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PODCAST

Paranormal Pajama Party

Isn"t it weird how often the horrors in our favourite scary stories tend to look a lot like, uh… ladies? Join me as I dig up the social and cultural contexts behind classic ghost stories and legends to challenge the often one-dimensional portrayal of women in horror.

society & culture social sciences

All Episodes

30:57

Mermaids, Part 2: From Killers to Disney Princesses

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/08/31

Send me a text message! For thousands of years, mermaids were apex predators whose voices could kill. Then somewhere between Homer's bone-littered shores and Disney's underwater utopia, something fundamental changed. How did creatures who used their voices as weapons become princesses who'd sacrifice that voice for a boyfriend? In this second part of our mermaid deep-dive (pardon the pun), we trace the evolution from ancient sirens to modern Disney princesses, exploring how Christianity sexua...

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23:12

Mermaids, Part 1: The Indifferent Deep

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/08/17

Send me a text message! A Scottish lord hears a woman drowning in his loch. Every instinct tells him to dive in and save her. But his servant grabs his arm: "My lord, that's no woman." This is the mermaid most of human history has feared – not Disney's lovestruck princess, but something far more alien and dangerous. What's truly wild is how universal these stories are. From Brazil's Iara to Japan's Ningyo, from Scotland's selkies to Africa's Mami Wata, cultures worldwide independently created...

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39:36

The Women of “Dracula”, Part 2: Patriarchy Bites

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/06/15

Send me a text message!This isn't just a vampire story; it's a chilling exposé of Victorian anxieties. In part two of our series on the women of “Dracula”, the Paranormal Pajama Party podcast plunges deeper into Bram Stoker's classic, exploring how it grapples with female power, intellectual authority, and the fragile state of masculinity.We spend the night with the ravenous Brides of Dracula to learn what their unbridled desire suggests about society's fears of female sexuality

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32:36

The Women of “Dracula”, Part 1: Lucy Westenra and...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/06/01

Send me a text message! Think you know “Dracula”? Think again. In this first part of our two-part deep dive into the world's most famous vampire novel, we're sinking our teeth into the real monsters of the story – and spoiler alert, it's not the Count. Join Steph as she explores how “Dracula” reflects Victorian society's collective panic over the “New Woman” movement and female sexual autonomy. We'll unpack the tragic arc of Lucy Westenra, the novel's golden girl whose fatal flaw isn't her be...

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37:07

Hagsploitation: “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” | 33

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/04/27

Send me a text message!In this spine-tingling episode, we watch the 1962 psychological thriller "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and dive deep into the hagsploitation film subgenre it spawned. When Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford found themselves discarded by studios as they aged, they turned to horror – creating a film that both exploited and empowered ageing women in cinema.We explore how society's fear of ageing women transforms them into monstrous figures on

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37:37

The White Witch of Rose Hall: Annie Palmer and Madame...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/04/13

Send me a text message! What do the White Witch of Jamaica’s Rose Hall and New Orleans tour staple Madame LaLaurie have in common? They're both infamous female figures in ghost lore, accused of monstrous violence during the era of slavery. But dig a little deeper, and a more disturbing truth emerges. Annie Palmer – the so-called White Witch – never existed, and Delphine LaLaurie’s real crimes were reshaped into gothic horror for public consumption. In this episode, we unpack how gendere...

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30:36

Botan Dōrō: Love, Death, and Samurai

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2025/02/23

Send me a text message! Join me to examine one of Japan's most influential ghost stories – Botan Dōrō (The Peony Lantern). This tale of love beyond death helped establish the archetype of the long-haired vengeful female ghost in Japanese horror. When handsome samurai Shinzaburō falls for the beautiful Otsuyu, their love seems destined for tragedy. Unluckily for him, even death won't keep them apart. We'll explore how this story evolved from a Chinese Buddhist morality tale into a cornerstone ...

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38:07

Wise Wives and Witch Hunts: The Women Scotland Burned

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/12/08

Send me a text message!This episode of "Paranormal Pajama Party" is spine-chilling – but not because of the paranormal parts.We're headed back to Scotland to discuss the North Berwick Witch Trials – a dark chapter of history that inspired Shakespeare's most infamous witches and exposed the terrifying mechanisms of patriarchal violence. Meet Agnes Sampson, Gilleis Duncan, and Euphame MacCalzean – three women caught in a deadly web of royal paranoia, religious persecution, and systemic misogyny...

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26:17

Monsters and Morals: Vengeance, Virtue, and Emotional...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/11/24

Send me a text message!What do a trickster forest goblin, a horse-faced seductress, a desert phantom, and a deer-footed avenger have in common? They’re not just the stuff of nightmares – they’re symbols of women as society’s moral guardians.In this episode of “Paranormal Pajama Party”, you’ll meet the Shishiga, the Siguanaba, Umm al-Duwais, and the Deer Woman – female monsters tasked with warning, protecting, and punishing men who transgress societal moral codes. These ladies, while terrifying, are

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29:24

Historical Horror: Chloe, Cleo, and the Myrtles...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/11/10

Send me a text message!Welcome to America's Most Haunted House... or is it? Tonight, we’re partying at the Myrtles Plantation, where the famous ghost of an enslaved girl named Chloe is said to roam the halls.But as we unpack this classic Southern ghost story, we'll discover something far more unsettling than any supernatural presence – the way America uses ghost tourism to process (or avoid processing) its history of slavery.From gift shop dolls of murdered enslaved people to invented

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44:46

Hillary Clinton and the Lizard People

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/10/27

Send me a text message!Hillary Clinton and the Lizard People | 27 Put on your tinfoil hat and grab your favourite pantsuit – “Paranormal Pajama Party” is back! In the Season 3 premiere, Steph connects the dots between confused Victorian lemur scientists and modern-day conspiracy theories about lizard people running the world. (It makes more sense than you'd think.)Join us for a wild ride through the peculiar world of reptilian conspiracies, where we discover how theories about shape-shif...

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1:30

Ladies, Listen to This Before You Build Your Crow Army

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/10/20

Send me a text message!I get it. It’s hard to be a woman. Almost as hard as it is to be a monster.Get ready for a spine-tingling third season of Paranormal Pajama Party!This fortnightly podcast explores folklore and the horror genre with a feminist twist. Each episode uncovers chilling tales of female phantoms, femme fatales, and supernatural beings, shedding light on the societal fears that often shape these spooky stories.From haunted houses to vengeful spirits, Paranormal Pajama Party shoves a

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55:02

“Aliens”: Game Over, Men – Game Over

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/09/01

Send me a text message!In this thrilling conclusion to our two-part series on the “Alien” franchise, Paranormal Pajama Party dissects the 1986 classic sequel, "Aliens."We’re talking about Ellen Ripley’s groundbreaking portrayal of a female action hero and feminist icon, considering the ethics of care in Ripley's decision-making, and contrasting it with traditional male action heroes like Arnold.But Ripley’s not alone in the “Alien” universe, which is the best part. We’ll examine the

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29:13

“Alien”: In Space, No One Can Hear Dudes Scream

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/08/18

Send me a text message!*MASSIVE CONTENT WARNING FOR THIS ONE:* This episode contains well as explicit descriptions of fictional sexual violence that is 100% a metaphor for real-world sexual violence, plus discussion of pregnancy, extremely traumatic births, death in childbirth, and abortion. Please listen with care.On this episode of Paranormal Pajama Party, we’re unpacking Ridley Scott's 1979 classic, "Alien," and its groundbreaking feminist themes. This episode explores how the film cleverl...

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35:02

Green Ladies and Glaistigs: Sex Sells in Scotland

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/08/04

Send me a text message!This week on Paranormal Pajama Party, we're heading to Scotland to meet its green ladies and glaistigs.Discover the tragic tale of Dame Lilias Drummond, whose ghostly presence still haunts Fyvie Castle centuries after her untimely death. Learn about the protective yet mischievous nature of glaistigs, the goat-legged women who guard cattle and castles alike. Uncover the dark histories behind other famous green lady hauntings, including those at Crathes Castle and Longlea...

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33:32

Rangda: Queen of the Demons

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/07/28

Send me a text message!This episode explores the complex figure of Rangda, a fearsome demon queen in Balinese mythology.Tourists may be familiar with Rangda’s frightening face, as a version of a ritual dance based on the Balinese myth of the widow-witch Calon Arang is popular at Bali’s many resorts.But Rangda is a much more complex figure than these simplified and shortened performances may lead you to believe. She’s an important player in the key Balinese concept of “rwa bhineda” – unity in duality

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29:33

The Cult of True Womanhood: “The Fall of the House of...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/07/21

Send me a text message!This episode is the long-promised part two of our exploration of “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was doing his thing In 19th-century America, at a time middle- and upper-class white women were being encouraged to join the "Cult of True Womanhood", which idealised women as pious, pure, submissive, and domestic, confining them to the private sphere while men dominated public life. It’s all very tradwife.Tonight on the podcast, we’ll examine how

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41:01

"What Happens Next?": Are Reproductive Rights Human...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/07/07

Send me a text message!Paranormal Pajama Party is pro-self-care. I mean, come on. Pajamas are right there in the name.To be kind to myself this week, I'm not releasing a new episode. Instead, I'm sharing an episode I wrote and produced for the other podcast I make – the one people actually pay me for.This is Monash University's What Happens Next?, episode 79: "Are Reproductive Rights Human Rights?". You'll never guess what the answer is. (You will, they are, please vote this November if you'r...

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56:15

Beautiful Dead Women: “The Fall of the House of...

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/06/30

Send me a text message!When you think horror, you think of Edgar Allan Poe. His stories go hard on the eerie atmosphere, intricate plots, and unhinged characters.But it’s important to note that most of those characters are men. And among Poe’s female characters, two recurring traits stand out prominently: they’re usually beautiful, and they’re usually dead.This episode explores Poe's fixation with beautiful dead women, tracing it back to his tumultuous life and personal losses, including those

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26:58

“Malleus Maleficarum”: Incels and Modern Witch Hunts

Paranormal Pajama Party ·

2024/06/23

Send me a text message!The dark history of witch hunts has some unsettling parallels with modern misogynistic violence. Tonight’s episode continues our discussion on Heinrich Kramer’s witch-hunting manual, the “Malleus Maleficarum”, with a critical look at its legacy, especially as it relates to incel culture and the manosphere.We’ll examine the parallels between Kramer's misogynistic beliefs and the 2014 Isla Vista killings by Elliot Rodger, exploring the roots of violent ideologies in both

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