Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Fictional Women Around the World: Wednesday Addams

Transcript

Fictional Women Around the World: Wednesday Addams · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm not going to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Steffe never told your production of I Heeart Radio and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: welcome to another sub sub sub whatever subsegment fictional and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: around the world. I will say, I'm in a bit
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of a pickle. I'm in a bit of a pickle, Samantha, uh,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: because I really wanted to do and I continue what
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: you want to do a few last of us characters
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: because the show is coming out in January and I'm
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: hyped for the show and I want to talk about them.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: But now it's like a strange spoilery zone because the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: game has been out since. But everybody I thought of,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I'm like, that's a pretty big spoiler if somebody has
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: somehow managed to avoid getting spoiled from listening to this show,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: right to be fair, outside of listening to the show, obviously,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: but with the show coming on HBO, had it not
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: been for you, I would not know anything about the show.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I know, but if I talked about the people I
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: was going to talk about, it would have been a
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: major spoiler. There was four people I thought of, four
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and all of them I was like, oh no, I can't.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Oh no, well, we've definitely done spoiler days before. So
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I think as long as you do the spoiler alert
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: at the top, okay, I think we should. I think
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: you should think about it. You don't have to be
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in that pickle anymore. You're trying to get me out
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of this pickle. I was you seen me deliberate? I
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: know it wouldn't surprise you, but I was like, just
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: couldn't know it? Doesn't you deliberating on things does not
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: surprise me? No. Well, And the interesting thing is, I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: actually had another character I was going to talk about
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: today who I really cannot wait to talk about. It
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: is from a cartoon series. I'll give you a little hint.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I have no idea. I know you could look at
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the calendar, but don't. Don't let it be a surprise.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: But I bumped it because the internet is on fire
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: with his fictional character, because today we are talking about
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Wednesday Adams, the deadpan golf character who has yeah, just
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: taken over the internet. And that's saying something that I
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: know about it because I'm not on TikTok. But things
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: have come my way and I did watch the show,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: so I'm excited. But because I am from the original
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: era of Christina Luigi not original, I guess the secondary
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: era of re playing the character. Had there been social
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: media like that, I think she would have really owned it,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: because she kind of owned our generation. Between this character
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: uh Casper and um Now and then those movies she
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I think would have been I could have been a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: little more iconic. I mean to the fact that she
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: was in this new edition because iconic. Yes, well, I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: hope you'll talk about that when we get to it,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: because I've actually never seen it any of those things,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: so yes, I spoilers, but the Berry Light spoilers, I'll say. UM.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: For the show, I haven't really had a lot of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: experience with the Adam's family. I vaguely remember watching some
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of the very old show when I was a kid
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: because my dad liked it. UM and the song the
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: theme song was on the Halloween playlist every year. But
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: that's about that was my the extent of my knowledge.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I did watch Netflix's Wednesday, which broke the platform's record
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: for most hours streamed. UM. I did always like the character, though,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: even though I hadn't like seen a lot of the
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: material she was in. I always liked her. I liked
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the look of her, I liked the general vibe her.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I think I wanted to dress as Her. I have
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a Wednesday outfit up here. I never did it, but
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I have the outfit that's ready to go. That that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: iconic dress which has always been a part of the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: character since the beginning. Um, that's still a big fashion
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: trend and it was even before this release. Has been
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: like I remember looking for something for like nice black dresses,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and that dress would pop up and I'm like, why
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: would I, as an adult thing, you want to go
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to a wedding weding that? But I would be awesome people.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: You get people talking true. Um, So here's a quote
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: about the numbers. Tim Burton's Adams Family reboot series has
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: become only the third Netflix show to rack up a
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: billion hours of views in month, and I believe it's
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: gone up since then. The dance, the Wednesday Dance, which
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: has a lot of issues in back and forth round it,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: but it is everywhere. Tim Burton, who directed a bunch
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of the episodes, is problematic. But we are not talking
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: about that today. That's a different thing. Um. And yeah,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: we're not really going to go in depth on plot stuff.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: We're more just talking about the character. So yeah, minor spoilers,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: but not nothing major. Also, I was born on a Wednesday,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: and uh, the poem Wednesday's Child is full of wow.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I loved that poem when I was a kid because
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to be emo even young. I was like, yes,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the tragedy of being blown on a Wednesday. And there's
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a series called the Keys to the Kingdom series which
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I loved when I was a kid and had all
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: these kind of like every character Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday represented
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: like one of the seven sins. Uh, and Wednesday was
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: one of my favorites. Okay, so let's talk about this character.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: So Wednesday Friday Adams is one of the main characters
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of the Adam's Family franchise. UM is depicted in the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: comics that first debuted in nine in the New Yorker
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: UM and TV shows, films, and a musical. If you
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: don't know, at the core, the Adams family is sort
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of a wacky, creepy, out cast family of gothy kind
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of monster adjacent folks. UM. There's sort of like the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Halloween version of something like The Bradies. So Wednesday's parents
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: are Morticia and Gomez Adams, and she is the older
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: sister to Pugsley and Pubert Adams, though the ages and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: order has changed a lot. Um And Yeah, she was
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: named after the nursery rhyme line Wednesday's child is full
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of Woe. Over the years, she has been played by
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: several people, from Lisa Loring, Christina Valenzuela, Nicole Faguereko, Grace Monetz,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Christina Ricci, and now Gino Ortega. She's usually depicted as
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: having pale skin, dark hair and braided pigtails, black clothes,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: and just a general goffy look, although that's not always
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: true but kind of generally right yeah uh and this
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: has also sparked conversation about Latina representation because generally, but
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: not always, Gomez has been played by Latino actor, but
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: it was never really a big piece of his identity.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Um And while people were excited for Otaga on the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: new show, the same is true for her character Um
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and her very sympathetic ancestor Goody in the show is
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: a white settler with blonde hair, and many argue should
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: have been a Mesoamerican or indigenous person instead. And on
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: top of that, a lot of the bullies who admittedly
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: were redeemed but still were the few black characters in
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the show a right, so, including owning a pilgrim world,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: which was like yes uh. Depending on the creators and actors,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the character has changed in its depiction, but a few
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: things generally remained the same. For instance, when she was
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: first introduced in the nineteen sixties show as a six
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: year old girl, people argue about her age all the time.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: She was fascinated with the macabre. Uh, and that's in
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: a constant theme of her character. However, some iterations of
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: her have been sweeter than what most of us probably
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: would expect, definitely in the context of the rest of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: her family. She was the quote nice one in these
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: early versions. In the nineties movie series, though she was
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: meaner and you'll have to talk about this Savantha. She
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: also typically has a strong protective streak with her family,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: though she might try to hide or deny it. However,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: there are plenty of instances where she really really punishes
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: people who disrespect her family. In the twenty nine teen movie,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: she's nice to those who don't bother her, but not
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: so much to those who do. Um, and she usually
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: has some kind of scientist or sleuth angle going on.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: She's always either doing in experiment or she's always on
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a case of something um. And the ones that I
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: do remember is she does love punishing her brother slash,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: playing quote unquote with her brother, but it's typically like
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: trying to dismember him or trying to electrocute him or
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: trying to explode him. Um, and he loves it pasically
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: just loves it. Um. However, Yeah, but if he tried
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: to mess with her or try to tease her, She's
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: gonna come at you. The two difference with Ricchie and Ortega.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: The Ortega character is a lot more. I feel like
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: she would be actually on the spectrum character of like
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: being so hyper focused and so like over the top,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: like unable to ex stude emotions as where Richie's character
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: just didn't want to. It was kind of like those
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: One felt like a choice. One felt like a diagnosis.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: If you can, if you can go there, right, that's
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: a court of the episode. Well do you remember, like
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: when did you see the nineties movie? Oh, I was
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: definitely younger. It's definitely during the times of it was
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: after I want to say Casper, which we all loved
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: everything because Devin Sawa, we love Devin Salwa, and then
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: like fell fell in love with the ghost. Apparently I
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: was pretty young. I was eleven, and Christina Richie would
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: have been eleven as well. I think we're saying ay.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: And by the way, I do love the resurgence of
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Christina Ricci coming back full swing into the acting world
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: because she's always been great to me. Um. So the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: three films that I know her best are The Adam's Family, Casper,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and Now and Then. So for me, uh, I think
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Now and Then was the big one because that was
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: specifically made for I think young girls. But then like, yeah,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: she was Adam's Family first and then the other two.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: But what I do remember is like, even though you
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: had big names like Angelica Houston, Christopher Lloyd, as in fact,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: one of the movies were based on Christopher Lloyd coming
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: back to the family, Christina Ricci always always pulled the focus,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: whether it was uh, she was the one I think
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: investigating Christopher Lloyd actually his character who plays um Uncle Fester,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: who loses his memory and comes back to the family.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: So it's like she was the focus for all the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: movies even though other big name characters were on it
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: as well, and she was fairly new for that. So
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: that's what I do remember, and her characters were always
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: like pointed, like it was dark and mysterious, but it
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: was her character, those big eyes. It worked for her.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and I would agree, like, again, I haven't
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: seen it, but what I felt like when I think
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of those movies, all the images I remember, all the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: like random quotes I've heard people say are from Wednesday, UM,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: And I had to resist just reading a bunch of
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: quotes because that character it just bangs them out like yes, yes,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a witty one liner, like stings and walks away. Yes,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: it's amazing, Yes it is. And that's kind of the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: thing why people love this character so much, because she
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: has been the source of a lot of feminist articles um,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and so many people over the years have caused played her.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I the second I saw this new show, I was like, oh, yeah,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: next year at dragon Con, this is it. This is
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: gonna be huge, all of them. Yes, yeah, and I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: mean there's like iconic looks. I get it, um. And
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I do think one of the reasons she really resonated
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: with a lot of people, and a lot of women
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and girls is that she is the opposite of how
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: young girls are typically portrayed in our media, which we've
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: talked about a lot in the show, like there are
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: so many juxtapositions with her because pigtails, for instance, are
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: usually associated with innocent young girls. Um, but she does
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: not behave that way. She doesn't mave how you expect.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: She leans into the strange. She is quote not emotional,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: which will return to in a minute. But she's just
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: kind of like the opposite of what we're used to
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: seeing and much of our media when it comes to
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: that type of character um from Black Girl Nerds, specifically
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: about the nineties version of this character. Quote, she's not nice,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: she's not sweet, and she's not sorry. Wednesday Adams is blunt, cynical, sarcastic,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and has the most enviable, resting bitch face, none of
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: which she has any intention of apologizing for. That's right,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: when unsuspecting people doll out the usual garbage of you
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: should smile more at Wednesday asserts herself firmly and defiantly
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: refuses to smile on command, a brilliant example for every
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: young girl told to make herself look friendly and approachable,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: because God forbid, women appear the least bit intimidating. Although
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: she has white cis presumably straight female. She doesn't use
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: her privilege as an excuse, but rather as a tool
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to amplify the voices of those who find it much
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: harder to be heard. And then this is from bitch Flicks.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: What does it mean to be a little girl? There's
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: so much cultural baggage associated with female childhood. On the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: one hand, little girls are pure and innocent and needing
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of protection though the emotional backdrop of a thousand action movies.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: The father must get home and save his darling little girl.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, little girls are threatening, They're creepy,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: They're the demons of a thousand horror movies. The family
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: union must save itself from the implications of a terrifying
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: little girl who wants to destroy them. And then there's
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Wednesday Adams. She's another thing entirely, and Wednesday is still
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: really really threatening, that's right. Threatening. Part of why I
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: loved these movies so much as a kid was because Wednesday,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: far from being a delicate flower or even playing second
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: fiddle to her brother, is arguably the most dangerous character
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: in the whole story. She has a sense of apathy
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and morbid misery mixed in with a violent streak and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: superhuman strength. She's very threatening, especially to everyone she views
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: as well. That's right. I would say that if she
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: fears anything, it's becoming normal. And that's a powerful message,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the idea that the biggest thing we have to fear
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: is not abnormality, but the loss of what makes us distinct.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: It's especially poignant coming from Wednesday because what makes her
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: distinct is so well distinctive. Yess yes, And as we said,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: she's she's very very antisocial, and she has so many
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: great dark dark at one liners, and it's kind of
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: comical and entertaining to see a young girl rejects so
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: much of societal norms to talk about these huge literary figures,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to quote them like it's it was funny to see
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the objectiposition of her and her roommate, who a lot
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: of people shipped by the way in the new show. Yeah,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: apparently Ortega does it too. I don't know if she's
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: just like feeding into the frenzy, but it may, you know.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: One of the things that think is interesting because in
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: what I remember at the movies, and someone who can
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: correct me, but there is a really problematic scene in
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: which they are playing um Native Americans and cowboys essentially,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: but Winds they makes this comment about how the Pilgrims
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: slaughtered essentially all of the Native Americans and it is
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: their fault that they brought in disease and like they
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: traded their man Like she says this, and everybody's like,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: oh my god, you know, like making a committed scene.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: As well as the fact that in the New Wednesday
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: they talk about the problematical issues with chocolate and how
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: they used enslaved peoples and the Germans used enslaved people
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: to gather all this chocolate and massacred whole community for chocolate.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: And I found that funny because like, these are the
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: things that we know Wins they does. He's going to
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: take what white people and essentially it is white people
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: would want as a celebration to be decimated with the truth,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: like the level of problematic. Guess she's with that subject
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: that people, the white people were trying to celebrate. So
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I did appreciate those things. That was a couple of
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the things that like poked out him online when it
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: comes to the fact that she was making sure you
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: knew the truth whether you liked it or not. Yeah, Yeah,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And that's kind of one of the things that I
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: think is really interesting about this character, and when I
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: think so many people like her and she doesn't so
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: many of us for reasons we've talked about, for reasons
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I totally understand, and I've done, like you you do
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: that thing for safety, like you're like, oh, I don't
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: want to speak up because it's not safe for me
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: to do. So it's fun to watch a character be
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: like no, and she's dangerous, like they said, like you
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: don't mess with her. So it's really like rewarding to
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: kind of get to live that moment of all I
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: wish I could do that, like, oh yeah, really live it.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: And then I do love so many things aimed at
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: teenage girl rolls, and I think this is changing, and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: it has been changing for a while, but for so
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: long was just like so focused on the romance part
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and so focused on like the thing she'd be writing
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: in her diary is, oh, why won't this guy notice me?
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: That's like the last thing in her mind. It's not
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: that she's like if something comes her way, she's not
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: kind of interested, but that's just not her thing, like
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the bet on the back burner. She's got all these
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: other things right that definitely not any one. Wednesday. I
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: didn't care about boys boys right, and I I appreciate that.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I appreciate I liked seeing the comparison of her like
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: her in the roommate where the roommates like I have
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: my blog and I'm writing about this and this and this,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and Wednesday is just like the typewriter this thing. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Um.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Here is a quote from the Guardian, especially for a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: teenager with a kid friendly rating. Wednesday speaks with the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: critical self awareness and acumen of your textbook by ronic hero,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: a literately architect commonly associated with Heathcliff of Emily Bronte's
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Weathering Heights, or more recently Gossip Girls, Chuck Bass and
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: even Sylfie. There You're clever, morose, condescending types and dangerously
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: blessed with irresistible good looks and saddled the baggage of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: past trauma. Wednesday's trauma is the death of her pet Scorpion,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: who was murdered when she was six. She's since abowed
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to never cry again. That was hard and whats mean?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I did? I want to come back and talk about
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: this because a lot of articles have come out about
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: because of the popularity of the show about why we
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: love women who hate us. Um, So I do want
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: to go back and talk about the Lord. No, I
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: think it'll be interesting. I think be funny. Um. I
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: would argue in the new show she is somewhat of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: what a mainstream media person would call Mary Sue. I
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: have a whole lot of thoughts about this, and you
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: can listen to our past episode about that. But like
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: good at everything other than human interaction. Uh, and everyone
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: loves her, but again, I don't think there's anything wrong
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: with that necessarily and does get away with that Scott
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: free without a sexist moniker being attached to them, So
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: just to put that out there. She also has like
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: psychic powers, which I think has gone off and on
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: throughout her her run. She can play the cello, can
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: speak multiple languages, confence, She's pretty awesome and in an
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Archer in all of the movies Archer. Yeah, you're right. Uh.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: One thing that they didn't really resolve in this season
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: of the show. I haven't seen any of the other things,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and I saw some people kind of complain about this,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: But there was a tense mother daughter relationship in the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: show where Wednesday did not want to be like her
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: mother kind of felt pressured to be like her, very
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: much like a teenage pushing away, don't want to do it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I'm um, I've heard that that's that was kind of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a departure. Yeah, that's never a thing. The mother never
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: really cares and the daughter never really cares for her
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: mother's approval. Actually, everything she did she got her mother's
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: approval essentially. Um and and it's true the Wednesday want
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: she everything she did, mother was proud because it was
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: all that dark and morose type of conversation and they're
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: very proud of that. The only thing that the mother
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: uh Catherine Sanda Jones, which was I did not realize
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: she was going to play this until I watched it, um,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: is that she wants her daughter's affections. Yeah. That's not
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a thing right in the other movies kind of separates
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the two of the most agely. Yeah. Yeah, so we
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: could come back and maybe talk about that uh later.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I do also think this is an interesting uh in
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: that activists around the world where you unfortunately could not
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: be there where I read listener mail Samantha did I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: mentioned to quote about I've seen from a famous author
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: who was saying like Essentially, once you start to break
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: apart characters for that are intended for children audiences, um,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: as an adult, everything falls apart. And I do think
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: this was a really interesting example of where Wednesday's like, well,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: I've been somebody's trying to kill me and I've been
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: like all this stuff of this stuff, and they're like,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: oh great, it's going well, Like it was a it
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: was a fun flip on that that whole idea, and
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: then going back to something you said earlier, there has
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: been discussion about how Wednesday's anti social behaviors could be
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: coded as autism or something on the spectrum. Um, here's
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: another quote from The Guardian. Only when a conventionally beautiful,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: non weird person performs weirdness, is this palatable to quote
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: normal people, According to one comment or the parent of
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: an autistic child actually quote weird people get bullied, sidelined,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: are placed outside of the zone of real friendships. And
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I agree. I think this is one of the reasons
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the character hits with so many people who feel like
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: outcasts in one way or another. But realistically it wouldn't
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: play out like this. Again, making your apart, like as
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: an adult to be fair into this series, specifically the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: very beginning scene which he is expelled from a regular school.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: They are the outcast there. She gets expelled, which that's
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: why her brother gets bullied constantly. She comes to a
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: school for wayward people like people with powers, so that
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: behavior is not so off putting in a school like that.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I think someone with a spectrum that has that she
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: was on the spectrum, as I was saying, I'm like,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: if I was watching this clinically, I would think that
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: she was on the spectrum with high functioning all of
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: these things and more O c D than anything else,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: because her hyperd focus is very obvious, to the point
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that she does not care who she runs over, which
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: was part of the conversation um in that she's in
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: an environment where she success. She's successful because she can
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: do all of these things really really well in a
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: school that is an outsider. So would she have been
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: so outside it? I don't know. Right, that's a good point.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: That's a good point. And I another thing is like
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: she's she's a really fun character, but she is pretty toxic. Like, Okay,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: we're putting in our real world things, right, doesn't necessarily
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: need to be. But she's definitely a friend I would drop,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I would drop her very fun to watch. Um, Christina
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Ricci said of her Wednesday, was allowed to be just
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: who she was. She's never asked to change or compromise
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: or hide who she is. Uh. And actually there's there
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was a whole piece CNN just released yesterday about why
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: in the world did this dance take off so much?
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And that was one of their big points, was like,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: it's because she essentially was she was doing the dance
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: like nobody's watching, but did not care at all. She
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: was being herself absolutely and also retro was coming back here.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: That was like a retro interpretive dance. It was, it was.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: It was very unpredictable. That's what I would say. From Slate,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: here's a quote. Sure, there are problems with this. For one,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: it assumes that stoicism, a more stereotypically masculine trade, is preferred.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: The feminine position on on the emotional gender binary leans
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: toward expressiveness and melodrama, and the cliche that women can't
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: control their emotions and often weaponized against them. How many
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: times have women been deemed too emotional to do something
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: like we're in a country mass swooning of her deadpan
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: women implies that expressive, vivacious women are somehow not in control.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Quite the opposite. There's bravery and merit and being as
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: passionate or allowed as you want to be, knowing it
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: could be spit back at you in some silly gender debate.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: It means someone has the guts to let you know them.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And then one final quote from the Guardian, the enduring
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: appeal of characters like this and admittedly toxic outcast was
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: inherently good intentions is the desire for every weirdo to
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: feel seen on TV. Wednesday's formula may be flawed, but
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: fantasy is the point in an idealized world where you're
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: well timed barbs and lack of interest in others approval
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: made you impervious to bullies and the caretaker of your
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: fellow misfits. Who wouldn't want to be Wednesday atoms Yes, yeah, yep,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: that's what we're kind of talking about, Like, yeah, in
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: this fantasy world would be great if you could just
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: say what you want, protect the misfits fantastic and can
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: shooting yes, and can shooting bow and arrow convience living?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: And she lost though I did like that. That was unpredicted.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: That was not what I expected. Yeah, I liked that too,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: but also yeah, like I like I said, I want
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: to come back and revisit this dead pan woman thing
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: because I don't think it's wrong. I think it's really
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: fun to see a character like this who is stoic
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and all of those things, but there is we can't
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: ignore that. Yeah, that's typically more of a masculine thing,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and this seems like it's a male gaze, and I
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: did like speaking of that, I definitely saw a TikTok
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: and when men right, women being strong literally like stoic,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: dead pan and being angry but like seating but fighting
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: the type of and if you're feminine, that's not a heroine, right, Yeah,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: so we'll have to come back and talk about that.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I do think that these characters are wonderful and I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: think that should be a a fine thing to do,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: but we can't. Yeah, there's so much other stuff, so
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: much other stuff in the background. But yeah, this is
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: a really fun one to research, and I honestly this
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: is a longer one of these episodes and I narrowed
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: it down like a lot of people definitely something about this.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: So maybe we'll come back in one day revisit it.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: There's there's so much out there if you want to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: read more about her. Um, but she's Yeah, she was
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: a fun character to research. I liked it. In the meantime,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I do got a lot of character just coming up.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: But if you've got one that's burning in the back
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: of your brain, listeners, please let us know. You can
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: emails at Stephania Mom Stuff at i heeart media dot com.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at most podcast on
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Instagram at stuff one Never told You. Thanks as always
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: to our super producer, Christina, another incredible woman, Yes indeed,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening Stuff When I ever
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: told you. The production by Heart Radio. For more podcast
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: in my Heart Radio, you can check out the radio
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: app Apple Podcast. Where do you listen to your favorite shows?