Monstrous Bitch: A History of Terrifying Women
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| What's a "bitch" anyway? |
“A fiery and fun feminist reclamation of womankind’s monstrous alter egos”—Publishers Weekly.
For as long as human societies have been telling stories, the patriarchy has felt threatened by females.
Ludacris: "Move, bitch, get out the way!"
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| Monstrous Bitch: A History |
- the notorious female who has haunted the patriarchal imagination for centuries,
- feared for her sexual promiscuity, her exercise of reproductive agency and control, and
- her outspoken way of contesting patriarchal power.
- Demoness Lamashtu of ancient Mesopotamia, showing how this infanticidal, hypersexual, loudmouthed monster appears in different guises throughout history [his story, not her story].
- In classical Greece, she reemerges as the Sorceress Medea, the child-devouring monster Lamia, and the vengeful Furies.
Hey, Bitch! "Go Hard (la la la)"
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| Kiss of the Enchantress (Keat's Lamia, a serpent, reptilian) |
- In the medieval and early modern periods, she is an oversexed, baby-slaying, spellcasting witch.
- In the Romantic and Victorian eras, she's a vampiress.
- In the modern age of psychoanalysis, she's a mental patient.
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| Horror Films Rise of Feminism |
After this longue durée history, Prof. Johnson shows how monstrous bitchery has been challenged and reinterpreted in contemporary cinematic popular culture, becoming an expression of heroine-ism and resistance in films like Ginger Snaps, Jennifer's Body, and The Witch.
Johnson demonstrates how deeply embedded the roots of misogyny have become as well as why it is more critical today than ever that we expose and address them.
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| Participatory Theology |
Author interview about witch hunts
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| Eleanor Johnson (IG) |
ABOUT: Columbia University Professor of English and Comparative Studies Eleanor Johnson specializes in late medieval literature and culture. Her first book, Practicing Literary Theory in the Late Middle Ages: Ethics and the Mixed Form in Chaucer, Gower, Usk, and Hoccleve, was published in 2013 (Chicago). Her second book, Staging Contemplation: Participatory Theology in Middle English Prose, Verse, and Drama, was published in 2018 (Chicago). Her Third book, Waste and the Wasters, about ecosystemic thought in medieval England, came out in 2023 (Chicago). Her fourth book, Scream with Me, on horror films in the 1970s, was published in 2025 (Atria Books). Her latest is Monstrous Bitch: A History of Terrifying Women (2026). She is also the Poetry Section editor at Public Books (publicbooks.org). More
Going full bitch mode. Demon?
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| Misogyny: personification of the Seven Deadly Sins (Wellcome/Wiki) |
- What is Contemplation?: An interview with Eleanor Johnson (Journal of Contemplative Studies)
- If ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ made you scream, read this | Columbia News
- Mysterious stone in U.S. backyard turns out to be an archeological treasure
- Lamia as a canine reptilian do in Topsell's History of Four Footed Beasts
- Woman pulls gun from butt, tries to shoot arresting deputy: 40 years in prison for one terrifying drugged decision
- GUN IN THE BUTT COMMENTARY: 40 years in prison after one terrifying decision to shoot at arresting deputy
Kreayshawn: new bitch in Hollywood
Women must be silenced by the patriarchy.
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