Wicked Women: The Podcast

A quote from my fabulous and fascinating discussion with author Erin Fetterly. Listen to more quote worthy moments in my latest episode, found wherever you get your podcasts.

🚨New Episode🚨 Just in time for Halloween, an episode dedicated to discussing the lives and legacies of Britain’s female murderers.

Women throughout history have been seen as the weaker s*x both physically and emotionally. While women have been blamed for the fall of men since Eve in the Garden of Eden, their crimes are usually centered around s*xuality. When women murder, this breaks all the expectations of what women are capable of. Rage, violence, cunning, and vengeance are traits often prescribed to men. In the new world of women’s history, these women complicate the narrative by providing anything but a role model for future generations. But they still provide an essential part of human history. Continue listening as I am joined by Erin Fetterly, author of the recently published book Women Who Kill, as we discuss some of Britain’s most notorious female murderers.

https://shows.acast.com/wickedwomenthepodcast/episodes/women-who-kill

“Halloween is not only about putting on a costume, but it’s about finding the imagination and costume within ourselves.” –Elvis Duran

With Halloween fast approaching many people will be preparing their Halloween costumes. Throughout my life, Halloween has been an opportunity to flex my history nerd muscles, dressing as an array of historical figures.

In honor of Halloween, I’ve included photos of some fun, wacky, frustrating, historically accurate, etc costumes of our “wicked” women.

Anne Bonny
Anne Boleyn
Agrippina
Jezebel
Jane Boleyn
Bonnie Parker
Mary I as Bloody Mary (again never anything different 🙄)
Wu Zetian
Alexandra Romanov (which there was a full view of this costume)
Hatshepsut
Mary Magdalene
Katherine Howard from Six
Madame du Barry

🚨New Episode🚨 Margaret Tudor was the eldest daughter of King Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth of York and the elder sister of King Henry VIII. Margaret witnessed some of the most significant moments in her father’s later and her brother’s early reigns. A story filled with political intrigue, personal tragedy, and drama, Margaret has been largely left on the sidelines in later interpretations of Tudor history. Seen as insignificant at best and whiney and manipulative at worst, historian .porter7 latest book, The Thistle and the Rose: The Extraordinary Life of Margaret Tudor looks to remedy that legacy and bring to light the truly remarkable life of Margaret Tudor. Keep listening to learn more.

https://shows.acast.com/wickedwomenthepodcast/episodes/margaret-tudor

Featured guest: Historian and author Dr. Linda Porter

in 1553, the eldest daughter of King Henry VIII makes history and is crowned Queen Mary I. She will be the first woman to rule England uncontested in her own right. But as we now know Mary I is only the beginning.

🚨New Episode🚨Pirates have been a part of the public imagination since ancient times but what is known about the women who chose that life for themselves? In today’s episode, I will analyze pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read; two women who have become more mythical than factual. Joining me is historian Dr. Rebecca Simon, an expert on all things pirates and author of Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/17ZZARTOCbM1D72wjHfaHP?si=3xsvmKAUQZiuZUb6TAwP3A

in 1533 Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter Elizabeth. She will one day become Queen Elizabeth I and give her name to the Elizabethan Era.

🚨New Episode🚨The name Hatshepsut has become synonymous with female power in ancient Egypt. But her daughter Neferura has been largely lost and forgotten. In today’s episode I will be speaking with Malayna Evans, author of the novel Neferura: The Pharaoh’s Daughter in which she tries to recapture the voice of Neferura and the turbulent world she lived in. Listen to my discussion with Malayna as we cover her book, the process of writing about women with very little records left behind, and female bodily autonomy. As Malayna describes “Peace, it seems, never lasts for women who wield power in the open.“

https://shows.acast.com/wickedwomenthepodcast/episodes/the-bounds-of-female-power

in 1917, Alexandra Romanov and her family arrive in the Siberian city of Tobolsk. Alexandra wrote to her friend Anna Vyrubova, “I have not been out in the fresh air for four weeks…we think of you, not always without tears”

Happy Book Lovers Day!

Here are some of my favorite books both fiction and non fiction for a number of our wicked women.

Do you have a favorite that isn’t listed? Let me know!

Jezebel may be one of the most instantly recognizable wicked women, but little is known about her real story. Jezebel’s story has been told for centuries in a very specific way, her name has become a byword for over-s*xualized, ambitious, nasty women who don’t know their place. But as the late Lesley Hazelton stated in her intro to her fabulous book Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen “How a story is told is as important as the content of the story itself.”

I know I’m a day late but still worth remembering that on July 28th, 1540 the 49-year-old Henry VIII married teenage Katherine Howard at Oatlands Palace in Surrey.

Within sixteen months, the teenage Katherine Howard would be executed by her husband for accusations of infidelity.

I am so pleased to announce that I have had an article published in the Women’s History Review Journal titled “Divorced, beheaded … survived: what the six wives of Henry VIII can tell us about ourselves”.

This has been a months long journey and I am so excited to say I have officially become a published historian!

https://www.tandfonline.com/share/CV4F6AUE8CWGZVMZ2UBM?target=10.1080/09612025.2024.2377831

Abstract: Our understanding of history reveals far more about ourselves than the subjects analyzed. Within this Viewpoint, the six wives of King Henry VIII become a case study for each generation’s identities and how it plays a role in the interpretations of women’s histories. Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Katherine Parr are some of the most instantly recognizable historical British women, and yet primary sources are mainly void of their personal voices, lost to history amongst a wave of political agendas, misogyny, and religious vendettas. At different periods, they have been victims, s***s, saints, and feminist icons. This article attempts to analyze some of those most iconic interpretations of these women and what influences from that specific era played a role in the depiction. In the end, the practice of history itself is fallible, meaning that the real identities of the six wives of Henry VIII have been lost to us. However, the act of analyzing them, no matter how imperfect, ensures that their memories live on.

In many film adaptations of the Romanov family story there has been some kind of depiction of their final ex*****on. They range from vague to graphic to fantastical. Each version shows the never ending fascination with the horrific manner in which the family died and in some adaptations (Anastasia and even the more recent Netflix The Last Czars) the question of potential survival.

Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
The Regicide (2019)
Anastasia (1997)
The Crown (2016-2023)
The Last Czars (2019)
The Romanovs: An Imperial Family (2000)

in 1918 during the early morning hours Alexandra, her husband, five children, and four retainers were brutally murdered in a cellar in Ekaterinburg.

Alexandra and her family had been held in captivity since Nicolas II’s abdication in March 1917. Originally housed in their palace in Tsarskoye Selo, the family was moved farther and farther into Siberia, ending up in the Ural Mountains in April of 1918.

As the family was ushered into a basement in the early morning hours of July 17, 1918, the following was read aloud

“In view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you”

Initially Lenin’s government in Russia only announced the death of Nicholas II, sparking rumors of survival for other family members that would last throughout the 20th century.

🚨New Episode🚨 Jezebel has been a term used to demean, s*xualize, and demonize women for millenia. But before it became a byword for “wicked women”, Jezebel was a queen of Israel who dared to worship different gods. She has been both erased, lost in a tide of scandal and rumor, and immortalized. In the end, perhaps becoming infamous was vindication for her villainization.

In today’s episode, I will be discussing the life and legacy of one of history’s most influential “wicked women”, Jezebel. Joining me to discuss her triumphant novel Jezebel and the infamy of the woman behind the name is author Megan Barnard

https://shows.acast.com/63c10905ed26ab0011eb1629/669130570e0546b8a8486533

Polly Adler was one of the most well-known Madams in NYC during the 1920s; a ruckus era of speakeasies, brothels, the mob, and s*xual expression. Polly rose from a shtetl in the Russian Pale of Settlement to become “The Queen Madam”.

“Fashion is the mirror of history” King Louis XIV

Tonight I had the total privilege of seeing The Met’s new exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. It incorporated every element of your senses and it truly left me speechless!