By Emma Russell
Student Life Editor
The Manic Pixie Dream Grrrls podcast, hosted by “two terribly NSFW [Not Safe For Work] feminists,” sophomore Kera Wageley and junior Holly Williams, is a self-proclaimed “biweekly inverted feminist locker room talk,” according to their Instagram page.
“It took us forever to figure out a name. We were on a phone call for like three hours one night just like putting different combinations together and using different name generators,” Wageley said.
“We were looking at a lot of tropes in the media, because we knew we were going to do a culture bit, like watching films and critiquing them from a feminist perspective. So we were looking at movies that really influenced our lives and one thing we had definitely talked about beforehand is that in our friendship it was like the concept of a manic pixie dream girl, and it started out sort of as a joke,” Williams said. “We also wanted to flip it on its head because it’s a trope that’s associated not with confidence or empowerment but by putting riot grrrls into there with three r’s the growling sound, we’re sort of showing off the reclamation of the trope.”
The first two episodes will dive deeper into the analyzation of the name choice. The first episode will be their “inaugural episode” according to both hosts and is going to analyze the manic pixie dream girl trope. The second episode will focus on the history of the riot girl feminist movement.
Both Williams and Wageley share an interest in tarot cards and zodiac signs, and plan to incorporate them both into the show, however they can.
“We have a whole fun bit planned where we’re going to read birth charts of celebrities and have fun with that,” Wageley said.
A birth chart isa map of where all the planets were at the exact moment a person was born. They can be used to help determine the rest of a person’s Zodiac signs, beyond just your sun sign, which is determined just by the month and day on which you were born. Both cohosts described their podcast as being NSFW, believing they should have the freedom to talk about topics without speaking in a way that’s unnatural to them.
“My personal belief, and I believe this is Holly’s belief too, is that vulgarity is the language of the people, and the language of the revolution. I think there’s so much gatekeeping in conversations about feminism and academia, about how we talk or when we talk. I just don’t really agree with all those limitations and policing of someone’s language and self-expression,” Wageley said.
Williams agreed and said “We’re vulgar but in a tasteful way. Feminist locker room talk is how I would describe it, nothing too like graphic but there’s definitely going to be like sexual content on there, current events, sensitive topics, what have you.”
“We’re sort of owning those parts of ourselves that are really f*cking weird and also we know we’re powerful and we own ourselves and our identity as women,” Williams said.
The first episode is out and available for you to listen to now on SoundCloud. If you’re curious about Manic Pixie Dream Grrrls you can follow them on Instagram @manixpixiedreamgrrrls
Featured Photo caption: Manic Pixie Dream Grrrls Logo. Photo Courtesy of Kera Wageley and Holly Williams.