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For thousands of years, mermaids were apex predators whose voices could kill. Then somewhere between Homer's bone-littered shores and Disney's underwater utopia, something fundamental changed. How did creatures who used their voices as weapons become princesses who'd sacrifice that voice for a boyfriend?

In this second part of our mermaid deep-dive (pardon the pun), we trace the evolution from ancient sirens to modern Disney princesses, exploring how Christianity sexualised these water spirits, how the Romantic movement made them tragic, and how capitalism turned them into merchandise. Using ecofeminist theory, we'll unpack how domesticating mermaids mirrors how patriarchal societies have learned to control both women and nature itself.

From Christopher Columbus rating mermaids' attractiveness to Ursula getting penetrated by a phallic ship, this episode reveals how the same systems that oppress people also destroy the environment — and why creatures that refuse binary categorisation make patriarchy very, very nervous.

Key moments

• 0:59 – Sirens on a bone-littered shore
• 6:30 – The siren's voice: From deadly song to sexual temptation
• 7:34 – Mermaids, Christianity, and Christopher Columbus
• 12:30 – Enter Hans Christian Andersen
• 14:48 – Disney's "The Little Mermaid": All heart, no brains
• 17:25 – Ecofeminism and environmental justice
• 22:39 – How dualism maintains oppression
• 25:53 – How boundary-crossers threaten the patriarchy

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A Scottish lord hears a woman drowning in his loch. Every instinct tells him to dive in and save her. But his servant grabs his arm: "My lord, that's no woman."

This is the mermaid most of human history has feared – not Disney's lovestruck princess, but something far more alien and dangerous. What's truly wild is how universal these stories are. From Brazil's Iara to Japan's Ningyo, from Scotland's selkies to Africa's Mami Wata, cultures worldwide independently created tales of deadly female water spirits.

But why? Why do humans across continents and centuries keep telling the same basic story about dangerous women who live in water?

In this deep dive into global mermaid mythology, we explore ancient Greek bone-heaps, oceanic folklore, and a disturbing truth about humanity's relationship with the natural world. Because what if these stories were never really about women at all?

Key moments

• 1:02 – The Laird of Lorntie meets a mermaid
• 4:06 – Welcome to the party! Meet the mermaid
• 6:59 – The universal mermaid mythos
• 9:19 – The original sirens
• 12:36 – Why is the ocean "female"?
• 14:53 – Nature's indifference to humanity
• 18:30 – Would you rather have a shipwreck or an existential meltdown?
• 19:30 – What to do when your ocean mommy doesn't love you

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

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This isn't just a vampire story; it's a chilling exposé of Victorian anxieties. In part two of our series on the women of “Dracula”, the Paranormal Pajama Party podcast plunges deeper into Bram Stoker's classic, exploring how it grapples with female power, intellectual authority, and the fragile state of masculinity.

We spend the night with the ravenous Brides of Dracula to learn what their unbridled desire suggests about society's fears of female sexuality. Then, we unpack the fascinating intellectual clash between Mina Murray and Van Helsing, and how Mina’s brilliance both saves and challenges the patriarchal order. Finally, we explore Jonathan Harker’s unsettling journey through emasculation and "re-masculinisation" – and the cost to Mina's agency.

Is “Dracula” a proto-feminist text, or a masterclass in moral panic crisis management? Tune in to decide!

Key moments:

• 1:02 – Jonathan Harker meets the Brides of Dracula
• 13:04 – Dracula's Brides... or whoever they are.
• 19:17 – Mina Murray: Lady Journalist
• 23:32 – A Man's Brain and a Woman's Heart: Van Helsing vs Mina
• 32:24 – Jonathan Harker: Damsel in Distress No More

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

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Think you know “Dracula”? Think again. In this first part of our two-part deep dive into the world's most famous vampire novel, we're sinking our teeth into the real monsters of the story – and spoiler alert, it's not the Count.

Join Steph as she explores how “Dracula” reflects Victorian society's collective panic over the “New Woman” movement and female sexual autonomy. We'll unpack the tragic arc of Lucy Westenra, the novel's golden girl whose fatal flaw isn't her beauty or kindness – it's her desire for sexual agency in a world that would rather see women dead than independent.

From Social Degeneration Theory to symbolic sexual violence, we'll examine how Stoker's 1897 Gothic masterpiece channels late Victorian anxieties about women's changing roles, education, and – clutch your pearls – the revolutionary act of riding bicycles.

This episode explores themes of violence against women, symbolic sexual assault, and repressed Victorian sexuality, all wrapped up in literary analysis that's both accessible and eye-opening. You'll never look at vampire fiction the same way again.

Coming up in Part 2: Mina Murray and the men – more evidence that the patriarchy bites.

Key moments

• 00:00 – Content warning
• 01:06 – An excerpt from “Dracula”
• 09:29 – Welcome to the party!
• 16:48 – The New Woman: First-Wave Feminists on Bicycles!
• 20:06 – Social Degeneration Theory: pseudo-science meets peak Victorian anxiety
• 22:49 – Lucy Westenra's fatal flaw
• 27:16 – The "cure" for female desire (spoiler: it's violence)

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

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In this spine-tingling episode, we watch the 1962 psychological thriller "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and dive deep into the hagsploitation film subgenre it spawned. When Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford found themselves discarded by studios as they aged, they turned to horror – creating a film that both exploited and empowered ageing women in cinema.

We explore how society's fear of ageing women transforms them into monstrous figures on screen. From Baby Jane's disturbing childlike makeup on an elderly face to the twisted sister dynamic, this film confronts our cultural anxieties about women who dare to age visibly.

The episode also unpacks the infamous feud between Davis and Crawford, Hollywood's persistent ageism, and why these "psycho-biddy" films found devoted audiences in queer communities. We trace hagsploitation's evolution from the 1960s to contemporary examples like "X" and "The Substance," revealing how little has changed in Hollywood's treatment of women over the age of 50.

Join us as we brush the cobwebs off this terrifying tale, shedding light on what makes ageing women both feared and fascinating in horror cinema.

Key moments

• 02:40 – "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" plot overview
• 07:35 – The birth of hagsploitation
• 10:52 – Hollywood's war on ageing women
• 14:39 – The double-edged sword of hagsploitation
• 19:51 – Abjection and the monstrous-feminine
• 30:28 – Screen queens and drag queens
• 32:40 – Bette vs. Joan
• 34:50 – Hagsploitation makes a comeback

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

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What do the White Witch of Jamaica’s Rose Hall and New Orleans tour staple Madame LaLaurie have in common? They're both infamous female figures in ghost lore, accused of monstrous violence during the era of slavery. But dig a little deeper, and a more disturbing truth emerges. Annie Palmer – the so-called White Witch – never existed, and Delphine LaLaurie’s real crimes were reshaped into gothic horror for public consumption. In this episode, we unpack how gendered narratives helped white societies displace guilt over slavery onto individual women.

Using the monstrous-feminine as a lens, we explore how these legends reflect colonial anxieties, racial taboos, and the fear of women wielding power. Why are Annie and Delphine the most famous symbols of slave-owning cruelty, while male perpetrators fade into obscurity?

Join Paranormal Pajama Party as we look past the ghost stories and uncover the systems that wrote these women into history as convenient villains.

Key moments

• 0:42 – A dutiful wife… and a murderess?
• 13:31 – From torture chamber to wedding venue
• 14:50 – The White Witch who never lived
• 18:26 – No villains needed – slavery was hell
• 22:53 – Delphine LaLaurie: monstrous and real
• 25:58 – When women become symbols
• 31:37 – The lady becomes a monster
  
  

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

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Join me to examine one of Japan's most influential ghost stories – Botan Dōrō (The Peony Lantern). This tale of love beyond death helped establish the archetype of the long-haired vengeful female ghost in Japanese horror. When handsome samurai Shinzaburō falls for the beautiful Otsuyu, their love seems destined for tragedy. Unluckily for him, even death won't keep them apart.

We'll explore how this story evolved from a Chinese Buddhist morality tale into a cornerstone of Japanese horror, spawning countless adaptations from kabuki theatre to erotica. Learn how changing attitudes toward women's spiritual power in feudal Japan gave rise to the vengeful female ghost trope, and what samurai’s wives were up to while their husbands were out fighting each other.

This ghostly tale of passion and promises reveals the impossible standards faced by samurai women – and why even death itself couldn't free them from society's expectations.

Key moments:

• 0:48 – Botan Doro, or, The Peony Lantern
• 15:25 – Historical Japan, women, and spirits
• 17:50 – Gender roles among samurai
• 20:49 – Otsuyu as a monster girl
• 23:05 – Oyoné's emotional labour
• 25:18 – Who's the stronger samurai?
• 28:41 – A word about Rangda, Barong, and hope

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

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This episode of "Paranormal Pajama Party" is spine-chilling – but not because of the paranormal parts.
We're headed back to Scotland to discuss the North Berwick Witch Trials – a dark chapter of history that inspired Shakespeare's most infamous witches and exposed the terrifying mechanisms of patriarchal violence. Meet Agnes Sampson, Gilleis Duncan, and Euphame MacCalzean – three women caught in a deadly web of royal paranoia, religious persecution, and systemic misogyny.
Set against the backdrop of King James VI's tumultuous reign, this episode exposes the brutal methods of torture, the gendered violence of witch hunts, and how a young king's insecurities fueled a campaign of femicide that would claim nearly 3,000 lives across Scotland.
From magical midnight meetings to royal wedding storms, we'll trace how these women's stories inspired centuries of witch folklore. This episode's stories serve as a reminder that the mechanisms of oppression may change, but the impulse to silence and control women remains disturbingly consistent.

Key moments

• 0:55 – King James, Anne of Denmark, and the Contrary Winds
• 10:11 – King James VI and I's chaotic backstory
• 15:33 – King James kicks off the North Berwick Witch Trials
• 17:55 – Agnes Sampson, the Wise Wife of Keith
• 19:03 – The Scold's Bridle
• 24:49 – Euphame MacCalzean and the King James Bible
• 29:20 – Margaret Aitken and Marion Walker
• 31:56 – Shakespeare starts writing "Macbeth"
• 34:52 – Witches of Scotland and Nicola Sturgeon's apology

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review Paranormal Pajama Party to help others discover it!

View all my sources for each episode and read the episode transcript here.

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