***Hi! Just a heads up...i had to take a tiny break because i am a full time student, & I have a child with special needs, and..i mean, i'm adhd af-trying to focus while my normal schedule is out the window; HOWEVER, I'm on it, now and nearly have episode 13 ready! So...if you're still with me, hang on a tiny bit longer!*** <3 Nicole 07/29/2025

**the corrected version is 1 hour and 32 seconds  ~Nicole 

It's PRIDE MONTH! In pt. 3 of "Witch hunts never go out of style: the many faces of patriarchy", we explore the history and impact of the First and Second Red Scares, alongside the lesser-known but deeply more consequential Lavender Scare. Through a feminist lens, we will take a look at how anti-Communist and anti-LGBTQ campaigns intersected with broader patterns of state surveillance, moral panic, and social control in mid-20th century America. The episode traces how these government-led efforts affected not only political dissenters and artists but also disproportionately targeted queer individuals and other marginalized groups, such as people of color. The next episode will feature the black scare, AKA cointelpro-I didn't want to cram it into this episode, because I wanted to make sure to spend enough time on each of these damaging, tragic moral panics which were waged against those who were seen as "other", or deemed less than.

     While primarily historical in focus, the discussion draws brief parallels to contemporary dynamics of power, identity, and civil liberties.

Show Notes:

Kady Grass' gofundme:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-kady-grass-after-brutal-attack 

The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ young people. They provide information & support to LGBTQ+ young people 24/7, all year round.

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ 

ILGA World, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association:

https://ilga.org/ 

Rainbow Railroad helps at-risk LGBTQI+ people get to safety.

https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/ 

socials:

[email protected]

ig: @g.i.t.s.podcast

tiktok: @greatinthesackpodcast

tiktok: @neurodivergentfeminist

Sources:

https://www.universityarchives.com/auction-lot/j.-edgar-hoover-tls-on-joseph-mccarthy-a-hero-va_AEE482F9F9?utm 

archivesfoundation.org+5nglcc.org+5nps.gov+5them.us. 

https://time.com/6697055/welfare-queen-stereotype-origins/ 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspects-allegedly-attacked-woman-mcdonalds-sexual-orientation-face/story?id=122274998 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/james-a-baer-anarchist-immigrants-in-spain-and-argentina-university-of-illinois-press-urbana-il-etc-2015-xviii-240-pp-ill-5500-travis-tomchuk-transnational-radicals-italian-anarchists-in-canada-and-the-us-19151940-university-of-manitoba-press-winnipeg2015-xi-260-pp-ill-2795-epub-ebook-2000-pdf-ebook-2000-kenyon-zimmer-immigrants-against-the-state-yiddish-and-italian-anarchism-in-america-the-working-class-in-american-history-university-of-illinois-press-urbana-etc-2015-x-300-pp-ill-9500-paper-3000/09E310DFA917DC6A84668205FDEB9BA2 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Palmer-Raids 

https://web.archive.org/web/20110719193328/http://comptalk.fiu.edu/blacklist.htm 

https://guides.library.illinoisstate.edu/c.php?g=1173721&p=8576276 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Marx 

https://au.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-lists/50-worst-decisions-movie-history-list-50256/ronald-reagan-tells-the-house-un-american-activities-committee-that-the-screen-actors-guild-is-full-of-communists-50298/ 

https://levin-center.org/joe-mccarthys-oversight-abuses/ 

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/analysis-testimony-j-edgar-hoover-house-un-american-activities-committee#:~:text=The%20context%20of%20his%20testimony,tumultuous%20period%20in%20American%20history. 

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/lavender-scare.htm?utm_source 

https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal54-1358787#:~:text=On%20May%204%20McCarthy%20offered,FBI%20memo%2C%20on%20security%20grounds. 

In Part 2 of our series on witch hunts and patriarchy, we pick up at the decline of the European witch trials..starting with the end of the English (Anglican) prosecutions and moving through the infamous hysteria in Salem. From there, we explore how the so-called Enlightenment ushered in new systems of control under the guise of reason and progress.

If this era was truly "enlightened," why did the transatlantic slave trade not only continue, but expand? This episode asks what we choose to see as civilized—and what, or who, we are willing to sacrifice to maintain that image.

We then trace the enduring legacy of accusation, punishment, and control into colonial Africa, where European powers exported witchcraft panic as part of their imperial toolkit. From there, we transition into the rise of modern medicine and the medicalization of women’s bodies...where midwives and healers were replaced by male-dominated institutions, and into the development of eugenics as a tool to justify social hierarchies and racial "purity."

We end with the Nazi regime’s calculated use of ableism, psuedoscience and gendered violence to define who was worthy of life, & who was not.

This episode connects centuries of persecution, "progress," and power, revealing how patriarchal systems evolve, but never disappear.

[email protected]

www.instagram.com/@g.i.t.s.podcast 

www.tiktok.com/greatinthesackpodcast

www.tiktok.com/neurodivergentfeminist 

Equal Justice Initiative: https://eji.org/ 

https://www.dw.com/en/women-as-spoils-of-war-at-the-end-of-world-war-ii/video-69022168 

https://eji.org/report/transatlantic-slave-trade/ 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/17/603163394/-father-of-gynecology-who-experimented-on-slaves-no-longer-on-pedestal-in-nyc 

https://www.researchwithrutgers.com/en/publications/reassessing-eugenic-sterilization-the-case-of-north-carolina 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13700490 

https://www.britannica.com/search?query=eugenics 

https://practitioners.exeter.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Eastanglianwitchtrialappendix2.pdf 

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/rosemary-kennedy 

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/the-man-who-found-that-genes-hold-culture-on-a-leash 

https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/d1e304.html 

https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-441?p=emailAeg10H8z/RsN6&d=/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-441 

https://19thnews.org/2022/02/forced-sterilization-guardianship-reproductive-justice/ 

 Lombardo, Paul, Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell, (2008)

From the chilling trials in Valais, Switzerland, to the tortured confessions of Pendle and Salem, this episode uncovers the long arc of misogyny cloaked in religious fervor and legal authority. We trace how accusations of heresy & witchcraft can come as a result of moral corruption and political instability — and have been wielded to control women, the poor, the different, and the defiant throughout history. With voices lost to fire and rope, and others silenced by shame or forced to flee, this isn't just a story of the past. This is a ritual the patriarchy never quite stopped performing.

In part 2, we follow this ritual as it evolves—from the Puritan gallows to the propaganda of Nazi Germany, from Cold War suspicion to today’s backlash against inclusion. The targets may change, but the hunt remains the same.

[email protected]

www.instagram.com/@greatinthesacktruecrimepodcast 

www.tiktok.com/greatinthesackpodcast

www.tiktok.com/neurodivergentfeminist 

show sources:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-21/girl-brutally-tortured-in-png-after-accusations-of-sorcery/9168876

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/women-witchcraft-papua-new-guinea-b1863343.html 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-latin-american-womens-literature/women-cronistas-in-colonial-latin-america/5E27EA2D8B80D9441CA470E3CCD21F1F 

https://www.thecollector.com/inquisition-cases-colonial-mexico/ 

https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Ferdinand-and-Isabella/353119 

https://www.thoughtco.com/european-witch-hunts-timeline-3530786#:~:text=The%20European%20witch%20hunts%20lasted,and%20more%20susceptible%20to%20witchcraft. 

https://www.irss.uoguelph.ca/index.php/irss/article/view/5801/5957 

Kieckhefer, Richard (2013). "The First Wave of Trials for Diabolical Witchcraft". The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America.

https://web.archive.org/web/20070813092734/http://www.lclark.edu/~schoen/weyer.html 

https://scandinavianhistory.org/2021/06/20/the-witch-trials-of-dalarna/ 

https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/swedish-witch-trials-dark-heritage 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_early_modern_Scotland 

https://www.worldhistory.org/Salem_Witch_Trials/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAoULJ02Zg_XnLF-mUWXgvP6pYSvk8&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt8zABhDKARIsAHXuD7aBBG_K_lNYrPir26w76fTEEkCrE9Lr6-k8KuWm7GSupKx0Pacuj9kaAsehEALw_wcB

This week on Great in the Sack: When Misogyny Leads to Mayhem, we unpack a revolution born not in peace, but in the wreckage of war—where colonial borders, religious authoritarianism, and patriarchal power all collided. And somehow, out of that fire, a feminist experiment began to breathe.

Welcome to Rojava—northeastern Syria—where Kurdish women took up arms against ISIS...& began rewriting society itself.

Drawing from the radical philosophy of Abdullah Öcalan, a former Marxist turned jailed Kurdish thinker, Rojava’s political model—democratic confederalism—is a bold rejection of both Western imperialism and religious authoritarianism. Here, power is decentralized. Ethnic divisions are challenged. And women? They are co-chairs, commanders, lawmakers, and rebels. Every council is led by one man and one woman. Every major decision is filtered through a lens of gender equality.

But this revolution didn’t just spring up—it’s a direct response to decades of betrayal. Colonial legacies carved up Kurdistan, denying the Kurds a homeland and pushing them into the margins of nation-states that treated them as problems to be solved—or erased. Add to that the rise of armed Islamist groups enforcing Sharia law with an iron fist, and you get the perfect storm for radical, necessary reinvention.

We explore the tension between Islamic fundamentalism and female autonomy, how the Rojava model challenges both capitalist modernity and sectarian domination, and why this revolution—still under siege from every direction—may be one of the most important feminist stories of the 21st century.

Red Crescent Rojava: https://hskurd.org/en/ 

Emergency aide for Rojava:

https://heyvasor.com/en/2024/12/03/emergency-aid-for-rojava/#pll_switcher 

instagram.com/@greatinthesacktruecrimepodcast 

tiktok.com/greatinthesackpodcast

[email protected]

show notes:

https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/11/26/group-denial/repression-kurdish-political-and-cultural-rights-syria?utm_ 

Conflict Between Turkey and Armed Kurdish Groups | Global Conflict Tracker 

https://hawarnews.com/en/mother-of-martyr-hevrin-khalaf-my-daughters-killers-are-stillroaming-free   

https://youtu.be/cMfJRnWu52Y  

Wayback Machine  

Timeline: The Kurds’ Long Struggle With Statelessness 

https://nypost.com/2024/03/30/long-mistreated-by-iraq-the-kurds-need-americas-attention-now/?utm_source=chatgpt.com  

Turkey: Facing a New Millennium: Coping With Intertwined Conflicts, Amikam Nachmani, p. 210, 2003  

Turkey Claims That Syria's Kurds Are Terrorists. Should Anyone Believe Them? 

The Kurdistan Memory Programme  

D'Alema: Abdullah Öcalan is right. Solving the Kurdish question is crucial for peace in the Middle East - The Kurdish Center for Studies  

We follow the feminist heroes of the early 1970s—Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Brenda Feigen, Shirley Chisholm, and others—as they fought tooth and nail for the ERA, only to be blindsided by Schlafly’s grift in pearls: STOP ERA. You’ll hear how Schlafly mobilized fear, fundamentalism, and good old-fashioned misogyny to convince women they didn’t need rights—just a pie in the oven and a man in charge.

We head into the chaos of the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston—slaps, slogans, and sabotage—before pivoting to Reagan’s rise, the GOP’s courtship of the religious right, and how Schlafly helped lay the groundwork for Trumpism.

We’ll show how Schlafly’s fingerprints are all over today’s anti-abortion fanaticism, with stories like that of Selena Maria from Tifton, GA—a terrifying reminder of what happens when women’s healthcare becomes collateral in a culture war.

But we end with resistance. You’ll hear about state-level ERAs, Senator Gillibrand’s push to make the ERA the 28th Amendment, and what you can do to help.

Because the future of bodily autonomy and equality isn’t dead—it’s just waiting for us to wake the hell up.

Show notes/sources:

(Selena's go fund me)--> https://gofund.me/69868b43 

IG.com/@greatinthesacktruecrimepodcost 

[email protected]

youtube.com/greatinthesacktruecrimepodcast

Also follow: IG.com/@abortionfluencer for important activism!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1977-conference-womens-rights-split-america-two-180962174/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-phyllis-schlafly-snap-story.html 

https://journals.openedition.org/rrca/1226?lang=en#tocfrom1n1 

https://www.jezebel.com/georgia-police-jailed-woman-for-miscarriage-performed-autopsy-on-miscarried-fetus 

https://www.thecut.com/article/why-a-georgia-womans-arrest-after-miscarriage-is-disturbing.html 

https://meidasnews.com/news/georgia-woman-arrested-after-disposing-of-miscarriage 

https://www.tifton.net/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=151&utm_source=chatgpt.com 

https://web.archive.org/web/20150402093633/http://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/pregnancyloss/conditioninfo/Pages/risk.aspx 

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/04/01/georgia-woman-miscarriage/ 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-04-29/mrs-america-phyllis-schlafly-gay-son-brenda-marc-feigen-fasteau 

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/b7fc60f4-9a5d-449a-858e-67afebd21dcc/content 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade#:~:text=On%20January%2022%2C%201973%2C%20the,Texas's%20abortion%20ban%20as%20unconstitutional. 

https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/suffragists-suffragettes-difference/ 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120214143336/http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/declare.htm 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-05-14/mrs-america-fx-hulu-bella-abzug-margo-martindale 

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/phyllis-schlafly?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/23/archives/rights-plan-foes-celebrate-its-difficulties-with-a-gala-award-for.html 

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-era-solidifies-womens-rights-in-the-constitution-as-the-28th-amendment/ 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/phyllis-schlafly-feminist-troll/498737/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

Episode 7 – Inceldom Explained: The Case of Tres Genco

**CONTENT WARNING** DISCUSSIONS OF SELF EXIT, AND MASS SHOOTINGS-USE DISCRETION WHERE AND WHEN YOU LISTEN.

A growing subculture of disaffected men has turned their anger into a violent ideology. Incels—short for “involuntary celibates”—believe they are entitled to sex and that women, and society at large, are to blame for their isolation. While many incels remain behind keyboards, some take their hatred into the real world.

Tres Genco was one of them. Inspired by past attacks, he stockpiled weapons, wrote a manifesto detailing his violent fantasies, and planned a mass shooting targeting women. He was caught before he could act, sentenced, released… and then arrested again. His case would  reveal the dangerous escalation of his own inceldom- from an online OBSESSION to real-world violence.

In this episode, we’ll break down Genco’s crimes, the psychological and social factors that drive incels toward extremism, and the triad of risk factors that can help identify when someone is on the path to radicalization.

Show notes/sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Attempting Hate Crime | United States Department of Justice 

Office of Public Affairs | Ohio Man Charged with Hate Crime Related to Plot to Conduct Mass Shooting of Women, Illegal Possession of Machine Gun | United States Department of Justice 

Parental Investment Theory (Chapter 7) - The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Sexual Psychology 

Ohio 'incel' who plotted to kill women at college is sentenced to 6 years in prison

Intervening in Problematic Research Approaches to Incel Violence, Men and Masculinities | 10.1177/1097184x231200825 | DeepDyve

Self-described Ohio 'incel' sentenced to 6 years behind bars after planning to kill sorority girls in manifesto | Blaze Media 

Interviewing I*cel Expert William Costello 

The Truth About Incels | Novara Media

Incel Convicted For Planning Attack | Dangers of Unwanted Celibacy | Tres Genco Case Analysis 

The woman who founded the 'incel' movement

Incels, violence and mental disorder: a narrative review with recommendations for best practice in risk assessment and clinical intervention | BJPsych Advances | Cambridge Core 

United States v. Genco, 584 F. Supp. 3d 515 | Casetext Search + Citator  

When 19-year-olds Ayşenur Halil and İkbal Uzuner were murdered by Semih Çelik  in October 2023, the public was left grappling with a question: Was this the act of an incel, a narcissist, a psychopath—or something even more insidious?

In this episode, we break down the disturbing timeline of events, from Semih's growing obsession with İkbal to the deadly deception that led both young women to their tragic fate. We examine the role of misogyny, extremist online communities, and whether incels are truly an isolated group or just a symptom of a much deeper societal disease.

As we analyze CCTV footage, online activity, and Semih's final moments, we ask: Does it really matter what label we give him? Or is the real issue the violent entitlement that keeps claiming women's lives?

Join us as we dissect the psychology, the ideology, and—most importantly—the reality of what happened to Ayşenur and İkbal. Because if we don’t confront the roots of misogyny, the cycle will never stop.

ig.com/@great_in_the_sack_podcast

[email protected]

WE WILL STOP FEMICIDE PLATFORM: WE ARE LEARNING, EXPLAINING AND EXTENDING THE STRUGGLE FOR ENGLISH 

Anıt Sayaç : Şiddetten Ölen Kadınlar İçin Dijital Anıt 

https://balkaninsight.com/2024/10/09/turkey-blocks-access-to-discord-online-platform-citing-child-safety-concerns/ 

https://www.haberturk.com/semih-celik-olayi-nedir-cinayeti-neden-isledi-ve-ailesi-kim-ikbal-uzuner-ve-aysenur-halili-katleden-semih-celik-kimdir-3727857/4 

https://medyascope.tv/2024/10/08/ikbal-uzuner-ve-aysenur-halili-olduren-semih-celikin-ailesinin-ifadesi-alindi-olay-gunu-neler-yasandi/ 

Bates,  

https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2025  

https://www.medipol.edu.tr/en/news/medipol-students-remembered-aysenur-halil  

https://www.sabah.com.tr/trend/galeri/yasam/son-dakika-katil-semih-celiki-babasi-anlatti-odasinda-insani-korkutan-seytani-figurler-sabah-tum-detaylara-ulasti  

https://t24.com.tr/yazarlar/candan-yildiz/aysenur-halil-in-abileri-konustu-kardesim-icine-kapanik-biriydi-neden-gitti-tehdit-mi-edildi-santaj-mi-yapildi,46675#google_vignette  

How One Man got Discord Banned in Turkey... 

This episode features a light conversation about misogyny. 

Born into a world where daughters are seen as burdens and honor is worth more than a girl's life, Nina Aouilk grew up trapped—first by her family's expectations of servitude, then by forces far more sinister. From surviving trafficking as a child, to being forced into marriage, and ultimately escaping what her culture referred to as an honor killing, Nina's story is one of resilience in the face of unspeakable cruelty. But she refuses to be a victim.

In this episode, we unravel the brutal reality of so-called "honor-based" violence, exposing it for what it truly is: a weapon of control, masked as tradition. Through Nina’s journey—from her childhood dreams of freedom to her fight for justice—we confront the uncomfortable truths behind cultural silence, generational trauma, and the battle to break the cycle.

Nina Aouilk is skilled in her ability to coach people, a skill she developed as a result of her very difficult upbringing. She coaches MMArtists, and boxers, and different folks alike. She is a TED Talks speaker, as well as an inspirational speaker.  

Nina's website: https://endhonourkillings.org/

Nina's IG: www.instagram.com/@londonslifecoach

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sikhism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3_64xDqKx0&t=16s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnSmg0f_B4k 

Harbinger, Jordan, https://www.jordanharbinger.com/nina-aouilk-ending-forced-marriage-and-honor-killings-part-one/, (and part 2)

https://www.so-rummet.se/kategorier/religion/andra-asiatiska-religioner/sikhism

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapunzel#/media/File:Stamps_of_Germany_(DDR)_1978,_MiNr_2383.jpg

At just 15 years old, Holly Newton had her whole life ahead of her—until Logan MacPhail decided she wouldn’t. In this episode of Great in the Sack: When Misogyny Leads to Mayhem, we unravel the brutal reality of intimate partner violence among teenagers. Logan wasn’t a stranger, a lurking danger in the shadows. He was Holly’s ex-boyfriend, a boy she once trusted—until control turned to obsession, and obsession turned deadly.

Through the chilling timeline of Holly’s final day, we examine the red flags that were ignored, the systems that failed to intervene, and the terrifying truth about how young IPV escalates into violence. How did a teenage relationship turn into fatal possessiveness? And why do we still struggle to take coercive control seriously until it’s too late?

This isn’t just Holly’s story. It’s a warning.

Trigger warning: This episode discusses stalking, coercion, and graphic violence. Listener discretion is advised.