Queer Eye x Cruel Optimism
Material Girls
Rehak Hannah
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2023
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What makes the Fab Five so fab? In this episode, Hannah leads Marcelle through a discussion of contemporary masculinities and their commodification via pop culture! They talk neo-liberalism, self-care discourse and the interplay of Trump's rise to power and "reaching across the aisle" through entertainment. Hannah pulls on theory from the late Lauren Berlant for a lesson on intimate publics and 'cruel optimism.'
This episode is for you if you:
- watched the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
- enjoy the reboot of Queer Eye
- hate the reboot
- think Antoni is a hunk
- don't think Antoni is a hunk
- care about the commodification of progressive ideals
If you like this episode, please share it with family and friends! Word-of-mouth is the primary way we reach new listeners who are interested in feminist materialist critique, pop culture and laughing at and from within *the discourse.* Share the show today!
***
Material Girls is a new 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.
We'll be back in two weeks for another episode, but until then, be sure to check out all the bonus content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease. You can learn more about the show at ohwitchplease.ca and on our instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Want more from us? Check out our website ohwitchplease.ca.
*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.
Music Credits:
“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020
Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh-oh-oh-oh! |
| 0:15.2 | I need a minute to find |
| 0:17.1 | I need a rear brake |
| 0:18.7 | I want to take a ride on a mini train |
| 0:22.1 | You can have it all |
| 0:24.8 | At the shopping |
| 0:30.0 | Hello and welcome to Material Girls, a scholarly podcast about popular culture. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm Hannah McGregor, and I'm Marcel Cosman, and Hannah, I have a question for you. |
| 0:41.8 | Go right ahead. |
| 0:42.6 | Okay, a few listeners have asked very, very reasonably. |
| 0:46.7 | What exactly we mean when we say that we are doing a materialist critique of something. |
| 0:52.1 | So I'm going to put you on the spot. Could you just explain that in a nutshell, please? |
| 0:56.7 | So materialist critique at its simplest possible level is a form of cultural critique. |
| 1:03.7 | So that's kind of like scholarly engagement with the cultural text of some kind. |
| 1:09.6 | Critique is not like saying it's bad. It's just like thinking about it. Yeah. |
| 1:13.7 | And talking about it. Yeah. And writing about it. Yeah. |
| 1:17.3 | You know, that's tough. So it's a form of cultural critique. That is specifically |
| 1:22.7 | interested in things like modes of production. So like how the thing was made. |
| 1:28.4 | Contacts of reception. So like what people made of the thing that was made. And the larger |
| 1:35.2 | historical and ideological contexts for stuff like production and reception. So you would |
| 1:42.3 | distinguish it as a scholar from formalist critique, which is like really interested in |
| 1:50.4 | close textual analysis of the thing itself regardless of its particular moment of context. |
... |
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