Pirates of the Caribbean x American Exceptionalism
Material Girls
Rehak Hannah
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're throwing it back to 2003 with this episode about the beloved swashbuckler hit, Pirates of the Caribbean. Hannah and Marcelle start with a review of the political climate in the early aughts, with a particular focus on 9/11, George W. Bush's presidency and the illegitimate "War on Terror." Marcelle offers some details about the Disneyland ride that inspired the franchise, the film's production challenges, and the film's eventual success. Together, Hannah and Marcelle consider Pirates of the Caribbean's unexpected box office success in relation to American Exceptionalism and the United States' invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Join us for a ride as we delve into American imperialism, the allure of piracy, the appeal of Jack Sparrow (the anti-hero) and Will Turner (the good guy gone rogue), and the enduring popularity of this film released over two decades ago!
To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back in two weeks with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Patreon is how we produce the show and pay our team! Thanks again to all of you who have already made the leap to join us there! We're currently doing a Patreon push, so please consider joining today to get all our extra perks, along with the backlog of bonuses!
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Material Girls is a show that aims to make sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.
*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is really interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey coach, I have a pop quiz for you. Okay, I love a pop quiz. |
| 0:08.2 | What would hypothetically a listener to this podcast be unlocking if, say, they headed over to |
| 0:20.3 | patreon.com slash a witch, please. |
| 0:22.5 | Oh, my God. |
| 0:23.3 | Well, for themselves, if they just joined right now at $5. |
| 0:26.3 | Just for themselves, in a purely selfish way. |
| 0:29.0 | Yeah, purely for themselves, they would be getting bloopers from our episodes, |
| 0:33.6 | which I have to say are usually very crass and very fun. |
| 0:36.5 | Very silly. |
| 0:37.2 | Very silly. Very silly. |
| 0:38.2 | They would be getting ad-free episodes. |
| 0:40.9 | They would be receiving material concerns episodes part two, which is usually a little bit goofier. |
| 0:46.9 | Mm-hmm. |
| 0:47.7 | And they would also be getting our mini episodes with our guests in the zeitgeist, |
| 0:52.4 | where our guests tell us when they were most in |
| 0:54.6 | the zeitgeist. Oh, yeah. And sometimes it's a real surprise answer. Like, we asked a recent |
| 1:01.7 | guest about a time when he was in the zeitgeist, and his answer was world historical on a level. |
| 1:07.6 | I don't think we were anticipating. He was like an historic, yeah, at a historical moment. |
| 1:12.1 | We were like, oh, most people just say like clogs. |
| 1:16.3 | But yeah, you got to go unlock those. |
| 1:18.8 | So yeah, did I pass the test? |
| 1:20.5 | You absolutely did. A plus 100 out of 10. |
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