Deviant Women

Lipp Selects: My Girlfriend Dolly

26 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

New to Lipp Media, hosts Heidi & Jessa relive the most cringey moments of their adolescence as they guide listeners through Dolly and Girlfriend M...

Forough Farrokhzad

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For over 1000 years, poetry has remained one of the most important traditions of Persian culture. So when, in the mid-twentieth century, a young woman...

Daphne du Maurier

22 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As Halloween approaches and we near the end of the spooky season, it's time to delve back into the world of the dark and sinister. And who better to t...

Mary Shelley

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

On the darkest of dark and stormy nights, the teenage Mary Shelley awoke from a nightmare. In her vision she saw a young man, a 'pale student of unhal...

Mary de Morgan

24 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to fairy tale tellers, most of us think of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, or even Charles Perrault. But the names we less ...

Bessie Coleman

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1920s, the infancy of aviation, pilots took to the skies to shock and awe their audiences with death dives, barrel-roles, and wing-walking. Wit...

Madeleine Blair

27 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1919, an autobiography appeared that scandalised polite American society. Chronicling the life and times of a sex worker who went by the pseudonym ...

Juana Inés de la Cruz

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After a childhood spent buried amongst the texts of her grandfather's library teaching herself Latin and Nahuatl, Greek rhetoric, and philosophy, it's...

Baba Yaga

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the deep, dark forests of Russia, where danger lurks in the liminal spaces, you might just find the unusual abode of one of folklore's most fascina...

Norma Miller

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1919, into the heart of the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance, Norma Miller was born. As a child, she would watch the likes of Duke Ellington and Ella ...

Lipp Selects: May Contain Traces Of Soy

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

May Contain Traces Of Soy is a new show on Lipp Media, a network celebrating the voices of women and the LGBTQ+ community. Join host Rochelle Lindquis...

Faith Bandler

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

During the 1960s, the world was in the grip of enormous ideological change. In Australia, there was public outcry against the Vietnam War and growing ...

Ida B Wells

18 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Born into The United States' last days of slavery, Ida B. Wells was raised to fight. The daughter of two politically active entrepreneurs, she wanted ...

Catherine of Sienna

04 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Saint, mystic, Mamma. Activist, author, Doctor of the Church. These are some of the ways that the young Catherine di Benincasa would come to be rememb...

Jeanne de Clisson

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, well before Joan of Arc led her army, another French woman was making men tremble. On the volatile English...

Gladys Deacon

07 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When wealthy American socialites Florence and Edward Deacon moved to the vibrant playground of Paris in 1879, they had come to join the artists and in...

Hilma af Klint

23 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s, vice-admiral Erik af Klint opened a crate of art. It had been left to him by his aunt with strict instructions that it should remain sea...

Lipp Selects: All Bases Covered

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brand new on Lipp Media, All Bases Covered is a weekly podcast helping you navigate the beauty industry to cut through the bullsh*t. Lauren, Lisa and ...

Rosa May Billinghurst

09 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By the turn of the twentieth century, the fight for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom had already been raging for nearly forty years. Suffragists...

Bonus Episode - Deviant Travel Heroines

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For one last Women’s History Month celebration, we teamed up with Steph and Andrea from ‘All the Shit I’ve Learned Abroad’ to share tales of o...

Liane de Pougy

25 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the underworld of Paris's Belle Epoque, where the wealthiest of men flocked to mingle with the beautiful and cultured demimondaine, Liane de Pougy ...

Bessie Smith

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the turn of the twentieth-century, in the rowdy streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a young Bessie Smith was literally singing for her supper. Buski...

Marie Laveau

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the melting pot of 19th century New Orleans, one woman emerged as the most powerful and legendary practitioners of Louisiana Voodoo. From her humbl...

Season 4 Trailer

21 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s 2020, and on February 27 Deviant Women are back for season four, bringing you more hags and enchantresses, more gender-queering lady-lovers, mo...

Holes in History - The Valiant Ladies of Potosi

06 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To whet your appetites before our season 4 launch on February 27, we decided to break into the Patreon vault and unlock one of our exclusive Holes in ...

Christmas 2019

19 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's the holiday season, but we've taken a little time out of our summer break to bring you some good cheer with our annual Christmas Special! In this...

Queenie St Clair

05 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the underworld of prohibitionist Harlem, there was one queen who ruled the roost - Stephanie 'Queenie' St Clair. The Caribbean racketeer was not on...

Mary Blair

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

By the end of the 1920s, the U.S. was rocked by financial and ecological disasters that saw it spiral into the Great Depression. At the same time, the...

We present: All The S**t I've Learned Abroad

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sadly, due to come unforeseen circumstances we’ve had to delay our episode by one week. We’ll see you next week, but for now we get...

Possessions of Loundun

31 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In 1632 in a small, haunted Ursuline convent, a series of strange disturbance began to occur. When the Prioress, 25-year-old Sister Jeanne, was beset ...

Medea

16 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It's finally time, Deviants! This fortnight, we journeyed way, way back to visit the figure who started it all, the original Deviant Woman - the witch...

La Malinche

03 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Known in her lifetime by many names, Malintzin would be recorded in history as the infamous La Malinche. Born into nobility and sold into slavery, fro...

Anita Berber

19 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the dark and seedy cabarets of Weimar Berlin, where sex was a performance and decadence was king, one woman ruled the room. Born to artist parents ...

Katsura Masako

05 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

During the turbulent years of World War II the pool halls and billiard rooms of the U.S. were quiet: the men who had once populated them had gone off ...

Deviant Women Trailer

30 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We are Alicia and Lauren, your Deviant Women hosts! Each fortnight, we discuss a ‘deviant’ woman from history, fiction, mythology or the contempor...

Wendy Carlos w/ India Hooi

21 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Wendy Carlos released Switched On Bach, the first classical album recorded on a synthesizer, she radically transformed people's understandings of...

We present: Queers

17 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

What the hell is queer theory? Who gets to identify as queer? Does it mean anything to call yourself a “queer ally”? These are the kinds of questi...

Carolyn Layton w/ Laura Elizabeth Woollett

08 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

*Content Warning. This episode contains discussion of mass murder and suicide*Carolyn Layton had an idyllic childhood. Daughter of a socially progress...

Hedy Lamarr

25 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After fleeing her arms-dealing husband and his castle in the Austrian countryside, Hedy Lamarr made her way to Hollywood and the open arms of MGM Stud...

Begum Samru

11 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As colonial powers muscled in on 18th century India, one woman rose from obscurity to become the leader of a powerful and formidable mercenary army. F...

Marsha P. Johnson

28 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Marsha P. Johnson was a legend of Christopher Street, a revolutionary trans and LGBTQ+ activist, and a leading figure of Stonewall. Famed for her extr...

Pat Maginnis

13 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In part two of our look at the history of reproduction rights in America, we trace the life of Pat Maginnis: a grassroots activist who campaigned tire...

Margaret Sanger

30 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 20th century the highly restrictive Comstock Act made it almost impossible for American women to gain access to, or an understanding of, ...

Pamela Colman Smith

17 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Famous today as the overlooked illustrator of the influential Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck, in her own time Pamela Colman Smith something of an enigma...

La Llorona

02 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Along the rivers and waterways of Mexico, a woman's cries can be heard in the night. Punished for the crime of infanticide, La Llorona wanders in the ...

Ranavalona

18 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Infamous as the 'Mad Queen of Madagascar', Queen Ranavalona's reign is remembered as one of violence and tyranny. But she was also a queen with a nobl...

Lizzie Siddal

04 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrated as the iconic model and muse for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall has become one of the most recognisable faces in...

Vali Myers

21 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

From conservative Melbourne to the Bohemian underworld of Paris' Rive Gauche, and a wild mountain hideaway in Positano, Vali Myers led a life like no ...

Ching Shih

07 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In our first episode back for Season Three, we get piratical with the most successful pirate of them all ... a woman! From infamous beginnings, Ching ...

Christmas Special 2018

23 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It's the holidays and whatever you celebrate - Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule or the Solstice - we hope you have a most excellent break and enjoy some fest...

Ukok Princess and the Scythians

15 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, in the freezing Siberian Steppes, archeologists unearthed a remarkable grave. In it they found the tattoed and mummifed remains of a 250...

Shirley Jackson

01 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week we teamed up with the wonderful Kendra and Autumn of Reading Women to get spooky and chat all things Shirley Jackson, the queen of horr...

Rita Walsh - Fangirls

18 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

To celebrate the release of I Used to be Normal: A BoyBand Fangirl Story, Deviant Women sat down with producer Rita Walsh to dish the dirt on what it ...

Emma Hamilton

11 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

From humble beginnings as the daughter of a blacksmith, little Emy Lyon could never have known she would end up Lady Emma Hamilton: wife of the Englis...

Jennet Device

20 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jennet Device was just nine years old when she found herself at the centre of one of history’s most infamous witch trials. On the stand, she denounc...

Artemisia Of Caria

06 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the 5th century BCE the Persian Empire stretched from Asia and the Middle East, as far as Africa and Europe. But the Persian King, Xerxes, sought t...

Hannah Kent

23 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In our second interview of season two we are lucky enough to be joined by multi-award winning author, Hannah Kent. Based on the true story of the last...

Catalina de Erauso

09 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Famed as the legendary Nun Lieutenant, Catalina de Erauso, fighter, lover and all round adventurer, was perhaps even more revered for her status as a ...

Carry A. Nation

26 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Carry A. Nation was born Carrie Amelia Moore in 1846 in Kentucky. By the time the Civil War had ended, Carry had experienced first hand the devastatio...

Truganini

12 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

To celebrate NAIDOC week, we wanted to honour the extraordinary life of one of Australia’s foremost, but often misremembered Indigenous women, Truga...

Tarana Burke

28 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In October 2017, women across the globe came together under the hashtag MeToo. However, social activist and advocate Tarana Burke had already been cam...

Margot McGovern

14 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In our first interview of season two, (and the launch of a new special series!) we sat down with author Margot McGovern to chat all things YA: from th...

Zitkala-Sa

17 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After leaving her home at the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota for the brutal regiment of boarding school in the east, Zitkála-Šá began d...

Sedna

03 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Many different versions of Sedna's story abound, from a young woman forced to marry a dog, to a victim of abduction by a bird man. But in all her tell...

Manuela Sáenz

19 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Known as the Liberator of the Liberator, Manuela Sáenz rose to prominence as the mistress of revolutionary hero, Simón Bolívar. A heroine...

Catherine Monvoisin

05 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Towards the close of the 17th century, the opulent hallways of Versailles were swept up with the scandalous 'Affair of the Poisons'. The Sun King, Lou...

Helen Duncan

22 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Infamous as the last woman tried under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, Helen Duncan caused more than a few stirs in her time. After terrifying her schoolm...

Summer Special - Patricia Cornelius

15 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

One of Australia's most awarded playwrights, Patricia Cornelius isn't afraid to go where other writers won't. With titles like SHIT and SLUT, Patricia...

Christmas Special 2017

22 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Merry Christmas, Deviants! In our special Christmas episode, we close the year by revisiting a few of our favourite deviant women of season one, and i...

Uschi Obermaier

16 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

For teenage Uschi Obermaier, rock’n’roll offered an escape from the drudgery of post-war Munich, and it didn’t take long before her beauty and b...

Rosaleen Norton

02 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Born in the early hours of a thunderstorm, with pointed ears and 'witches' marks' on her skin, little Rosaleen was destined for a life of the occult. ...

Edmonia Lewis

19 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Amidst the surge and spray of Niagara Falls, Edmonia Lewis spent her childhood hunting, fishing, and making crafts for tourists. But when her half-bro...

Juleidah

05 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

A disguised princess forced into domestic drudgery who meets a prince at an extravagant ball might sound familiar, but there’s more to Juleidah’s ...

Charlotte Cushman

21 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From the moment eighteen-year-old Charlotte Cushman stepped out on stage as Lady Macbeth she was destined for greatness. Treading the boards from New ...

Agnes Goodsir

07 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From a progressive upbringing in otherwise conservative late-Victorian Melbourne, Agnes Goodsir went on to become one of Australia’s foremost bohemi...

Irma Gonzalez

24 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the rowdy wrestling arenas of Mexico City, there is a woman whose iconic status rivals that of the most famous of the male figh...

Lizzie O'Dea

10 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the humid tropics of 1920s Townsville, Lizzy O’Dea became infamous in the local tabloids for shooting her rival. As the press continued to sensat...

Takeko Nakano

27 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Nakano Takeko of the prominent Aiku clan was a fierce Onna-bugeisha and master of the deadly naginata. When the Boshin War saw the Shogun’s army squ...

Anna Ioannovna

13 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the frosty splendour of 18th century Moscow, the death of Peter the Great paves the way for family rivalries and political intrigue. Drawn into the...

Aunt Lydia

11 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Aunt Lydia, armed with a cattle-prod and carefully selected biblical verse, has the important task of indoctrinating young women into the new republic...

Janine

10 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Janine seems like Gilead's perfect Handmaid: the aunt's favourite and first to carry a child. But in order to adapt to her surroundings, Janine loses ...

Ofglen

09 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Ofglen is, at first, a mysterious woman. Is she loyal to Gilead or does she, like Offred, harbour hidden resentment? Once her true loyalties are revea...

Moira

07 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Moira, the rebellious best friend to Offred, doesn't take to the new Gilead regime lightly. After escaping the Red Centre and finding herself in the m...

Serena Joy

07 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Serena Joy, the Commander's wife, seems cold and calculating, but what is lurking beneath the surface? Join us for our second mini-sode of Deviant Wom...

Offred

06 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for our first special mini-sode of Deviant Women, as we discuss Offred, the handmaid at the centre of Atwood's tale. From forced Handmaid to r...

The Handmaid's Tale

29 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In 1984 author Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale: the chilling dystopic story of Offred, a woman trying to survive in a world where women have...

Guðrún Gjúkadóttir

15 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the epic time of Norse mythology, the Völsunga Saga tells of love, betrayal, tragedy and blood feuds. At the heart of one family's legend sit...

Hatshepsut

01 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Born to only ever be the King's Great Wife, Hatshepsut defied history and, after the death of her Pharaoh husband, proclaimed herself King. A great bu...

Anne Bonny & Mary Read

18 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Both born bastards, and disguised as boys in their youths, Anne Bonny and Mary Read shared more than just their love for the sea. Each left the Britis...

Harry Crawford

04 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Assigned female at birth, Eugenia Falleni led most of his life as Harry Crawford: a tough-talking, whiskey-drinking ladies man. In 1920 Harry was char...

Josephine Baker

13 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Josephine Baker broke from a life of poverty in St Louis to take jazz age Paris by storm. Riotous and erotic, Baker was adored for her uninhibited sen...

The Travelling Sisters

30 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Cult hit stars, The Travelling Sisters, are physical, musical, and character comedy at its finest. From Queensland to France, Edinburgh to Hong Kong a...

Leonora Carrington

16 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From the north west of England to the heaving metropolis of Mexico City, Leonora Carrington defied convention. A celebrated Surrealist painter and a d...

Tituba

02 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The identity of Tituba, the Arawak slave at the centre of the Salem Witch Trials, has undergone a series of transformations in the centuries since the...

Angela Carter

17 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Witty, subversive, and unafraid to offend, author Angela Carter wrote fiction and non-fiction that dealt with sexuality and gender, and that often pro...

Bertha Mason

02 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Infamous as Charlotte Brontë's 'Madwoman in the Attic', Bertha Mason has become one of literary history's most intriguing women. From her portrayal a...

Isabelle Eberhardt

05 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Bold, talented, and rebellious, Isabelle Eberhardt was moulded by an unconventional upbringing in Switzerland. In 1897 she set sail across the Mediter...

Florence Cook

05 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Florence Cook was a young woman who, at the tender age of 15, began speaking with the dead, launching her meteoric rise as one of London's foremost me...