There’s nothing like a mad woman, what a shame she went mad. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with some songs about women scorned? In this episode, we bring to you three songs that represent mad women. Maansi kicks off the discussion with the scornful, vengeful mad woman in “Better Than Revenge,” Jodi walks us through the woman who’s driven to insanity in “mad woman,” and Jenn wraps up the discussion with an example of the mad woman who is stuck in bonus track “right where you left me.” We close out the discussion by acknowledging how all of these songs are indicative of a movement that’s giving women everywhere the opportunity to reclaim the “mad woman” stigma.
Did we know this episode would drop on Valentine’s Day when we recorded it? No. Are we mad about it? Not at all!
Mentioned in this episode:
“Before He Cheats,” Carrie Underwood
“Mama’s Broken Heart,” Miranda Lambert
“Vigilante shit,” Taylor Swift
The Country of the Blind, HG Wells
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Female Malady, Elaine Showalter
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Cinderella’s Sisters: A Revisionist History of Foot Binding, Dorothy Ko
“Mama’s broken heart,” Miranda Lambert
Looking for an audio book? Check out our Libro.fm playlist https://tidd.ly/47uhRVI
***
Episode Highlights:
[01:47] Intro to “mad women” & hysteria
[09:43] “Better than revenge,” Speak Now
[33:52] “mad woman,” folklore
[50:52] “right where you left me,” evermore
[1:13:02] Reclaiming the mad woman
Subscribe to get new episode updates: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe
Follow us on social!
This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.