a lot of spaces,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: but uh, that wasn't always the case.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Well, and like I said, in my little generation, it
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: was blooming really womanhood.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah you bloomed.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, I never ever encountered.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: It's fascinating to me when you say you saw like
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: these positive are like humorous, perhaps it's better word depictions.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I never it was always a bad thing to me.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've only seen it as a bad thing. As
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I was researching this, I was trying to think of
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: one example where it wasn't portrayed as just like terribly
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: negative or something to fear right, And I think.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: It's also the whole like positive or the comedy wasn't
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: necessarily just a positive. It was literally turning in sexualizing
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: and adulting, making a child an adult by a marker
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: which you are nine, you are not a woman, but
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: they would say you are now becoming a woman. Me
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: at twelve, who's still you know, a little older. That
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: is not the age of becoming a woman. But that's
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: absolutely a backtrack idea of women getting birth and when
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: they are able to mate, and so they'refore sold off
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: to know, you are now able to have babies, you
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: have reached your adulthood.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Here you go.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: So it's not necessarily it's like at the reclaiming, but
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: it is this backwards idea of why we were called
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: to being a woman and being now seen sexual because
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: we've become able to be impregnated essentially, So it's a positive.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: But a negative but a negative.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and I think that's a lot of our
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: tension around it.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that a little bit more,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: but kind of this tension of we have called it's
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: for so long a mark of womanhood, but in times
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it's like with me, I was nine and clearly not right,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: but there's like this idea is still there, and I
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: do want to say, like, we're not obviously going into
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: a history of people's views on periods. And there's been
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: several episodes past hosts have done on like superstitions around
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: periods or history of our our beliefs around them, and
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: there are some cultures where the period is celebrated. So
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I just I want to put that out there. But today,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: because we're focusing on like the horror movie aspect of it,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: we're not going to do an exhaustive history, but that
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: that does exist, like it's not so feared everywhere, but
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: going back to when it was feared in Jewish tradition
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: to blame for the curse and the less fun aspects
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of childbirth less than fun, shall we say our place
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: solely on Eve's shoulders. Of course, the taal mood has
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: this dire warning if a me instrument woman passes between
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: two men, if it is at the beginning of her mencies,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: she will slay one of them, and if it is
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: at the end of her minsies, she will cause strife
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: between them.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Well, damn, if I even had that much power to
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: start walking in between some chosen then.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine like men scattering.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: My god, I would just be streaming the all time
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: I'm menstrating, and then try to go in between all
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: men so.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Parting like a wave, and then like them shouting.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: What part of period is she on? Where are you?
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: You will never know?
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: Fear me right.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: So meanwhile, Livedicus describes periods as ritual impurity, labeling the
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: menstrating women as impure in anyone or anything that touches
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: her unclean until the evening comes, which is hilarious to this.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: Like time frame of when this could be.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: So not only is this girl or woman on her
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: period impure, that impurity was believed to be transferable by touch.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: So haha, this is the beginning of like a zombie
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: apocalypse is actually the period?
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what I say, it's fat luck.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Our modern reaction to it is enlightening in a way
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: because in theory, like we're acting as though this is
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: a great power, which is fun to imagine, and people
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: were running from as afraid. But at this time I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: imagine women were afraid of this too, and that it's
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: like you don't want to cause strife between men, like
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: heaven forbid, and you don't want a man to strike
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: himself down.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Not that there weren't women. I'm sure that did.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: They're okay with it, yeah, but I know that it
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: was not just isolated two men that women were afraid to.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: Well. Also, that also brings on a bigger shame factor.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: And if you cass, are you a witch? Are you
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: like impure?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: Who are you?
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: And so just having a period says your impirer, says
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: your sinful?
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: So of course has that shame level to that as well.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Well. It's really insidious when you think about it, because
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: it's basically it's saying, these two men get in a fight,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: blame that woman if she's menstruating, right, never holding men
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: accountable for their actions.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: As per usual.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: So many religious scripts prohibit sex during periods and also
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: recommend that cleansing back to wash off the impurity once
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: the period is over. And by the way, that still
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: holds true today. I know a lot of people kind
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: of hold two that you're not supposed to be having sex.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: I was actually taught that as a kid, that.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: It was biblical to not have sex and that it
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: was imperiod, have sex durined period.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: And even in my mind, there's this whole level of
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: like Ooh, that's kind of gross.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Wow. See I just kind of assumed you wouldn't.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And then I mentioned that to a good friend of
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: mine in college and she's like, well, i've heard it's
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: actually really great.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, homoies.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: Are all over the place at this time, we know this.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: But yeah, actually I was told that as a kid,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: and I don't even think it was one of my
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: female relatives who told me, yeah, it's gross, you shouldn't
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: do this. And she was an adult believing this, So
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, okay. In some sex of Orthodox
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Christianity still forbidminstrating women from receiving communions. I can't imagine
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: that conversation to come and be like, ah, I can't
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: take part and communion today Church, I'm all my period.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: That does sound so again shameful of Like people are
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: going to know that you're on your period, right, you
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: have to tell them assume that you are, Like, you
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: don't have to say a thing the fact that you
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: didn't take communion.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Oh, either you're a devil worshiper or you're on your period,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: or both or both, which is so During Ramadan, however,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: women on their period may be exempt from fasting, so
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: that seems at least reasonable.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And again, like it's so much we could
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: talk about if we were specifically focusing on all of
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the ways around the world the period is viewed and treated.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: But we are talking about horror movies today, and we've
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: talked about before how horror movies are a really great
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: reflection of what scares us as a society, and clearly
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: we're afraid periods so much so it almost qualifies as
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: its own horror subgenre. That's called supernatural period horror. That's perfect,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: which I mentioned to a guy friend the other day
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: and he was like, are you talking about like a
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: horrmon be taking place in like the sixteen hundreds, And
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I was like, no, but.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I see how you thought that.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I'll see how you thought that, Like pioc gotcha exactly exactly.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: So Emily Soderback has actually written a whole piece on
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: this called Ghoul You'll be a Woman Soon, Supernatural Puberty
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: in the Horror of Periods, and she goes a step
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: further in this article and argues that horror the genre
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: at large is intrinsically tied to women, whether we're talking
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: about the final girl, the pregnant body as a vessel
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: for evil, like the monstrous feminine rape Revenge movies are
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: teenage girls having their first period and just wreaking havoc, yes.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Usually supernatural havoc. Yes, yes.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: And actually I'm really glad I found this piece because
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: it has that really resonated with me, and I'd never
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: really considered it before, but now I do think a
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: lot of horror is about is intrinsically linked to women.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I think that was very astute, for sure, and it
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: is very telling, as we were talking about earlier, that
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: we rarely see depictions of periods in our media, and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: especially in my case, I literally cannot think of a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: positive thing I've seen about the period. But when we do,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: like most often, it is as a construct in a
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: horror movie.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: All right, So I think I must have watched a
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: lot more like coming of age movies, and of course
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of it was more horror, like, oh my god,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: this happened. I also one of my favorite book, Judy
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: bloom books, just as long as We're Together, had us
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: seen him that as well, that it was fairly positive,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: but it definitely makes out to be She became womanly overnight,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: she grew hips and breasts and I'm like, how's that possible?
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: But back to this, so the big question why are
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: we so afraid of them? And obviously our emotions, come on,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: we're so emotional. Donald Trump saying blood was coming out
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: of Meghan Kelly's oh you know wherever when she wasn't
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: nice to him was a great example of dude, how
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: old are you?
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: And are you kidding me?
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: And just pretty much saying giving the excuse, oh, she's
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: on her period to dismiss someone's.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Emotions so annoying.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, And I've seen that played on TV shows repeatedly.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah the month.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, that's right up there with one of my
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: biggest pet peeves, would take a chill pill. Never ever
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: say that to me. That's the opposite of a chill pill.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Is gonna happen.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Damn, I'm going to remember that. Don't say this to Annie.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Take a note, don't say it during games and battles.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Got it?
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: This is and and the whole like r E PM
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: messing is at that time of the month is the equivalent?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Right? And I remember when I read it was for
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: this show.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: There was a study that came out that said, actually
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: there's not Actually there's not really that much definitive proof
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that you become more emotional during your period. It might
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: be that you're cranky because you have cramps, right, and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you don't feel well, But it's it's not like.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: A switch for some women.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe for some women definitely, but for most women, it's
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: not like some switch goes off and all of a sudden,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: you're like a harpy, right, it's just maybe you're uncomfortable
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: and tired.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: You've become a shrill harpy. Yeah.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I think that's one of the perfect examples, because there
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: are people who suffer from PMDD and that's a whole
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: hormonal thing that affects your life, not just on your period.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: And we know that, but like I will say, I
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: definitely had really strong PMS and really like strong symptoms
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: to the point that, you know, a younger, I was
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: looking at birth control pill because it was so it
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: affected my life so often, like every month it did.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: But at the same time, it's not to the point
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: that I couldn't control myself.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: I throw things at people, right whatever.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Right, right.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: However, back to the emotions parts. Social media platforms sensoring
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: images of period blood as we know, and the hashtag
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: period pride response, which.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: Some also see as problematic.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: So it is a back and forth conversation because I
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: I as someone who was born in the eighties and
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: growing up in the country and trying to figure all
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: of this out, because like I said, I did see
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: positive influences of that, but also this like shame factor
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: of that hiding the tampon, you know, making sure no
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: one saw if you bled on yourself, you know, all
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: those things. Yeah, not having my male counterpart or my
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: brothers were carrying tampons for me, you know, Oh well,
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: how dare you even being down that aisle?
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: Bring some shame.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: But it does seem like the over exemplification of hey,
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna just wear blood everywhere. Like it it has
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: this thing like I do you get a little squeamish
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: about that? And I don't know if that's more so
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: of my in like ingrained this is shameful or just
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: like this doesn't compute as something that I have shown,
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: you know what, show off sure, you know. So it
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: is like this back and forth of like huh, And
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: I think people my generation have that same kind of
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: idea of like, yes, I'm not going to be hiding it,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: but at the same time, I don't want to wear
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: my blood so everyone can see.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And just also the conversation around you know, people
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: who don't have periods, who are women, And that was
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when I remember this really
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: being a big thing, and I remember pieces of that conversation.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: So I think it's great that to have.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: That conversation that some people are like, no, have I period,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: And I'm proud of it.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I'm all for that.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: But yes, always good to have those and make sure
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: we're being inclusive when we talked about things like that.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: So another reason I think we're afraid of periods is religion.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And I have been watching a lot.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Of horror movies lately, a lot, a lot, a lot, and.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I've realized a lot of our horror movies are religious
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: in nature. And I know we've talked about this, Samantha.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I ever talked about it on
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the show, but when I was young, I was very
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: very religious. I think I have talked about it, and
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I would lie awake at night and think I'm going
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: to burn in hell. And then I was a bad person.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: And I can see, especially in when we're talking about
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: older times, and religion back then, when you didn't understand
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the world around you and you thought the period, your
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: period was shameful because it's in like religious text, then
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it would be terrifying. Yeah, and you like the shame.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: It's one thing like the shame I feel. But back
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: when I was a kid, if I had thought like
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: this was some sign of my impurity, right, and I
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: was going to burn in hell because of it?
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Right? Yeah?
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: Wells it also puts this responsibility of my duty as
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: a woman who has now bled as two birth children,
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: because this is the only reason for it. If I'm
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: not using that ability, I'm sinning, which has been that
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: old school text in religion as well, and what providing
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: for a family looks like for women. But yeah, absolutely
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: carry the movie, which we'll talk about in a little bit,
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: it is the epitome of that whole idea.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah. Another reason I think people are fraid
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of ferias are we are afraid of women's bodies. We
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: see this with women's bodies as a vessel for evil,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the bad seed Satan himself, like Rosemary's baby.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Like being the mother of that.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: And I was thinking about that and more in depth,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and it's almost always it comes down to blaming the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: mother in these movies or blaming the woman in these movies.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: But often the mother, like especially in serial killer movies,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, yeah, it was the mom. She should
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: have done X, Y Z. And then I was like, well,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the final girl might be an exemption, but I feel
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: like the final Girl is here's this pure, innocent woman
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: who suffers and eventually a man will get No, like
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: she's being preserved for a man at a future dates,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: which her precious, precious virginity which is why she survives,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: is being preserved for some future man.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: Well, we know the sequels that come out.
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: It's always never good, and it's a turn for her
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: trying to be a woman at this point.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there's also this fear around the transition
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: into womanhood. We're very scared of young women, girls, young
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: girls becoming young women.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: We literally are afraid of fangirling.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I think about that article I read all the time
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: where the it seemed legitimate.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: The author was like this terrifying trend among young girls
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: where they screamed together and lust after this man's calm down.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Not only do we not understand thanks to a long
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: lack of science changing hormones, our bodies. We also don't
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: understand like changing emotions. We're afraid of it. And we
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: see this in so many movies. And I know we've
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: been talking about this a lot lately, but I think
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: this is in part why all those father daughter posts
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: apocalyptic stories exist. Right, What could be more difficult and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: terrifying and altruistic than a man trying to understand a
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: teenage girl.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: What are zombies compared to that?
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: I mean the teenage boys you know, talk about porn, great,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: talk about tell him how to fix a car, and
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: teenage girls though, oh no, oh.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: No, what do I do? She would never want to
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: learn how to fix a car?
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: Right, She doesn't want to be a part of my life.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: He doesn't want to watch sports with me. And that
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: is very, very generalization of men.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: I know, Yeah, absolutely, but I mean that's the problem too,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: yeah mm hmm. And then yeah, like we said earlier
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: that the struggle between this idea that a period makes
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: a girl a woman while often still in a young
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: child's body, which is unsettling it can be at the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: same time, this threatens the patriarch order of things. If
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: the young girl is becoming an independent from her father,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: no longer needing him. Oh wow, then that's scary. She's independent,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: what right? And that might also be why we see
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: this father daughter dynamic or our stand in father figure
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: protector in so much media. And I know we talked
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: in Survival Horror about this, but essentially, like, you can
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: have a strong female character in quotes that's really awesome,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: but there's almost always a stronger male character that's protecting her, right.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's a disillusioned father who kind of just
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: walks away.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a marker of how good he is
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: if he stays around and protects her.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: But okay, we do have some examples for you. But
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: first we're gonna pause for a quick break or word
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor, And
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: we're back with Carrie.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: The iconic religious horror movie.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, and story of course.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Of course, this is probably one of the most iconic
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: examples of what we're talking about.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: So this is Stephen King's Carrie.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: The book came out in nineteen seventy four, and the movie,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: directed by Brian to Palma, debut two years later in
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. Sissy Spacek starred as Carrie. It was
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: a shy, abused high school girl who was bullied by
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: both her religious mother and her classmates, and when she
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: gets her first period in the gym locker room, her
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: classmates mock her, they throw tampons at her, they shall
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: plug it up, and Carrie, who has never had any
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of this explained to her, believed she was dying. Her
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: mom called it a sign of quote sinful sexual fantasies.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And this all happens to coincide with Carrie developing powers,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: of course, telekinetic powers, which are symbolic of her becoming
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: a woman. When a cool prank leaves her doused in
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: pig's blood, representing her period, she turns those powers indiscriminately
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: on all in her path in a wave of terrifying
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: supernatural violence, as her mom washes the blood off her.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: In the end, she reveals Carrie was the product of
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: a rape that her mother quote enjoyed, and that sin
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: never dies. Yeah, and I'd never seen this movie when
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I wrote it, and I still haven't seen it, much
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to Samantha's chagrin, But I did. I knew most of
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: this from memory, so it really left a mark on
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: our cultural psyche, and it received several awards. It received
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: several nominations and is regularly included on list of the
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: top horror movies of all time.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Right, yes, I was very sad to hear you say
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: someone who loves horror movies have not seen such an
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: iconic movie. You did say you read the book, so
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: I'll allow it. But this is definitely of a different beast.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Not only do you have an innocent girl or in
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: this I think she would be called a cinnamon roll
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: with a S I N in a M O N.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: Yes, we learned this.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: I learned this term because of Annie or a parked
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: cinnamon roll. You're welcome that develops dark telekinetic powers, but
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: a young girl who destroys an entire community without hesitating.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: She goes from victim and turns into a psycho bitch trope.
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: But there is a.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Second one as well, which I've never seen, but Annie, so.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: This is also part of Savantha's I seeing the second
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Carrie Carrie to Rage Unleashed, I think I have not seen.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: The first one.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I watched Carrie two for the soundtrack, which is just
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: as mayors as it sounds.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: I still have a soundcheck all I.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Remember is like she was in a pretty red dress
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: at the end and some guy got there's a lot
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: of fire, and some guy was like in a pool
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and that you know, the sheet came over it and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: couldn't get out, and it really freaked me out.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: Oh that's bad, Yeah for sure. Yeah, definitely fire cleansing
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: like that. There's a lot of like symbolism within the story.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: We know this, between the blood and the fire and
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: the crucifixes as well as crucifying her mother essentially.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: So if you haven't seen this movie already.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Why haven't you any Sorry, but unless you don't like horror,
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: which is fine. Also, yes, we're talking about nineteen seventies movies,
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: so spoiler.
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: Alert, I guess if you have it heard about it
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: at all.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: But yeah, the whole idea with this is so symbolic
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: throughout it's pretty much hit you over the head. But
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: he does turn what would be the innocent victim into
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: a very quickly evil woman. Even the jump scared at
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: the end, which was fairly new, that kind of jump scare,
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: So it got me too when I watched it as
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: a kid. I think it was at a slumber party,
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: typical slumber party Oh my god, it's such a girl
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: trope right there. Yeah, and scared the hell out of us.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: I think all the little girls screamed. We were in
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: seventh grade, sixth or seventh grade, we're like God because
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: of the perfect jump scare.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: But you do.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: It has this whole thing of you have characters who
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: are sympathetic and are really caring and in the end
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: really hope for the best for her and are so
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: excited for her.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: However she does not care. Everyone must go.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: It kind of has that this is everyone's fault, which
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: again kind of turns your view on her. Yea, even
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: when she does go home to her mom begging for
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: some sympathy and love and ends up getting you know,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: almost murdered by her mother. And so it does have
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: this whole level of conversation of how do we see
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: these girls wire periods, the evil that comes upon us,
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: and then who in the end is innocent?
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean clearly we're I don't know if
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: oversimplifying is the right word, because there is a lot
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: going on. You know, you do have that religious aspect,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: you do have to blame the mother aspect, and like
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: her becoming you can read it as she becomes a
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: woman and then yeah, it's a traumatic experience and then.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Unleashes this hell within her.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: But she also was abused, so there's that aspect of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: it too. And when I was telling Samantha why I
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: haven't seen it, I do have an anxiety, like a
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: legit anxiety around this kind of horror that's like a
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: bullying abuse, religion, and like womanhood.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: Because we talked about several movies you hadn't seen that
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: are more of the psycho bitstrope, and realizing you've not
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: seen any of those, even though they are considered horror.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: For one, yep, which I'm still confused by, I will
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: say that, but it has a whole different layer of
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: your involving your psyche and your your darkest fears or
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: even personal experiences, which makes a whole lot more sense
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: of like, oh, I get it, this is why because I.
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: Think Hush was one of them.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: We don't we're not going to talk about that, but
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: it's definitely like a murder thriller, stalker ish movie which
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: you don't really know much of this woman's background, but
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: you just watch it in real time essentially. So yeah,
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: but stuff like that you don't watch and the strangers,
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: which all have that fear, which in your mind, some
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: of these are based on true.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: Stories, so it's like this really could happen.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's what gets me.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I think I really like I like the clear oh no,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: this is not the real world stuff. Not that I
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: haven't watched plenty of those, but I think these are
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: because I.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: Have these anxieties. They're so close to home. Yeah.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: But speaking of like plague on your worst Fears and
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Stephen King.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: I will say this is probably one of my biggest
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: fears and the reason why I am afraid of freaking
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: clowns is because of this movie. So Stephen Keen tackles
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: the fears of girls becoming women and the peer that
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: comes with it. Is it that so you have it
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: as a conversation about women imperiods. And I didn't really
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: think about it because I don't know if I've ever
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: finished the early series, like when it came out in
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: the early nineties, because I couldn't get past the clown
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Tim Curry as the freaking clown and those teeth. Yeah,
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: But in the newer movies I did see it in
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: which they do talk about the main female character and
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: her period and her becoming a woman and then the
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: relationship she has with her father.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: So in the most recent movie of Beverly, Marsha's greatest
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: fear is that very thing and the pain it brought
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: her via the sexual abuse from her father. When he
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: discovered she had her first period, he said she was
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: a woman now and very creepily sniffed her hair. Is
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: a little different in the book, which I've never read
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: the book either, again, clown in a story.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: I was over it.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: And there's even a scene where she stares at a
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: wall of tampons and pass out a pharmacy before choosing one,
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: and then gets leered at by the older male pharmacist
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: when she checks out again.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: This is whole like, yeah, yeah, it's not just the
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: fact that.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: There's this almost invitation of like, I'm sexual now, which
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: is so untrue.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I've definitely had this exact moment at the store where
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: it's a male cashier and they're checking you out and
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: they give you this look like yeah, yeah gross.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: And then one scene, Beverly is in the bathroom, which
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: was very horrifying, leaning over a sink with blood explodes
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: out from the drain, completely drenching her and the bathroom
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: in Crimson Blood. And honestly, I feel like I've seen
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: scenes like this a lot growing up, because I.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: Watched a lot of horror movies and it never clicked
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: with me.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what that truly was representing, And like I thought
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: people just had a phobia about blood, which.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Is true, but this is the part of this whole thing.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolute, They're like, oh God, you're bleeding and
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: there's no cause for it. This seems unnatural because we
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: see that as a warning of something bad is happening
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: to your body. This is repeated in chapter two, by
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: the way, I have not seen that win, when a
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: now adult Beverly is trapped in a bathroom stall as
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: blood gushes and rises around her, her father and the
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: pharmis is trying to break in.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: So if if somehow you're not familiar with it, it is
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: this alien entity that transforms into your greatest fear and
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: feeds on your fear. So and at the end of
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: chapter chapter two, they're all having to face their greatest fears.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: And so now Beverly as an adult, there's just blood
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: all around her, and these men who kind of tormented
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: her made her this object of sexual fantasy when she
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: was young, or trying to get into the bathroom stall.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: And you know, apparently Stephen King has some kind.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Of uh I guess he likes coming of age things
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: in general, and right coming.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Out stand by me as one of his like sweet movies, yeah,
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: about boys coming together, but then also death.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's just interesting that these examples do involve
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the period so much. And then you know the Shining Everybody,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: which notoriously he hates that movie, but that scene with
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: all the blood coming out, everybody uses that as a
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: joking gift, like, my period's here, right right. Yeah, But
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: let's move on from Stephen King from now and talk
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: about Ginger Snaps, which is.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: A movie I love.
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: I love that movie.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: So this was made in two thousand and It marries
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: a teenage girl getting her first period with her becoming
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: a werewolf, like getting hair in new places, acting out
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: of character, more volatile, painting her sexuality in a very
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: monstrous way. But it's very self aware, it's on purpose.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: It's definitely commenting on this whole thing of when you
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: get your period, when you become a woman, then you
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: become this monster, like a werewolf. The movie's tagline is
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: they don't call it the Curse for nothing.
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: So have you seen any of the sequels?
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: No?
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I haven't either. I haven't either.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: I'm just afraid of sequels, which is why I'm always
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: horrified and when people watch it out of sync because
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: it's not as good.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Typically sometimes sometimes there you know what I think I
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: feel like in trilogy is the second one is better
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: usually but.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: Not a planned Yes, I feel like it's planned more
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: likely however.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: But yeah, the.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: Main character of this movie is actually in the Netflix.
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: Series about were wolves. Oh really witches.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I thought that was hilarious because I've not
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: seen her much recently in many things, but people who
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: are very very iconic and noticeable, and to me in
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: the whole, like loving horror movies, she's iconic. The young girl.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: She plays this character as a witch. She's not a
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: were wolf. But the fact that she's in this movie
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: always like ah, tongue in cheek type of thing may
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: not be on purpose whatever, But if you haven't seen
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: this movie, you absolutely should.
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: And if you like horror movies, yes then yes.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: The crash it was really funny because we had our
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: listener Cat Hey Kat, send us a link on Twitter
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: about the remake of the Craft, and as soon as
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: she did that, I think it was a few days
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: later that the.
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: Trailer came out.
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: And of course one of the big scenes is a
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: period scene which is not really like it's I don't
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: know if it's part of the movie obviously we haven't
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: seen it, but this was definitely not a part of
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: the original Craft, so we it was interesting, So shout
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: out to that, and I wonder what this is synchronous?
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: It was odd, right, we were like literally researching this
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: every night.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Happened.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: So we do have a little bit more for you listeners,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: but first we have one more quick break for word
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: from our sponsor, and we're back.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you sponsor. And we just wanted to wrap this up,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: I suppose.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: So when I was thinking about this and doing the research,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: I do think horror movies at large, when I joke
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: about semi joke about how they're all about male writers
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: fears around periods, I think what I actually mean is
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: they're all about male writers fears, and you know, all
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: of our fears around women and periods have often been
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: symbolic of womanhood. Now again, I know we've been hopefully
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: in what was clearly a vocal air quote saying becoming
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: a woman. We've been saying that throughout but again, you
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: don't have to have periods to become a woman. But
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: it is something that we've seen in our culture and
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: in our.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Media a lot.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: And I do think the horror genre is intrinsically tied
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: to women and our fears around it.
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: That just makes sense to me.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think i'd ever really put it together like
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I'd always sent like, this genre is about final girls,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: and this genre is about pregnant women giving birth to
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: evil babies. And you know, I never thought about, in
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: like the whole scheme of horror, how much.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: Of it is about women girls.
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: Because yeah, you and I have had many conversations because
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: I love those movies about you know, hauntings and you know,
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: possessions and all of that, because it's nice and scared.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: But when you look at it, a chunk of it
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: has to do.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: With a mother who's lost a baby who's haunting someone,
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: or a mother who didn't who didn't want children and
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: sacrifice them, is haunting someone.
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: And it's always the mother.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: It's always the mother doing something, whether it's going after
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: the mother or the mother is going after a child.
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: It's very link, but it is it's that whole overall.
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: It's not just one generation of things, it's all the things.
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: So when we talk about and we're going too soon,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: we're talking about them fatales.
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: That's the single woman. Oh my god, be.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: Scared, terrified, terrifying. I strike so much fear in the hearts.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Of men, and all of the points that we've discussed
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: in our previous episodes on horror movies, there's been this
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: tension of badass final girls, or you know, even in
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: video games, we're talking about badass protagonists that you can play,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: but a lot of the messaging behind them is still
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: very rigid and sexist. These pieces of entertainment are primarily
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: created by men, not at all, not all of them.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: There are some amazing women creating in this genre and
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: also primarily created for the male gaze.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: So it's empowering in a way that.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Women's bodies do inspire so much fear, but that's only
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: because women's and girls' bodies have been so stigmatized throughout history.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: And when you think about how these movies and pieces
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: of entertainment do reflect real world fears, largely male fears
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: that still impact and shame so many women to this day,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: that still keep women marginalized. It's a different story. Yeah,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: you just have to.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I've always had that weird tension, especially when I did
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: one of the first episodes I did on this show
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: is about Final Girls, and I got so torn about
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: it because you are getting this messaging that you know,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: to survive, to be a good woman, you have to
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: be a virgin and like not smoke, not drink, and
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: be white and brown hair. And you know, they survive,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: but they survive in this like patriarchal definition, and they're
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: terrorized for it, Like they're tormented for it, and they
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: lose everything for it. And another piece of this I
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: do think is not even taking the time to understand women,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: especially if they don't fit the demure caricature we're supposed
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to fit in.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Like again, you know, she's mad at me, she must
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: be possessed or on her period.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Any behavior that's not fitting into this patriarchal, like gender
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: conforming box is threatening and scary and something to be
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: punish because horror movies are largely about punishment for breaking
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: societal norms right or in this case, and the one
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: we're talking about today for being a woman at all.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: Or it's a cautionary tale of if you do this,
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: this is what happens to you.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your sexuality will get you punished unless you do
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: it in the right quote unquote way.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: So, I guess we have a lot to say about
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: horror movies and periods.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: But that's well. We'll stop for today for.
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: Today, but continue on because it is October and we
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: love these themes.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes we do.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: And I know there's so many other movies we could
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: have talked about, so if we missed one, please send
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: it our way. You can email us at Stuff Media,
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: on Instagram at stuff I've Never Told You or on
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks it's always to our
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: super producer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you for listening.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Stephan Never Told You is a protection of iHeartRadio. For
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: more podcas as from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio at
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.