Bitchy History

Joan of Arc has been everything to everyone: saint, witch, nationalist mascot, feminist icon, medieval teenager who simply refused to stay in her lane. In this episode, we cut through six centuries of myth to get to the girl in the armor — the one who heard divine voices, out-strategized grown men, terrified theologians, and paid for it with her life.

We look at how a France in crisis accidentally created its most enduring symbol, how Joan’s gender-bending authority sparked a medieval moral panic, and how her trial was less a quest for truth than a masterclass in patriarchal damage control.

And because we’re Bitchy History, we also trace Joan’s unlikely afterlife: from canonized saint to suffragette poster girl to “girlboss” before the term existed — and why exceptional women like Joan often become symbols while systemic change stays conveniently off-limits.

It’s a story about faith, politics, misogyny, nationalism, witchcraft panic, and the dangerous power of a woman who actually believes her own voice.

Additional Reading:

* Daniel Hobbins (trans.) – The Trial of Joan of Arc

Definitive English translation of her 1431 heresy trial. Essential.

* British Library Digitized Manuscripts:

Egerton MS 984 (condemnation trial) & Stowe MS 84 (rehabilitation trial)

Some of the most important surviving documents of medieval Europe.

* Helen Castor – Joan of Arc: A History

The gold standard narrative history — detailed, vivid, and non-hagiographic.

* Françoise Meltzer – “Joan of Arc in America”

On how Americans mythologized Joan as everything from patriotism to purity.

* Karma Waltonen – “Saint Joan: From Renaissance Witch to New Woman”

Excellent analysis of Shaw’s Saint Joan and Joan’s modern feminist reclamation.

* Elizabeth Fox-Genovese – “Culture and Consciousness in the Intellectual History of European Women”

Essential for understanding why Joan was threatening to patriarchal structures.

* Mark Twain – Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Surprisingly earnest and historically grounded — his personal passion project.

* George Bernard Shaw – Saint Joan

The most influential literary reimagining of Joan’s trial and personality.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner for my American listeners, so let’s revisit an early episode of Bitchy History today, because it’s seasonal. Remember that Thanksgiving is a propaganda holiday and the Puritans sucked. But while it may be a sham, as Buffy reminds us, it’s a sham with yams.

The Black Death (1347–1351) killed ~40% of Europe and blew a hole in the labor market. Women stepped in, running farms, shops, and guild work; inheriting property; training apprentices; and powering textiles, silk, and brewing. Then, as populations recovered, elites used laws, guild charters, inheritance rules, and moral panics to shove women back to the margins. Crisis granted responsibility; recovery revoked rights.

Sources & further reading

* Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England.

* Barbara A. Hanawalt, The Ties That Bound; Of Good and Ill Repute.

* Martha C. Howell, Women, Production, and Patriarchy in Late Medieval Cities.

* Christopher Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages; An Age of Transition?

* Caroline M. Barron, London in the Later Middle Ages.

* Samuel K. Cohn Jr., The Black Death Transformed.

* David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West.

* Heather Swanson, Medieval Artisans: An Urban Class in Late Medieval England.

* Sandy Bardsley, Venomous Tongues: Women’s Voices, Complaints, and the Legal Power of Speech in Late Medieval England.

* Craftswomen and the Guilds - Lost Art Press

Episode Credits

Written & Narrated by: Meredith Walker

Produced by: Bitchy History Media

Episode Summary

Empires didn’t just conquer continents—they colonized identity.

This episode unpacks how European colonialism exported a rigid gender binary across the globe, dismantling Indigenous systems of gender and sexuality while dressing patriarchy up as “civilization.” From the witch trials of Europe to the British census in India, from Two-Spirit resistance to modern decolonial feminism, this is the long and brutal story of how gender became empire’s favorite export.

Sources and Reading Suggestions:

What is the Coloniality of Gender?

María Lugones – Toward a Decolonial Feminism (2010)

The Effect of British Colonial Law and Rule on Gender Binaries and Sexual Freedoms

Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

Zamora, Margarita. “Abreast of Columbus: Gender and Discovery.” Cultural Critique 17 (1990–91): 127–149.

Spencer-Wood, Suzanne M. “Feminist Theorizing of Patriarchal Colonialism.” (2016). Professor of Anthropology, not archaeologist, oops. Forgive my mistake in the episode. She does work with “Feminist theory in anthropology and archaeology” though.

Foster, Susan Leigh. Colonialism, Gender, and the East. Routledge, 2004.

Dozono, Junko. “Teaching Alternative Indigenous Gender Systems.” (2017).

Chollet, Mona. In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial. St. Martin’s Press, 2021.

Hutton, Ronald. The Witch: A History of Fear, From Ancient Times to the Present. Yale University Press, 2017.

Laurel Clark Shire, The Threshold of Manifest Destiny: Gender and National Expansion in Florida (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016)

Many of these sources should be available with a free jstor account, but if you can’t access them and would like a pdf copy, please feel free to email me at [email protected], please reference the episode and articles you are looking to access, even book chapters can be sent on occasion.

Episode Credits

Written & Narrated by: Meredith Walker

Produced by: Bitchy History Media

Welcome back to Bitchy History, where we cheerfully dismantle the greatest hits of misogyny—and this week, we’re putting science itself on the stand.

In Part I, we met the philosophers and theologians who invented “woman” as a cosmic afterthought. Now, in Part II, we enter the age of lab coats, skull calipers, and nervous diagnoses—the glorious 19th and 20th centuries, when “objective” men in frock coats declared that female ambition caused infertility, reading led to madness, and housework was the cornerstone of democracy.

This is the era when patriarchy swapped its rosary for a microscope.

We’re talking phrenology, hysteria, Freud, “the rest cure,” eugenics, hormones, pink kitchens, and the 1950s domestic goddess industrial complex—all the ways “science” kept proving that women belonged exactly where men wanted them.

Because if the binary were natural, it wouldn’t need this much paperwork.

Bitchy History is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Additional Reading:

How To Debunk Sexist Pseudoscience

The “Scientific” Antifeminists of Victorian England

The History of Hysteria

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (2000)

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (1990)

Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (1988)

Welcome back to Bitchy History — the show where we cheerfully dismantle everything you thought was “just natural” and replace it with the ugly truth: it was made up. Usually by men. Often badly.

We’re kicking off a brand-new arc: Inventing Womanhood. Because here’s the deal — “woman” isn’t a biological constant. It’s a cultural invention, one that’s been redefined, repackaged, and re-sold more times than Barbie herself.

In this episode, we’re tracing the scam from the color pink to the cosmos:

* How baby boys once wore pink and the Virgin Mary made blue “girly.”

* How philosophers, priests, and politicians all took turns declaring women “naturally” passive, domestic, and inferior.

* How science, in the Victorian era, put patriarchy in a lab coat and called it “biology.”

From yin and yang to Mamie Eisenhower’s pink kitchen, from Aristotle’s “misbegotten males” to Victorian pseudoscience, we’ll unpack how gender became the world’s longest-running con — one still being enforced by everyone who swears they’re “just following nature.”

Because if gender were truly biological, it wouldn’t change with fashion trends, holy texts, or who’s First Lady. It’s a cultural reboot — and we’re here to expose the production notes.

Edit: There was some sound editing issues on this episode which have now been fixed. Apologies!

Well, I’m back. After packing up my entire life, moving across the Atlantic, and preparing to dive headfirst into a Master’s in Gender Studies (yes, I am now an even more insufferable feminist — send your condolences to anyone stuck in seminar with me), Bitchy History is officially alive again.

And I’m kicking things off with a subject that pretty much demanded an episode: Charlie Kirk.

Now, if you’ve spent the last decade ignoring Kirk and his little Turning Point USA circus, congratulations. That’s like dodging COVID on a cruise ship. But the truth is, millions of young people didn’t dodge him. He built a platform out of telling women their lives should revolve around submission and childbearing, insisting college is just for finding a husband, and sneering at feminism like it was a contagious disease.

Kirk is gone now — in a deeply ironic, “live by the gun, die by the gun” sort of way. And while most of us would prefer to quietly move on, the right is already turning him into a martyr. His widow is pledging to carry the torch, politicians are suddenly speaking about him in hushed tones of reverence, and people are literally getting fired from their jobs for mocking his death online.

This isn’t about one man. It’s about how authoritarian movements sanitize their leaders after they’re gone. It’s about the way misogyny, racism, and Christian nationalism get wrapped in martyrdom so they can be pushed even harder.

So no, I’m not interested in being “respectful.” Respectability politics is what lets people like Kirk wreck lives and still get glowing obituaries. My job — our job — is to remember what they actually did, and to push back harder.

If you want to hear me break down the misogyny, the hypocrisies, and the historical lineage of Kirk’s movement — with my usual cocktail of sarcasm and receipts — the new episode is up.

Welcome back, Trekkies, historians, and lovers of media analysis! After a short delay (turns out getting a starship up to warp speed takes time), Warp Speed Woke: Lecture 5 is here, and this time, we’re taking a hard look at Star Trek: Enterprise, the series that marked the franchise’s first real foray into the post-9/11 world.

Enterprise is a bit of an anomaly in Star Trek history. It was the first series since The Original Series to be canceled before reaching seven seasons, the first true prequel in the franchise, and—whether the showrunners admit it or not—the first Star Trek series to fully embrace post-9/11 American anxieties.

The Enterprise Experiment: A Prequel Without a Purpose?

Brannon Braga and Rick Berman, the Trek overlords of the ‘90s, decided that Enterprise needed a new hook. Instead of boldly going forward in the Star Trek timeline, they looked back, setting the series in the 22nd century, before the creation of the Federation. Instead of a shiny, futuristic starship, the NX-01 was deliberately designed to resemble a cramped, militaristic submarine. Instead of the philosophical debates and utopian optimism of the Next Generation era, Enterprise had something far more familiar: a rugged, all-American crew learning to navigate a dangerous and unpredictable galaxy.

Sounds a little… reactionary for Star Trek, doesn’t it?

From Roddenberry’s Vision to America’s War on Terror

For two seasons, Enterprise was largely an episodic adventure show. Then, in season three, everything changed. Enterprise got its war.

🚀 Earth was attacked without warning by a mysterious alien race, the Xindi, killing millions of people.

🚀 Captain Archer and his crew were sent to hunt down the perpetrators.

🚀 Along the way, they had to deal with suicide bombers, extremist religious fanatics, and moral compromises in the name of security.

Sound familiar?

While Braga denies that Enterprise was meant to parallel the War on Terror, the season’s storylines suggest otherwise. Writers and actors alike have pointed to direct allegories between the Xindi conflict and America’s post-9/11 foreign policy. Captain Archer, a man who started as a hopeful explorer, became a hardened warrior—torturing prisoners for intel, launching preemptive strikes, and crossing ethical and moral lines for the “greater good.”

But Was It Star Trek?

This is where the debate begins. Unlike The Original Series, The Next Generation, and even Deep Space Nine, which critiqued American foreign policy, Enterprise mirrored it. Instead of challenging American exceptionalism, Enterprise indulged in it.

In the era of shows like 24, where terrorism and national security were dominant pop culture narratives, Enterprise felt less like a progressive sci-fi critique and more like military propaganda set in space. The Roddenberry philosophy—that humanity’s future should be about enlightenment, diplomacy, and overcoming our worst instincts—was buried beneath a show that, by its third season, embraced jingoism, fear, and war.

So, What’s the Verdict?

Did Enterprise fail as a Star Trek series? Not necessarily. It had its moments—episodes that questioned war, explored paranoia, and gave us glimpses of the Star Trek ideal. But ultimately, it marked the franchise’s full transition from a series that critiqued American culture to one that simply reflected it.

What do you think? Was Enterprise a bold reimagining of Star Trek for a new era, or did it lose the soul of the franchise? Let’s discuss in the comments!

💡 Stay tuned for more lectures! And if you love deep dives into sci-fi, history, and snark, make sure you’re subscribed to Bitchy History for more!

Bitchy History is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

When Star Trek: Voyager premiered in 1995, it carried the weight of expectations from both the studio and the fans. On the surface, it was a major leap forward for representation—the first female Starfleet captain leading a Trek series! But beneath the surface, Voyager became a battleground between feminist ideals and the male gaze, between bold storytelling and network safety nets.

This lecture explores how Voyager—despite being a landmark for women in sci-fi—undermined its own progressive potential.

🌟 What We’ll Cover:

🚀 Janeway’s Feminist Legacy – The first woman in the captain’s chair, but at what to do with her hair???

🎭 Lost Potential – The Maquis vs. Starfleet conflict that disappeared after the pilot.

👀 The Male Gaze & Seven of Nine – From high-concept sci-fi to sex appeal ratings bait.

📺 From Critique to Reflection – How Voyager marked a shift in Star Trek’s sociopolitical messaging.

Whether you love Voyager or have a complicated relationship with it (like I do), this is a deep dive into the show’s successes, failures, and lasting impact on Star Trek and sci-fi as a whole.

The wait is over, Trek fans! 🚀 My lecture on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—the most complex and morally gray entry in the Star Trek franchise—is now available to watch. If you’ve ever wondered how a science fiction show could tackle the cultural clashes and anxieties of the 1990s with such precision, DS9 is the answer.

From Sisko’s chilling decisions in “In the Pale Moonlight” to the heartbreaking commentary on systemic injustice in “Far Beyond the Stars,” this series wasn’t afraid to boldly go where no Star Trek had gone before. It shifted the Trek narrative, bringing us deep into themes of power, religion, identity, and morality in ways that remain deeply relevant today.

In this lecture, I cover:

✨ How DS9 reflected Samuel P. Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory in its portrayal of cultural conflicts.

✨ The groundbreaking representation of Captain Benjamin Sisko as a Black Starfleet leader and what that meant for race in the franchise.

✨ Moral compromises, war, and the price of utopia—what DS9 taught us about leadership and ethics.

✨ Why DS9 remains a fan favorite for those who like their sci-fi with a side of social commentary.

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts—drop a comment or share your favorite DS9 moment. Let’s keep the conversation going, because this series has so much to teach us, even decades later. 🖖