Re-Feminist History (aka Bitchstory)

  Roseanne Barr has always been a contradiction in denim. She was once the voice of the working-class woman — loud, brilliant, pissed off, funny as hell — and she became the cautionary tale for what happens when that same voice refuses to shut up. Her story is messy, uncomfortable, and important. Because if we’re going to talk about women, TV, and free speech, we can’t only talk about the ones who make it easy to clap. The Domestic Goddess Revolution When Roseanne hit the air in 1988, it was like someone opened a window in a stale sitcom kitchen. The Conners weren’t aspirational — they were real. Bills piled up. Kids were smartasses. Marriage was equal parts love and negotiation. Roseanne’s character wasn’t there to prop up a man’s ego or giggle from the sidelines — she was the engine of the story. Barr herself fought for that. She wasn’t just the star; she was the creative force who made sure the show didn’t turn into another “nagging wife, lovable husband” rerun. She hired wo...

    Listen to the podcast episode for this article now!  SHUT UP & SMILE: THE PRICE OF WOMEN’S FREE SPEECH ON TV Television has always been more than entertainment. It’s a cultural battleground where voices get amplified — or silenced. For women, especially those who dared to stand for feminism, civil rights, or political truth, the cost of speaking out has often been steep. Hazel Scott: Jazz, Justice, and the Blacklist   In 1950, Hazel Scott became the first Black woman to host her own national TV show. She dazzled with her music but terrified sponsors with her courage. Hazel refused to perform for segregated audiences and testified against racial injustice before HUAC. Within a week of her name appearing in Red Channels, her show was gone. Not because of ratings — but because truth was “bad for business.” Dorothy Thompson: Too Opinionated for TV One of the first American journalists to warn about Hitler’s rise, Dorothy Thompson had authority and char...

Listen to the podcast episode for this article now! WHISTLE WHILE YOU RAGE Whistleblowers are supposed to be the heroes of the story — the ones who risk everything to expose corruption, abuse, or cover-ups. But when the whistleblower is a woman, the plot twist is depressingly predictable: she’s less likely to be treated as a hero and far more likely to be dismissed, discredited, or outright vilified. Society still has a problem with women who refuse to “play nice.” And nothing is less nice than pulling the fire alarm on powerful men, billion-dollar corporations, or entire institutions. Whistleblowing is risky for anyone. Careers collapse, reputations get shredded, and lives can be upended. But for women, the fallout comes with an extra layer of stigma: the whisper campaigns, the “crazy” labels, the assumption that she’s bitter, vengeful, or out for attention. In other words, women don’t just blow the whistle — they get branded with it. Think of Karen Silkwood , who dared to expos...

Listen to the podcast episode for this article now!  ANTI FASCIST HEROINES “In Ravensbrück I saw women prove that solidarity, friendship, and compassion can survive even in the kingdom of death.” -  Margarete Buber-Neumann (German political prisoner, survivor) The Women of Ravensbrück: When we talk about Nazi concentration camps, most people immediately think of Auschwitz, Dachau, or Buchenwald. But far fewer have heard of Ravensbrück — the largest concentration camp built for women. Between 1939 and 1945, over 130,000 women were imprisoned there. They weren’t just prisoners of war or political opponents — they were teachers, mothers, nurses, students, communists, Jews, Roma, lesbians, sex workers, resistance fighters. In other words: anyone the Nazis considered expendable. And yet, even inside a place designed to strip away humanity, the women of Ravensbrück found ways to resist. Resistance in the Shadows Some resistance looked like sabotage. Women forced to sew uni...