Book 4, Ep. 7 | Monstrous Women with Jess Zimmerman
Material Girls
Rehak Hannah
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2021
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode we are joined by author Jess Zimmerman (she/they) to discuss the history of monstrous representation in cultural texts across history. Jess, who recently published a wonderful book, Women and Other Monsters, offers her vast knowledge about Greek mythology and metaphor to our investigation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We ask questions like: what makes monsters monstrous? How do representations of femininity get used to characterize monstrous threats to "the hero" of our journey? Why is Fleur's "Veela blood" both monstrous and eroticized, while Madame Maxine's "Giant blood" only the former? And how do Molly Weasley's fits of anger fit into this feminist reading?
Tune in for a powerful new way to read some of the series' most beloved and interesting women characters.
Follow Jess Zimmerman on Twitter @j_zimms and scoop her book at any local bookstore or online! And be sure to follow Witch, Please on Twitter @ohwitchplease and Instagram and let us know what you think of the episode. Join our Patreon for exclusive content including bonus interviews, Q&As, Watch Alongs and more — our tiers range from $2-$13!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Witch Please, a Fortnightly podcast about the Harry Potter world. |
| 0:15.9 | I'm Hannah McGregor, and I'm Marcel Cosmon, coming to you from the Land of Dinosaurs, |
| 0:22.7 | Drum Heller, Alberta, and just to be clear, it's just me who's in Drum Heller. |
| 0:27.9 | It's not like a, it's not a reunion. |
| 0:32.0 | I wish. I wish because first, I love dinosaurs, and second, this is a very |
| 0:37.3 | appropriate recording location for today's episode, which is going to focus on |
| 0:41.6 | monstrous women in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and obviously my favorite monstrous |
| 0:46.6 | women of all time are the Lady Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. |
| 0:50.6 | But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about other kinds of monstrous women, |
| 1:00.5 | and here to help us untangle this Medusa's hair of a topic, I don't think that's a very good |
| 1:07.4 | metaphor, but I'm going with it. It's special guest Jess Zimmerman. Hi Jess! Hi Jess. Hi guys. |
| 1:16.3 | Jess, pronouns she they, is an editor at Quirk Books, a freelance writer, and the author of |
| 1:21.9 | the brand new book Women and Other Monsters, published with Beacon Press this very year, |
| 1:28.7 | and it's really good. Welcome Jess. Thank you so much for having me. I wish I were in the Land |
| 1:33.2 | of Dinosaurs, but at least I can live vicariously. I may be in the Land of Dinosaurs, |
| 1:38.3 | but Jess, you are a published author of a book with a beautiful cover, and we all know |
| 1:44.0 | that that is how we judge books. And I really want to have an entire conversation about the fact |
| 1:49.2 | that the cover is green, but we're going to head straight into the sorting chat. Well, let's start |
| 1:54.0 | off the sorting chat with our standard guest question. Jess, what is your relationship if any |
| 2:02.1 | to the Harry Potter series? So I don't have a ton of relationship with it because I am like |
| 2:09.3 | very, very old for internet years. I am now at the age where I'm older than everybody on the internet. |
| 2:16.6 | So Harry Potter actually came out when I was in high school just going into college, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rehak Hannah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Rehak Hannah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.