Pop DNA Rhonda Watts and Erin O'Loughlin

If you thought we were going to let it slide that Depression Barbie's comfort show is the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice, you thought wrong.

We're digging in to some possible literary inspirations and parallels for the Barbie movie, looking specifically at Christian/Catholic creation theology and how much Greta Gerwig may have been influenced by the work of Jane Austen. We also talk about who we would choose if we could recast Ken, and follow up with a coda to our discussion of gender dynamics in Barbie Land from last week.

Further Reading:

Barbie Land as Garden of Eden

Rolling Stone Greta Gerwig Interview

For updates on Rhonda's book, follow here



Pop DNA is taking a brief break, and we will be back in early May with a Bonus Episode! Stay tuned!


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We are back from a long, semi-unplanned hiatus, but don't worry, there's still plenty more Barbie to talk about! This week we look at how both Barbie Land and Stereotypical Barbie's perspective in the film explore gender and femininity.

How does Barbie Land fit into the context of women-dominated societies in other fictional works?

How does Barbie as a film both defy and uphold patriarchal beauty standards?

And how does Barbie as a character help us as women and feminine people explore how we can define femininity and identity for ourselves?



Further Reading:

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy

Sci-Fi Movies About All-Female Planets Have a Hidden Agenda -- video essay from Slate

Barbietopia and Feminist Futures: Next Steps on the Heroine’s Journey -- essay by Ivana Milojević

What ‘Barbie’ teaches us about the beauty of growing old -- article by Steve Lopez

Justice for Weird Barbie -- article by Natalie Michie

Books to Read After Watching Barbie -- post by Rhonda



Does anyone want to run our Instagram account? lmk











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Hi Barbies! We have sooooo much to talk about in this three-parter, so we squished some background discussion of fashion dolls and the cultural mythos of Barbie into this first episode. We also have some thoughts on the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the Barbie movie as a capitalist product, and our own experiences playing with Barbies as children. Then we give a brief overview of some other topics we want to dive into in our next two episodes and take a quiz to find out which Barbies we are (but, as happens quite often, the quiz was wrong).

This month we're talking about:


Feminist Utopias, Matriarchies, and Inverted Patriarchies in Fiction
Aging, Gender, and Sexuality as Explored in Barbie
Weird Barbie and Queerness
Parallels with the Works of Jane Austen, Because You Didn't Think Rhonda Was Just Going to Ignore that Depression Barbie's Comfort Show is the 1995 Pride and Prejudice Miniseries, Did You???
and more

Follow us on Instagram I guess but don't expect too much.




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What was supposed to be a fun and light chat about video games this week turned into a philosophical discussion of free will as a player of video games, and how this illusion of choice translates into the choices (or lack thereof) of characters in the TV series of The Last Of Us, especially in terms of gendered actions and decision-making. It's still fun, though, we promise!

Further Exploration:

GamerGate coverage by Aja Romano

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games video series by Anita Sarkeesian

Playing As/Against Violent Women paper by Stefan Schubert

Our episode on femininity and power in fantasy media

Our episode on The Chronicles of Narnia where we discuss Susan and Lucy not fighting in the battle

Vulture piece on patriarchy in the world of TLOU


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This week we are getting apocalyptic! We talk about why we as humans seem to be fascinated with the fall of civilization or even of humanity itself. From the ancient epic of Gilgamesh to several separate HBO shows, our literature and culture are full of stories about humans at the end of the world.

How does The Last of Us explore the human significance of the apocalypse? And what other works of apocalyptic and zombie fiction can we discuss to contextualize what TLOU might be trying to say about humanity? Works we discuss include:


The Epic of Gilgamesh
Revenant myths and legends
The Last Man by Mary Shelley
1984 by George Orwell
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (and the HBO series)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (and the Hulu series)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
Severance by Ling Ma

Follow us on Instagram for more about the literature and commentary we reference.




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Welcome to our first regular episode of 2024! We're kicking the year off with a discussion of the (maybe?) zombie show that everyone was talking about in early 2023.

This week we talk about our first experiences with the world of The Last of Us, discuss the question of whether or not this is in fact a zombie show, and take a quiz to find out which character we are. Then we introduce the ideas we want to explore more in-depth in the next two episodes, such as:


Adapting video games for other media
Gender and the male gaze in video games
Why we love apocalyptic stories
How other works have explored zombies (or zombie-like creatures)
... and more

Take the quiz here.

Follow us on Instagram if that's the sort of thing you like to do.


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