Rehash

Weebs… and the people who hate them. Japan has always had a distinctive relationship with the West. But ever since it broke out on the global stage with its “gross national cool” - distributing an array of films, shows, video games, and toys the world over, Westerners have taken on a particular fascination with the country. To the point that an entire Western subculture has formed around an interest… or rather obsession, with all things Japanese. In this episode, Hannah and Maia track how the weeb was born - from the radical DIY origins of manga and otaku, to the fedora-wearing white Redditors of today who hump h*ntai body pillows. But the question remains: Is a weeb a person who simply attends anime conventions and enjoys a vast knowledge of Japan, or a gooner with a Japan fetish? OR does this binary really exist at all? Listen to find out.  Get a whole month of great cinema FREE: mubi.com/rehash Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Anne Allison, “The Japan Fad in Global Youth Culture and Millennial Capitalism,” Mechademia. 1, Emerging worlds of anime and manga, (2006). Hannah Ewens, We Asked J-Culture Fans to Defend Being ‘Weeaboos’” Vice (2017). Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World, ed. Mizuko Ito and Daisuke Okabe, Yale University Press (2012). Sharon Kinsella, “Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement,” The Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1998). Andrew Leonard, “Heads Up, Mickey,” Wired (1995). Susan Napier, “The World of Anime Fandom in America” Mechademia: Second Arc, Vol. 1, (2006). Joseph Tobin, Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon, Duke University Press (2004). Theresa Winge, “Costuming the Imagination: Origins of Anime and Manga Cosplay,” Mechademia: Second Arc, Vol. 1, Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga (2006).

Ever since Serial burst onto the scene back in 2015 , it birthed not only the world of podcasting itself, but an entire cottage industry of true crime podcasts, each one more ethically dubious than the last. But one such podcast may be, at least by title, the very worst: My Favorite Murder. This wildly popular series has been criticized over the years for its flippant water-cooler recounting of people’s real life traumas. And while My Favorite Murder made efforts to correct some of its wrongs, it has facilitated an avid online fandom called Murderinos, comprised mostly of self-proclaimed mentally ill girlies who have grown so prominent on the internet as to embody their own subculture. In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the bizarre formation of this alt-girl army, question arbitrary lines drawn in the true crime sand, and ponder whether shame is sometimes a good thing. Tangents include: Hannah and Maia undergoing public couple’s therapy, and Hannah’s coining of the term “shame-negative’.  Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

If you never made your FB profile picture that “I made you a cookie, but I eated it :(“ meme in 2008, were you even living? In this episode, Hannah and Maia recall the long lost emo subculture - which took the world by storm in the mid aughts and fell quickly into obscurity thereafter. Emo emerged as a musical non-genre from the DIY hardcore punk scenes of San Fran and Detroit, and two decades later  it would transform into completely unrecognizable pop punk radio hits resounding in every mall you ever walked into. But thanks to the no-holds-barred, cost-effective utopias that were MySpace and LiveJournal, it seemed the emo subculture was stronger than ever - as socially-anxious teens bonded over their love for Pete Wentz and their own self-loathing. What could possibly go wrong? Are subcultures a form of teenage sovereignty? And do we have Twilight because of 9/11? Listen, for these pressing questions and more. Tangents include: Hannah’s parents’ perfect marriage, Orson Welles vs. Woody Allen beef, and Maia’s online relationship with Gerard Way.  Get a whole month of great cinema FREE: mubi.com/rehash Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Peter C. Baker, “When Emo Conquered the Mainstream” New Yorker (2023). Tom Connick, “The beginner’s guide to the evolution of emo” NME (2018). M. Douglas Daschuk, “Messageboard Confessional: Online Discourse and the Production of the "Emo Kid"” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Vol. 54, Knowledge Production and Expertise (2010). Judith May Fathallah, Emo: How Fans Defined a Subculture, University of Iowa Press (2020). Andy Greenwald, Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo, St. Martin’s Publishing (2003). Rosemary Overell, “Emo online: networks of sociality/networks of exclusion,” Perfect Beat (2011). Dan Ozzi, Sellout: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore, Mariner (2021). Carla Zdanow and Bianca Wright, The Representation of Self Injury and S*icide on Emo Social Networking Groups” African Sociological Review, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2012).

Ever heard of the Disney theme park for adults called “Pleasure Island”? No? Well now you have - sorry! Disney has always been understood as a company for children. But Pleasure Island closed in 2003, and people are having babies later and later (if ever at all), and so now the Disney theme parks have become a veritable playground for a whole new group of fans: grown ups. In this episode, Hannah and Maia talk about Disney adults - their malignment by the general public, their strange religiosity, and their unabashed love of a conglomerate that routinely tramples on the rights of its workers. But, after all, Disney was designed to be a a nostalgic teet from which lost adult souls may suck. So why is it that when adults like Disney, we hate them for it? Tangents include: Hannah’s dm correspondence with Deux Moi, and Maia’s millennial rights advocacy.  Get a whole month of great cinema FREE: mubi.com/rehash Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Johnny Oleksinski, “Sorry, childless millennials going to Disney World is weird.” The New York Post. Zach Gass, “Pleasure Island: The Origins of Disney’s Nightlife” Inside The Magic. Michael Sorkin, “See You in Disneyland” Design Quarterly  (1992). Sarah Marshall, “The Magic Kingdom: The dark side of the Disney dream” The Baffler (2019). Xavier Guillaume Singh, “Becoming A ‘Disney Adult’ Might Be Cringe, But It Saved My Life” Huffington Post (2023). EJ Dickson, “How ‘Disney Adults’ Became The Most Hated Group On The Internet” Rolling Stone (2022). Jodi Eichler-Levine, “Don’t judge Disney adults. Try to understand them.” NBC (2022). Hannah Sampson, “Childless millennials are passionately defending their Disney fandom” The Washington Post (2019). K.J. Yossman, “Confessions of Disney Adults: Mouse House Superhans Talk Splurging on Merch, Keeping Execs in Check” Variety  (2023). Todd Martens, “In defense of Disney adults” Los Angeles Times  (2024). Amelia Tate, “The ‘Disney adult’ industrial complex” The New Statesman  (2024). Lia Picard, “It’s Not Enough to Love Disney. They Want to Live Disney” The New York Times  (2023). Savannah Martin, “We interviewed the genius girl behind DisneyBound - and she’s just as magical as you’d expect” Hello Giggles (2015).