Re-Feminist History (aka Bitchstory)

Listen to the podcast episode for this article now!  YOU GLOW GIRL! This week on Bitchstory we talk about a very dark story from corporate history… They were called ‘shining girls.’ Literally. Their skin, their hair, their dresses glowed when they walked home at night. It was 1917, and the United States Radium Corporation marketed their dial-painting jobs as glamorous, patriotic, and “perfect for girls with a delicate touch.” What they didn’t say was that each delicate brushstroke delivered radium straight into their bodies. The Lie They Were Told Supervisors instructed the dial painters to “lip-point” — put the fine paintbrush between their lips to sharpen it — and reassured them the radium was perfectly safe. Meanwhile, the company kept every crumb of scientific evidence showing the opposite locked away. The girls believed them. Why wouldn’t they? This was a good job in a bad economy. It paid well. It felt important. These were teenage girls and young women — some as young ...

 Well, the truth is I forgot to write my article this week. Oops.  But I thought I would take this opportunity to remind you that Bitchscopes are back and available at Patreon.  patreon.com/bitchscopes Here's a sample of what you get: Tier 1 -The Bitchcraft Blanket Fort $5 / month  Astrology, rebellion, and emotional snacks. You get the essentials: the weekly forecast and the goddess-powered insights that make Bitchscopes what it is. No fluff, no ads, no algorithms — just feminist astrology that speaks your language. Includes: ✨ Weekly Bitchscopes (sign-by-sign goddess horoscopes) ✨ “The Quick and Dirty” weekly overview (chaos meets clarity) ✨ Access to community comments + discussion threads EX:  For this week, in addition to a weekly summary, you get this info and much more:  🪐 Key Aspects of the Week (Nov 17–23) 🪐 Key Aspects of the Week Mercury Rx in Sagittarius squares Neptune Rx in Pisces — truth gets slippery; verify before you preach. Venus enter...

The latest episode of Bitchstory: Breaking the Bank Ceiling  Join Patreon and get weekly  Bitchscopes  & more!   Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite anxiety number: the credit score. That three-digit tattletale that supposedly sums up your financial worthiness — it feels eternal, right? Like it’s been here since Moses asked for a mortgage? Nope. It’s younger than  The Simpsons... The Credit Score Is New, Arbitrary — and Kind of Ridiculous The modern FICO score was standardized in 1989 . That’s it. The whole “your number defines your future” model is barely middle-aged. For most of human financial history, credit was based on personal relationships, reputation, or a banker’s subjective opinion — which was obviously terrible for women, people of color, and anyone outside the old boys’ club. But the so-called “objective” system we replaced it with? Still kind of a mess. The Algorithm That Thinks It Knows You The score doesn’t care if rent went up, childca...

Catch up on podcast episodes!  Bitchstory Join Patreon and get weekly Bitchscopes & more!   In 1978, a group of women in Denver did something quietly revolutionary: they opened a bank. Not just any bank — The Women’s Bank of Colorado. At a time when women were still routinely denied business loans, mortgages, and even credit cards without a male co-signer, this wasn’t a “symbolic” move. It was self-defense. Before the Bank: The Cost of Dependence It’s easy to forget how recently financial independence became possible for women. Until 1973, a woman couldn’t even open her own checking account in many states without her husband’s or father’s signature. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) didn’t pass until 1974, making it (theoretically) illegal to deny credit based on sex or marital status. But legality didn’t equal access. Banks dragged their heels; women were still asked for a husband’s permission well into the 1980s. Before that, a woman’s “creditworthiness...

Something wickedly wonderful has risen from the retrograde — BitchScopes is officially back. Our cosmic comeback is bigger, bitchier, and more goddess-driven than ever. Think astrology rewritten through feminine eyes — part oracle, part rebellion, all empowerment. Each week we’re mapping the skies with asteroids, archetypes, and attitude. If you haven’t yet, come find us at Patreon.com/BitchScopes — because the stars have stories, and we’re finally telling them our way. And speaking of stories… let’s talk Gothic women. Because this week on Bitchstory , we descended into the candlelit catacombs of literary history with Violet Paget — better known by her pen name, Vernon Lee — a queer, cerebral, and hauntingly brilliant writer who turned the Gothic into something richer, stranger, and more psychologically alive. The Women Who Haunted the Gothic Before vampires sparkled or haunted houses had hashtags, women were already writing the dark stuff — and doing it better. The Gothic was the...