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@sesamesquirrel.bsky.socialOct 14, 2026, 7:55 PM

I am a witch 🧙🏻 🤣 and looking forward to reading the book on the train today - will DM you the hilarious inscription with my IRL name on it

#MonstrousBitch
by #EleanorJohnson
#history 📚 #Booksky

Eleanor Johnson MONSTROUS BITCH: A History of Terrifying Women(book flap) HOW AN ANCIENT MYTH ABOUT A SEXUALLY VORACIOUS, BABY-SLAYING, LOUDMOUTHED DEMONESS BECAME THE DEFINING MISOGYNISTIC ARCHETYPE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION For as long as human societies have been telling stories, the patriarchy has felt threatened by women. In this book, Eleanor Johnson provides an engaging cultural history of a figure she calls the "monstrous bitch," 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. In a narrative brimming with insight, Johnson traces the origins of female monstrosity to the demoness Lamashtu of ancient Mesopo-tamia, showing how this infanticidal, hyper-sexual, loudmouthed monster appears in different guises throughout history. In classical Greece, she reemerges as the sorceress Medea, the child-devouring monster Lamia, and the vengeful Furies. In the medieval and early modern periods, she is an oversexed, baby-slaying, spellcasting witch; in the Romantic and Victorian eras, a vampiress; and in the modern age of psychoanalysis, a mental patient. After this longue durée history, Johnson shows how monstrous bitchery has been challenged and reinterpreted in contemporary cinematic popular culture, becoming an expression of heroism and resistance in films like Ginger Snaps, Jennifer's Body, and The Witch. She demonstrates how deeply embedded the roots of misogyny have become, and why it is more critical today than ever that we expose and address them. An irreverent look at a pervasive trope that runs through four thousand years of Western culture, Monstrous Bitch reveals that while representations of the powerful woman have evolved over time, the fear and demonization of her remains the same.Preface xi Introduction EPISODE I: ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN MONSTROUS BITCHES AND THEIR PROGENY 13 1 Monstrous Bitches of Ancient Mesopotamia: Demons and Goddesses 2 Greek Monstrous Bitches: Screaming Furies, Angry Queens, Sorceresses, and Sexy Infanticides 40 3 Roman Witch-Bitches: The Persistence of Lamia 68 EPISODE II: THE MONSTROUS BITCH MEETS JESUS: WHORES, WITCHES, AND VAMPIRES 93 4 Taming and Reframing the Monstrous Bitch 95 5 The Season of the Witch: Dramatically Questioning Witch Ideology 121 6 Monstrous Bitches in the Age of Enlightenment: Vampiresses 143 X CONTENTS EPISODE III: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE SILVER SCREEN: MONSTROUS BITCHES IN THE MODERN DAY 7 Crazy Bitches of the 194os and 1950s 8 Possessed Bitches of the 196os and 1970s 9 Sexy Vampire Bitches of the 1970s and 198os 10 Monstrous Bitches Bite Back 11 Back to Babylon Acknowledgments Notes 285 Index 313