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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
This is an ad by BetterHelp. What?
What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to the Library of Dark History. Welcome back. How are you? If you don't know, this is a safe space for all the curious cats out there who think, hey, is history really as boring as it seemed in school? Oh, nay, nay. This is where we can learn together about all the dark, mysterious, dramatic stories that maybe you didn't learn about in school. Because neither did I.
Okay, so I was listening to Janet Jackson this weekend and started thinking about that whole Super Bowl scandal. Do you remember that? Janet was a headliner and she invited Justin Timberlake to join as a surprise guest. And they were getting to the big finale performing Justin's song, Rock Your Body. Do you remember that song? You remember. I know you know. So anyways, they get to the end and they sing the lyric, Rock Your Body.
♪ Have you naked by the end of this song ♪ Okay, and right at that moment, Justin reaches over Janet's costume and he rips off a piece of her costume exposing her right breast on live television. Babe, nipple gate. It was wild. The Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, oh, they were fucking pissed.
It's also apparently not okay with football fans either because the NFL received over 540,000 complaints. It was so stupid. For weeks after the Super Bowl, there was this whole debate over the sun-shaped nipple shield that was over her nipple, red bras, and wardrobe malfunctions, quote unquote. The main question was, who's at fault for this? Whose fault was it?
Well, according to everybody, it was Janet Jackson's fault. She received a ton of backlash, sometimes even bordering on harassment. She had to go on like an apology tour. It was ridiculous. All because she had a titty. She didn't rip off the costume. She didn't do that. Who did that? Justin did that.
She didn't do that. Okay. She was even uninvited to present at the Grammys and pressured to not attend at all. Media outlets across the country stopped playing her music. It had a massive effect on Janet's career that she still even deals with to this day. And you're probably wondering, well, what happened to Justin? Absolutely nothing. He went on to win awards. He had a film career.
And he was even invited back to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. Justin later said he, quote, probably got 10% of the blame and that that says something about society. I think that America's harsher on women, end quote. Oh, you think, Justin? Is that what you think? Yeah.
Who took off the thing? It was Justin's fault, you shithead. So this got me thinking. Women always seem to get the shit end of the stick, don't they? I mean, people really love to warp and control how women's stories are told. I mean, with Janet, the story should have been something like Justin rips off Janet's clothes, you know, and Justin gets canceled. But instead it was Janet exposes herself to the masses.
Or maybe even two performers just made a bad creative call regarding a costume stunt. But that's not how it went, obviously. The story was completely led to paint Janet as this terrible villain with a titty. And stories being controlled to downplay women is a very common pattern throughout history. I could go on and on for hundreds of years.
And we would still never cover all the women in history who have gotten screwed over, misremembered, or completely forgotten. So today we're going to take a baby step to try to quite literally set the record straight by calling out the bias about four amazing women. So let me grab my little dark history book.
book and open up to that chapter. Our first woman is someone maybe you've heard of. Yep. And even if you don't know her, you've definitely heard her name. Oh, that's Miss Cleopatra. That's right. We're going all the way back to ancient Egypt.
So let's start in Egypt in 69 BC with the birth of Pharaoh Cleopatra. We're not too sure who her mom was, but her dad was the king. He ended up dying in the year 51 BC, which left the kingdom to the 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII.
Cleo and Ptolemy XIII were co-leaders now, and because of the rules at the time, they got married. Hot. It's what people back then did to keep power and control in the family. I mean, Cleo kind of thought she would run the place because, you know, her brother was only 10, but Ptolemy XIII's advisors weren't having any of that.
And in the year 49 BC, Cleopatra was banished. Right off the bat, they were like, "Nope, we're not sharing this with a lady. A man needs to be in charge." But although she was banished, Cleopatra was still technically co-ruler and she wasn't ready to give up that power. But first she needed an army, okay? Now at this time, there was a powerful Roman general who had a badass army and his name was Julius Caesar. Yeah.
That Julius Caesar, like the salad. He was aware that Cleo and her brother were planning and starting a war over their throne. And he didn't think it was in his best interest for there to be a war in Egypt. So he went to Ptolemy XIII's palace to try to negotiate a peace treaty. Cleopatra had heard that Caesar was going to be in Egypt and also that he had one hell of an army, right? An army that could definitely help her take the throne. So...
She hatched a plan. Now remember, Cleopatra was a fugitive in the desert, banished, and she couldn't just like roll back into town.
So she had her servant wrap her up in a carpet and then send the carpet to Caesar as a gift. What an entrance. Because when Caesar rolled, rolled open that carpet, Cleopatra emerged dressed in her full royal garb. That's pretty iconic. She laid out her plans for Egypt and convinced Caesar to throw his support behind her. So Cleopatra and Julius and their huge ass army successfully defeated Ptolemy XIII.
Yeah, fuck that 10 year old. Cleopatra had her kingdom back. Hooray! Yeah, during all this Julius and Cleopatra, they
they like kind of hit it off. I mean, she was an intelligent, multilingual, beautiful queen, and he was a badass military general. So it's kind of pretty easy to see why maybe they'd fall for each other. Super romantic. And in the year 47 BC, Cleo gave birth to a son. His name was Little Caesar. No, seriously, his name was Caesarion, which translates into Little Caesar. And that's how we got the wonderful pizza chain.
Thank you, little Caesar. So Cleopatra had successfully led a rebellion, took back her throne, strengthened the relationship between Rome and Egypt, and also had time to have a kid in between all of that. But instead of talking about any of Cleopatra's accomplishments, the talk of the town was that Cleopatra was a harlot and accused her of using witchcraft.
And as things shifted in Cleopatra's life, the stories only grew and grew. So Julius Caesar gets assassinated in 44 BC. He literally got stabbed in the back by all of his Senate. Repeatedly. But there were two of his friends that weren't a part of the stabbing: Mark Anthony and Octavian. Mark wa- Mark Anthony. This is funny. You know Mark Anthony, the one that was with J-Lo?
Yeah, he went through time. Yeah. Mark was very suspicious of Caesar's death and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. So Mark calls up Cleopatra saying he wants a meeting to see if she had anything to do with Caesar's death. It makes sense. I mean, she was the mother of Caesar's child and very close to him. And if there's anything we learned in Murder, Mystery, and Makeup, it's that you always have to look at the spouse, you know? Plus there are a lot of stories floating around about her. So they end up meeting.
Now they didn't get to the bottom of Caesar's death, but Mark did pledge his undying support for Cleopatra. I mean, I get it. She's an incredible ruler, smart and beautiful. Mark, he left his wife and kids behind and followed Cleopatra back to Egypt. And then in 40 BC, Cleopatra gave birth to their twins. Then she had another child in 36 BC. Oh my God, that's so funny. I didn't even see that.
I just looked at Joan. Joan's got a little cute little thing going on. You can't really see, but if you squint, you can see. Joan, you look cute, girl. Okay.
During this time, Egypt continued to grow wealthier and Cleopatra expanded Egypt's territory. Because honestly, she's incredible, she's in charge, she's making moves. But no one cared about that. They cared about her love life. They're like, first Caesar, now she's like with this guy, Mark Anthony. Like, what kind of witchcraft is she using? They're just being assholes. And in 34 BC, it really ramped up.
Mark decided to make Cleopatra's son, little Caesar, heir to the Roman throne instead of his Roman son. The people of Rome, oh, they were a little upset to say the least. And they thought Mark was giving away the kingdom. I mean, not a far jump to assume many were whispering that Cleopatra maybe had her hand in this. They're like, oh, that bitch, she's doing this.
So, since Mark could no longer be trusted, they took away his throne and gave it to Mark's best friend, Octavian. Once in the throne, Octavian declared war on Cleopatra. He'd heard the stories and he wasn't falling for them, okay? He didn't even give her a chance to defend herself or even get to know her and like, I don't know, see how capable of a leader maybe she was? She was making good moves.
But nope, he went straight to war. Cleopatra and her navy put up a good fight, but Octavian's forces were closing in and she knew she didn't have a great shot at winning. So Cleopatra and her 60 ships broke off from the battle and fled to safety. But that wasn't enough for Octavian. He wanted more.
as these men in charge always do. He wanted to get the quote unquote witch who tricked his friends. So he tracked her down and on September 2nd, 31 BC, Octavian defeated Cleopatra. And what was Mark doing during all of this? Well, he wasn't out fighting with Cleo and he had heard a rumor that Cleo was so heartbroken she committed suicide. So he offed himself, very Romeo and Juliet,
Unfortunately for Mark, he died right before finding out that Cleo's suicide was a rumor. Very Romeo and Juliet of them, right? Even though this was way before Romeo and Juliet. Anyways, Cleopatra did die the following year in 31 BC. She was only 39 years old and nobody actually knows her cause of death, but many historians like to say she killed herself using a poisonous snake.
What a way to go. I mean, I guess she was so upset about the breakup. He killed himself. Poisoned a snake. True story or just another way to center her story around her love life.
That's your call. Cleopatra ruled Egypt for almost three decades and by all accounts was a very successful and well-liked ruler. When Cleopatra took over, Egypt was facing floods and famine. The economy was not in a good place at all. And she came in and turned all of that around. She created an army and fought
back insurrections. She was an incredibly skilled diplomat as well as a skilled military strategist. I mean she spoke around 12 languages. 12.
But despite all of these accomplishments and all the great that she did, Cleopatra is best known for her love triangle with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. History books depict Cleopatra as deceptive and insatiable. A, quote, supposed exotic beauty, end quote, whose, quote, powers of seduction earned her an enduring place in history and popular myth, end quote.
Can you imagine George Washington being described like that? No, you can't because it wouldn't happen, okay?
Cleopatra should be remembered as a great leader who did a better job of keeping her kingdom safe than most kings at the time. But her story has been rewritten to undermine her accomplishments because it seems like, I don't know, a smart, powerful woman wasn't what history was ready for in 30 BC. And it turns out history wasn't ready for it by the time 1729 rolled around either. Let's pause for an ad break really quick.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
This is an ad by BetterHelp.
What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better, even when it's impossible to make time for them. Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow.
Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
And we're back. I just wanted to show off Joan really quick. If you're listening to the podcast, I'm gonna describe to you, I have Joan next to me. Joan is a bird, if you didn't know. It's Joan Crawford. But right now she's got a wig on. She's looking real cute. Joan, girl, you're rocking it. The reason she has a wig is because our next story, it fits. You'll get it. Pop quiz.
Need a hint?
while this leader also reorganized 29 provinces, built over a hundred towns, and reformed Russia's legal, education, and arts system. All this while making Russia dominant in Southeastern Europe. Did you guess it? Well, the answer is... Catherine the Great! You see, but look, unfortunately, these amazing accomplishments aren't what she's known for. Nay nay.
Because the thing that history remembers Catherine for was her sex life. Yep. Here we go again. Mm-hmm. So let's get to know Catherine a little bit. Catherine the Great was born Sophie Frederique Auguste. That's fun. Auguste. Auguste.
on May 2nd, 1729 in Prussia, which is modern day Poland. So technically Catherine is known by her birth name of Sophie until she moves to Russia, but to avoid confusion, I'm just gonna call her Catherine.
from the get-go. So Catherine had a pretty typical life as far as being a princess goes and in 1744 her mother took her to Russia to find a husband. Catherine adored Russia and worked hard to learn the language. During her time in Russia she caught the attention of the Empress of Russia who happened to have a son ripe, hot, and ready for marriage.
So it wasn't long before Catherine was engaged to Peter III, the heir to the Russian Empire. Catherine and Peter married on August 21st, 1745. It was an arranged marriage and it was not a successful one. It was well known that Peter had many mistresses. So Catherine took lovers of her own.
When Catherine gave birth to her first child, Paul, it was no surprise that people wondered who the father really was. If people found out that the father wasn't Peter, girl, Catherine would have been arrested, exiled, or murdered. Off with her head, bye, okay? Which is obviously a double standard since everyone knew that Peter had mistresses.
we can't do anything. So even though Catherine was a huge reader and a scholar, during this time history tends to depict Catherine as little more than a baby-making machine. But on December 25th, 1761, things really took a turn. Peter's mother, the Empress, she died, RIP.
So being next in line, Peter took over Russia. By this point, Peter was being openly nasty to Catherine and wanted to get rid of her so he can rule with his mistress. I mean, he was just, he was just a fallen asshole. And Peter was just as good at ruling Russia as he was at being a husband, aka he was shit, okay?
And this gave Catherine the idea that maybe she could do this whole like ruling Russia thing way better than Peter could. So Catherine coordinated a coup and on July 9th, 1762, Catherine became Empress of Russia. Just six months after Peter took the throne, she got in there and she got him out quick. When
When people talk about Catherine's coup, they talk about how her lover helped her. And this, yes, okay look, yes, this is true. But Catherine was the one leading it all. She was the brains, okay? It was her idea. She had public opinion, the court, and an entire army on her side. Peter was arrested and he surrendered control. But just eight days after his overthrow, Peter died. It was just meant to be.
Now the cause of his death is debated. I mean, most likely Peter died of a stroke, but there were some people who spread the rumor that he was murdered by Catherine's followers because it sounds better, I guess. Some people were even saying that Catherine was the one who ordered the hit. There really wasn't any evidence to support that, but it didn't stop people from spreading this juicy-ass rumor.
Instead of being seen as a resourceful leader who stood up for people, she's depicted as lustful and power hungry. And maybe she was a little, we don't know. But the point is if Catherine had been a guy, these same qualities would have been celebrated. We wouldn't even be having this conversation about a hit. No one would care. They'd be like, wow, this person's
amazing. But not for Catherine. The rumors about her and particularly her sex life just kept rolling in. Let's pause for an ad break really quick. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking.
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discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
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Your cash back really adds up. The most well-known rumor about her was that Catherine the Great had sex with a horse. Now, spoiler alert, Catherine the Great never had sex with a horse. I mean, maybe the guy looked like a horse. We don't know. She also didn't die trying to have sex with one. So get that out of your minds. Which, yes, that was another rumor going around.
But all people talked about was the fact that perhaps Catherine did maybe indeed do that, okay? There was a rumor that Catherine's lover had a really big wee-wee, okay? And that she had cast his big old dick in porcelain to keep her company while he was away. That's not true, but even if it was, like...
Just let her have her moment, okay? But what I'm getting at is there are lots of rumors like this. She was the revolutionary ruler of Russia. Isn't that what people should be talking about? And here's where the double standard comes back in. Catherine, a woman and an excellent leader, and a lady whose lover has a big old dick, okay? Being open about her sex life,
We couldn't have that. We could not have that. Nay, nay. These rumors would follow Catherine even after she died of a stroke when she was 67 years old. But if you ask the gossipers and the haters how she died, they would tell you that it was because her life was one big sex party that ended with a horse falling on her. Honestly, why is that so bad? What's so wrong about that?
Catherine's reign was a gold age for Russia. During her early years on the throne, a lot of her focus was on public health and social issues. She literally saved millions of Russian lives from smallpox at a time when most nobility just turned their heads.
Catherine believed in science so much she even inoculated herself and her son against the disease. I mean, she was also responsible for revolutionizing the education system. On top of all of this, Catherine found the time to be a well-versed politician and diplomat and minister.
negotiated a strategic defense alliance between Russia and Prussia. She is also responsible for creating Poland's borders, plus numerous other treaties signed and battles fought and won. I mean, Catherine over here was doing the most, okay? It wouldn't be an overstatement to say Catherine modernized Russia. So the name Catherine the Great makes a whole lot of sense.
Catherine is often called Russia's longest ruling female leader. I mean, she ran Russia for over 34 years. And this places her fourth on the list of Russia's all-time longest rulers, not just women. And even though she pretty much had too many accomplishments to count, what does she remember for the most?
A rumor about a horse. The point is, this shaming of women isn't only done while they're alive. It's part of how their stories are told. Cleopatra and Catherine the Great were fierce women and incredible rulers, so people wanted to put them in their place. So they controlled their narrative. But it isn't just kick-ass pharaohs and empresses who suffered this fate. Rewriting women's history is more current and even made its way to America's pastime.
Baseball. So let me tell you about the woman you may have never heard of who struck out Babe Ruth. And you're probably thinking at home, like, what are you talking about, Bailey? No woman ever struck out Babe Ruth. Well, buckle in kitty cats, okay? Because that's the point I'm trying to make here. But first, let's pause for an ad break.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.
It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.
So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year. So you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them.
Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?
BetterHelp Online Therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash darkhistory today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash darkhistory.
And we're back. If you're listening to the podcast, I highly suggest you come on over to YouTube on Thursday because that's when we upload the video version of the podcast. And you can see Joan's costumes. She came today. You came today, Joan.
Costumes on costumes on costumes. She looks great. I'm so proud of her. So for our next story, we get to go to Tennessee in the 1900s where Vern Mitchell was born on August 29th, 1913. Her family called her Jackie. So that's what we're going to call her too. As soon as Jackie could walk, she was interested in sports. Jackie's dad started taking her to the ballpark, but Jackie didn't just want to watch. Okay, she wanted to be involved. She wanted to play.
Baseball, basketball, football, it didn't matter. Jackie wanted to do it. I mean, she loved sports. But baseball was mainly her jam. The family moved to Chattanooga when Jackie was still very, very young, right up the street from baseball Hall of Famer Dazzy Vance. Now Dazzy, if you don't know, was a strikeout king in the 1920s, and he taught Jackie how to throw a perfect drop ball. A drop ball is a pitch that drops really quickly as it gets to the plate.
Today it's called a sinker, I guess. Yeah. Anyway, Jackie learned to throw the perfect drop ball and this would have a huge effect on her life. Jackie joined a local minor league team and her crazy pitching skills got her lots of attention. I mean, this led Jackie being drafted by the Chattanooga Lookouts, which is an
all-male minor league team. And she was only just 17 years old. Now this made headlines. The New York Daily News even featured a picture of Jackie with her dad as she signed the contract.
The Chattanooga Daily Times cared less about Jackie's amazing baseball skills and more about if she could flip a pancake or sweep a broom. Basically, they didn't care if she could play ball, they just cared if she could cook and clean. Truly unfortunate. Jackie signing onto an all-guys team, I mean, that was huge. I mean, back then, women could join semi-pro leagues, so professional games with both women and men happened.
but a woman joining an all guys team was extremely rare. Joe Engle, the president of the Lookouts, was hoping to cash in on that. Joe was a showman. In fact, his nickname was Baron of Baloney. That's cute. So back when Joe was buying the Lookouts, Joe had to promise to build a new stadium and he went all out, okay? The stadium was one of the best in the minor leagues at the time. It was finished in October of 1929, just in time for the Great Depression.
So Joe needed to find a way to make money, and he saw that in Jackie Mitchell.
one of the only professional female pitchers at the time. In 1931, Joe booked two exhibition games with none other than the New York Yankees. Exhibition games were a big thing at the time. They didn't count towards the regular season or anything, but they were a moneymaker, okay? So he signed Jackie a week before the Yankees came to town and timed it perfectly for lots of media attention. But remember,
The press kind of mocked Jackie. They talked about her curves and said that she quote, "swings a mean lipstick." She even had to pose for cameras while powdering her nose. Just always focusing on her appearance and downplaying her skill. But on game day, oh Jackie showed up.
Okay, and her skill was impossible to ignore. You go Jackie. A crowd of 4,000 people show up for the very first game. The Lookouts starting pitcher allows the first two batters to get on base and the Lookouts manager quickly pulls him from the game. And who does he send in? Jackie Mitchell. So Jackie gets on the pitcher's mound. It's the top of the first, two guys on base, nobody out.
The shy Jackie Mitchell is feeling a little terrified because she's not just pitching to anyone. Her first batter is none other than Mr. Babe Ruth. All baseball's all-time greatest slugger.
And after Babe Ruth, the rest of an all-star lineup was waiting. They literally called these guys Murderer's Row. Now, Babe had this huge cocky grin on his face when he approached the plate. I mean, as he should. Jackie was a little nervous, and her first pitch was a ball. But the second one, strike. The one after that.
Strike two. The smile faded from Babe's face and he asked the umpire to inspect the ball. He's like, "There's something up with this shit." But there was nothing wrong with the ball. Jackie Mitchell was just an amazing pitcher and she was one strike away from striking out Babe Ruth. Her fourth pitch nipped the outside corner and strike three.
He's out. Babe threw his bat down in disgust, okay? Like, he's angry. And he stomped off to the dugout. He literally threw a tantrum. And Jackie, ooh, she played it cool. She dusted herself off.
She's like, yep, I did that shit. And the next guy up, Lou Gehrig. Lou, who was tied with Babe for the most home runs in the league. But that didn't matter. Three pitches from Jackie, three strikes. Oh, that's right. Jackie Mitchell struck out two of baseball's all-time greatest players back-to-back, which is seven pitches. Oh, the crowd went wild.
Wild! Jackie walked the next guy and the lookouts manager took her out of the game. Which seems a little unfair because the first pitcher got two players on base before he was pulled. The Yankees did end up winning the game 14 to four, but history was made. Everyone saw how amazing Jackie Mitchell was and there was no way to deny it or was there?
Why are we here? So we know that before the game, the press was ignoring Jackie's skill. So it's probably not a surprise to hear that they kept that up post-game as well. They reported that Babe and Lou weren't really trying when they were at bat. They were just like there for fun. The New York Times said Babe, quote, "performed his role ably," end quote. Huh? Nothing about how excellent Jackie was?
as if the only explanation was that the men were having an off day, which we know wasn't the case. I mean, side note, Jackie admitted later that the entire time she was on the mound, her arm was really achy.
So not only did she strike these men out, she did it when she wasn't even operating at 100%. Some people even said that Jackie striking out Murderer's Row was a hoax. But there wasn't any evidence to support that. Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez said that there was no way their manager would tell his players to intentionally strike out. Babe and Lou never claimed it was a stunt either.
But Babe did say women, quote, will never make good, end quote, in baseball because they're delicate. And, quote, it would kill them to play ball every day, end quote. I mean, yeah, sure, maybe to some of us, but really? Okay, I'm sorry, but who was the one who threw a tantrum when he struck out? Are we surprised? But unfortunately...
It seemed like the baseball commissioner had the same stance on Jackie as the press. He ended Jackie's contract because baseball was too strenuous for women. Thanks for looking out for us. We're just so delicate. It's kind of funny that we could push babies out of our vagina, but baseball is too hard.
Ain't that some shit? The president of the minor leagues called Jackie, quote, a female mound artist and said that her appearance in the Lookouts Yankee game was, quote, burlesquing baseball. Yeah, whatever the fuck that means. So Jackie was essentially banned from Major League Baseball, all because she was just too good at her job. But no one wanted to report it. Jackie, we see you, Jackie. We see you. Sorry, it took me a while, though.
I see you now. Jackie Mitchell passed away at the age of 73 on January 7th, 1987. In an interview before her death, Jackie was asked if Babe and Lou were really trying when she pitched to them or like, was it a hoax? Jackie basically said like, hell yeah, they were trying, but many people still don't believe Jackie.
A baseball Hall of Fame research director thinks Jackie was telling the truth. His theory is that Lou and Babe were embarrassed about getting struck out by a teenage girl. Which, we can understand that, but it doesn't mean we gotta lie, right?
So the idea that it was a stunt was invented to protect their egos. Other historians, I mean, agree. They say Babe was a showman, but Lou definitely was not. So it would have been very out of character for him to be part of something like that. Jackie's career and promise were destroyed by the press, bias, and what seems to be the desire to protect the image of a couple of male baseball stars. We gotta make the men comfortable.
Time and time again throughout history, women's stories are sacrificed and rewritten for what? Male egos? I mean, come on, that seems a little extreme, you guys. Come on. Isn't anything honest? Checky's story is part of the trend we see throughout history. Doesn't matter if you're a Russian empress, an Egyptian pharaoh, or a record-setting baseball player.
When women's stories are retold, they tend to be warped to fit a stereotype that makes society comfortable, makes men comfortable. Shit. And there's another woman who really got smacked down when she didn't want to conform to society's expectations. And her name? Yoko Ono. Oh, we're going to take a little ad break. Hold on.
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And we're back! Oh Joan! I see you changed again, girl. Who are you supposed to be? Okay, sure. I thought you were Yoko Ono. Oh, you are. Okay. Yoko Ono! Ever heard of her? Well, I'm sure maybe you have. But what do you actually know about her? Hmm? Well...
Let's get into it, shall we? Yoko Ono was born on February 18th, 1933. Her name means ocean child in English. Oh, that's beautiful, I didn't know that. She was born in Tokyo, Japan, and the oldest child of three.
Both of her parents were aspiring artists, and they really wanted Yoko to be a great musician. So when Yoko was four, her dad sent her to music school, where she quickly learned how to play a bunch of instruments, including the piano. And around this time, Yoko started to paint, and she got pretty good at that too. She was just a natural, talented artist. And whenever she focused on art, I mean, life was good. She was good at it.
Unfortunately, Yoko's relationship with her mother, not really that great. Yoko's mom would constantly remind her that she was handsome, but not pretty. And later on, she would tell Yoko to never get married and never have children. Why? Because having children was one of Yoko's mom's biggest regrets. Like, thanks mom. Cool.
So Yoko had a lonely childhood and things weren't the greatest when it came to the family relationship. Then they got a whole lot worse when the United States bombed Tokyo during World War II. Today it's known as the Great Firebombing of 1945. 500-pound napalm bombs were dropped all over Tokyo, killing about 100,000 people. Yoko's entire world was literally on fire.
Many of the survivors were rounded up and put into prisoner of war camps, including Yoko's father. For over a year, Yoko and her mom traveled the countryside looking for shelter and food. The whole time Yoko thought her father was dead. Eventually order was restored in Japan and Yoko's dad was released from the prison camp. But I mean this was like a really intense thing for a 13 year old girl to go through. I mean for anybody, but when you're 13 like
That's tragic. When Yoko turned 18, her whole family moved to Scarsdale, New York, and she was quickly accepted into Sarah Lawrence College. Right away, she felt like she finally found her place. Everyone she met was into radical politics, art, or poetry. One of these people she met was a man named Anthony Cox.
Now Anthony was a pretty successful jazz musician who was instantly attracted to Yoko. Now they started collaborating and he even financed some of Yoko's very first art exhibits in the early 1960s. During this time, Yoko really had her big break in the New York art scene. Her and Anthony had been secretly dating for a while and decided to tie the knot to get married, you know? Unfortunately, as soon as they got married, everything I guess just fizzled.
But they didn't want to mess up their careers. So they hung in there, right? Right? Maybe it'll get better. And in 1963, Yoko and Anthony had a daughter named Kiyoko. But then they, I guess, divorced immediately. Right?
Yoko continued to make a name for herself in New York art world. One of her most famous works was something called the "Cut Piece" which she staged in 1964. Members of the audience were told to cut off pieces of Yoko's clothing until she was completely naked.
and she said this was a statement on shedding materialism. At another exhibit set up in Tokyo, she screened a movie with the actors Rock Hudson and Doris Day and told the audience, "Do not look at Rock Hudson, look only at Doris Day. Don't look at the man, only look at the woman." Yoko's career was like really flourishing.
And on November 9th, 1966, Yoko was setting up an art exhibit in London when a young British lad walked in. He was absolutely floored by Yoko's work, especially this one piece. The piece was called Hammer a Nail. It was a blank wall next to a table with a hammer. And if you asked, Yoko would let you hammer a nail into the wall. Wow, this dude was like, what? What?
He's like, "Mine was blown as a hammer into wall wood." This dude, he just loved it. So he asked Yoko if he could hammer in the very first nail. And she said no, because the exhibit technically wasn't even open yet. The owner of the gallery overheard this exchange and quickly pulled Yoko aside. And she was like, "Do you know who that guy is?" Yoko was like, "IDK. I don't know. Who's, I don't know. Who is he?"
and the gallery owner was like, "That man is John Lennon, you know, of the Beatles." Now Yoko wasn't fazed at all. She's like, "That's cute, eh?" So Yoko goes back to John and says, quote, "You can hammer a nail for five shillings, chappy." And John laughs and tells her he doesn't have five shillings. So she says, "Well, I don't have any nails." John makes her a deal.
If I hand you an imaginary five shillings, will you hand me an imaginary nail?" And Yoko agrees. And the two became friends first and then secret lovers. Eventually, John divorced his wife and married Yoko on March 20th, 1969. After the wedding, Yoko Ono became famous overnight. For Yoko, this was a blessing and a curse. Let's start with the good stuff.
Yoko and John were able to work non-stop on whatever art, film, or musical project they wanted. I mean, they became infamous as a couple for something they called a "bed-in," which was held in an Amsterdam hotel room during their honeymoon in 1969.
They literally just sat in bed all day for like two weeks and invited the press. I call that Wednesday night, you know what I'm saying? It was a protest against wars and they called it Bed In For Peace. That's the best way to fight a war. In bed. That's kind of nice. I like that.
After the wedding, John started taking Yoko with him everywhere, including the studio, which she got a lot of shit for. And then came the curse that would end up haunting Yoko for the rest of her freaking life. My God. In 1970, the Beatles broke up. Almost immediately, the press blamed Yoko. My God. It couldn't be that, I don't know, maybe the band members had begun to like maybe drift apart.
It couldn't be that fame had maybe changed them. No. It couldn't be that, I don't know, maybe they were just ready to move on. No. It was definitely because of Yoko. And the worlds collectively agreed. Yoko broke up the Beatles.
But the docu-series, The Beatles Get Back, shows definitely that Yoko did not cause the Beatles' breakup. I mean, tensions among the bandmates in 1969 was thick, and George wanted to break out on his own. But at the time, the press and public did not care about the facts. They wanted a villain. They needed a villain. And Yoko, unfortunately, was it.
Magazine after magazine started writing about what an ugly woman Yoko was and how John Lennon could do better. No, seriously. Press all over the world were absolutely bashing her. No one cared that she was, I don't know, very successful and a talented artist in her own right. Not only was the whole world against Yoko, her old friends in the art scene turned their backs on her too, saying she was too mainstream.
And to make it even worse, her ex-husband, his name was Anthony, had disappeared with their daughter. Yeah, Kyoko. And I guess he ended up joining a cult. No shit.
What a wild story. Yoko wrote them letters, she called, she even recorded a song called "Don't Worry Kyoko" as like a way to reach out to her child. But no matter what Yoko did, she could not contact her daughter. So no one was listening to Yoko. She was once again all alone. Poor thing. And this was way too much for her to handle. So in the early 70s, John offered to stop playing music for a while to help her heal.
In 1975, Yoko and John had a son named Sean. And after Sean was born, Yoko worked on her own art while also like running the business side of a record label the two owned together. And John stayed home and raised Sean.
Everything was going so well that in 1980 John told Yoko he thought it was time to get back into music and she completely agreed. The two of them decided to collaborate on an album they released later that year called Double Fantasy: A Heart Play.
and on the cover was a photo of John and Yoko kissing. But just three weeks after the album came out, John Lennon was shot five times outside of their family home in New York. To say that the death of John Lennon was the biggest news story on earth would be an understatement.
The press coverage was completely unavoidable and everybody hounded Yoko about how she felt about her husband's murder. Of course, some conspiracy theories even said that she put a hit on John. Sounds familiar. But there's zero evidence supporting this. But you know, people again want someone to blame. Yoko stopped giving interviews and performing live for years. Look, she doesn't owe any of you anything.
Eventually, she did return to the public eye, but I mean all the rumors and gossip about her, it followed her. It still follows her to this day. John Lennon died over 40 years ago, and if you Google Yoko Ono, you'll still find references to John Lennon and the Beatles. It's pathetic.
In other words, the focus is on them, not her. Marrying John casts like a shadow over so much of what she's accomplished on her own. Time and time again, Yoko's proven herself to be one of the most badass icons in the art world, but that's not how history wants us to remember her. It's fucking gross, you guys. All right, so here we are, right?
Four stories about four badass women. Maybe you've heard of them, maybe you hadn't. Maybe you knew their truths or maybe, I don't know, maybe you only knew the stories history wanted you to know.
The point is, controlling women's narratives has happened throughout history. It's used as a weapon to not just dictate women's behavior, but how women are remembered. And it's not like it's limited to one place and one point in time. It crosses borders, cultures, and centuries. I mean, it's happening to this day. People keep saying, "Oh, it's getting better, you know?"
And to be fair, I mean, it is. It kind of is, right? Small steps, but is it enough? I mean, look at powerful women today. It's all about what they're wearing, how they look, who they're dating. Are they a bad parent? Why aren't they a parent?
They're too emotional. They're fat, they're skinny, blah, blah, blah. It's just nonstop. It's exhausting. Anyways, you guys, the reason I really wanted to do this story is because time and time again, you see the media rip women apart.
I mean, pay attention, look around. It's happening right now. And I'm challenging you to not lean into it. Don't believe it. Maybe listen to them. Maybe believe women or maybe, I don't know, focus on the positive shit. How about this everyone? Let's say we love ripping women apart. Okay, fine. We can keep doing it. But if we're gonna do it, we gotta make it equal and do it to men too.
Who's ready? Who's ready? Let's talk about these men and their nasty ass. You know, come on. Well, everyone, thank you so much for learning with me today. Remember, these are only four women. There are so much more. We could do a whole series on this. But I would like to challenge you to ask some questions of your own.
Find out the whole story. Find out the truth because we deserve that, don't we? I'd love to hear your guys' reaction to today's story. So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so it can follow along. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And I would highly recommend at least coming to see Joan's outfits. A lot of work goes into them. And also don't forget to catch my murder mystery makeup which drops on Mondays.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices. And I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye. Dark History is an Audioboom original.
This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Kim Jacobs, Dunya McNeely from 3Arts, Fanny Baudry, and Claire Turner from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven. Research provided by Tisha Dunstan and Jed Bookout. Writers Jed Bookout, Joey Scavuzzo, and Kim Yagin.
edited by Jim Lucci, shot by Tafadzwa Nemarundwe. Special thank you to our historical consultants, Constance Grady and Leora Tenenbaum, slut-shaming expert and author of I Am Not a Slut, Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet. Highly recommend you check that out. To learn more, go to leoratenenbaum.com. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Goodbye.
