Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Ep. 12: Witch Hunts pt. 3 - Surveillance State: Red Scare, Lavender Lies
”Great in the Sack”: When Misogyny Leads to Mayhem
Don’t let the name of the podcast fool you...it’s a passive-aggressive poke at the way women seem to be viewed by society: expendable objects to be utilized and quite literally ended, if a perpetrator so chooses. That’s the message that I get from the lack of action over the entire world, & within our societies to protect women and girls. But it’s not just women and girls...it’s also marginalized groups & those deemed less. And as you’ll come to see, this growing problem is a symptom of misogyny, and ultimately, patriarchy. After all, patriarchy has many faces. If you’re anything like me, then you, too, feel it’s important to witness the stories where patriarchal values have contributed...or downright caused destruction or even death. To be able to identify patterns of misogyny in our own lives is empowering and can also make us feel more prepared...and here’s the thing, as most of you know: the patriarchy hurts us all. We will be discussing crimes that include honor killings, intimate partner violence, war crimes, anti-abortion violence..all things caused by patriarchal societies & misogyny, throught history and up to the present day. My hopes are to educate everyone on what the patterns of misogyny look like in each case, because history has a way of repeating itself. I’m neurodivergent af and am doing this podcast alone. Sometimes episodes are late, but I’m doing my best to get them out every other week!
Listen on:
Episodes
Episodes
Friday May 23, 2025
Friday May 23, 2025
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.In part 3 (and quite possibly part 4), we will be starting with the McCarthy era, including the Lavender Scare, up through the "crack-baby" myth and the Welfare Queen trope, to the current status of the DEI pushback...worldwide, not just in the United States.
greatinthesack@gmail.com
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)
Sunday May 04, 2025
Sunday May 04, 2025
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.
greatinthesack@gmail.com
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
Friday Apr 18, 2025
Friday Apr 18, 2025
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
greatinthesackpodcast@gmail.com
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
Sunday Apr 06, 2025
Sunday Apr 06, 2025
In this episode, we track the rise of Phyllis Schlafly-—the woman who weaponized housewife aesthetics and femininity to bulldoze the Equal Rights Amendment and hand America the long-term consequences we're still living through, and we will discuss a bit of that 2nd wave feminism.
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
greatinthesackpodcast@gmail.com
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
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/17/joe-biden-equal-rights-amendment?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Thursday Mar 27, 2025
Thursday Mar 27, 2025
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
Friday Mar 14, 2025
Friday Mar 14, 2025
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
greatinthesackpodcast@gmail.com
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, Laura, Men Who Hate Women, Laura Bates' Book 'Men Who Hate Women' Exposes Manosphere, World Of Incels : NPR
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...
Monday Feb 24, 2025
Sunday Feb 16, 2025
Sunday Feb 16, 2025
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