Off with Her Head

Three Thousand Years of Demonizing Women in Power

By: Eleanor Herman

Narrated by: Erin Bennett

New York Times bestseller Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings and Sex with Presidents, returns with another work of popular history, exploring the history of misogyny against women with power from Cleopatra to Kamala Harris.

Imagine Donald Trump as a woman, called Donna. Would Donna Trump have been viewed as blunt, honest, and refreshing? Would she have won the election?

Imagine Hillary Clinton as a man. Howard Clinton says and does the exact same things as Hillary. Would Howard Clinton have been portrayed in a thousand Pinterest images as a witch, stirring a cauldron or riding a broomstick? Would he have been called a bitch on countless T-shirts? Would his thoughtful, circumspect answers to media questions have been seen as inauthenticity, secretiveness, and untrustworthiness?

There is a particular kind of rage—let’s call it unadulterated bloodlust—usually reserved for women, especially women in power or vying for it. From the ancient world, through the European Renaissance, up to the most recent U.S. elections, the Misogynist’s Handbook, as Eleanor Herman calls it, has been wielded to put uppity women in their place.

In a story that is shocking, eye-opening, and a powerful force for change, Eleanor Herman’s signature wit and humor explores the patterns that have been operating for more than three thousand years—and are still operating today—against powerful women across the globe, including Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and more.

Each chapter analyzes a tried-and-true misogynistic method to keep women down, including: Her Overweening Ambition, Why Doesn’t She Do Something About Her Hair?, The Dangers of Female Hormones, The Alarming Shrillness of Her Voice, The Mysterious Unlikability of Female Candidates, She’s a Bitch and Other Animals, She’s a Witch and Other Monsters, and Her Sexual Depravity. Herman ends the book by looking forward, examining ways to rip up the Misogynist’s Handbook once and for all.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

dissecting misogynistic history

this is a must listen/read. from eve to hilary clinton, from cleopatra to kamala harris and all the queens, empresses, leaders and all the powerful women in between - we not only learn the true history of these women; we dissect why and how it was changed in the first place. it’s smart and engaging and the narrator really picks up on the tone and sarcasm.

Refreshing perspective

There’s a lot to enjoy here. It’s an unabashedly feminist take on how powerful women throughout recorded history up until 2022. Not only does it highlight rampant misogyny and make it easier to spot in the wild, but it also dives into prominent historical women and how the narrative around their lives and their legacies have been portrayed in popular history. A LOT of what we know about powerful women in history is misrepresented and very misleading. It addresses common myths surrounding them and presents alternative takes - some speculation, but mostly backed by historical records of the people who were present at the time. It’s an excellent book if you like reading about history, but it’s equally enjoyable to learn about how the treatment women experienced thousands of years ago is not so different from how modern powerful women are treated today. The misogynists handbook, as she calls it, is something that’s been around for millennia and Herman breaks it down and dissects it very intelligently. There’s a ton to learn here and it makes you question your own prejudices and how you critique powerful women. It’s also very well written and peppered with humor and sarcasm that makes it a fun read

An engaging review of how women of power and status have been treated throughout history

I very much enjoyed this book. It explained history in a fun, though infuriating way. (Infuriating because it sucks that women are treated so poorly by men in power.) One of my favorite parts was after a discussion of men intentionally mis pronouncing women’s names, the reader proceeded to pronounce misogynistic congressman Hebert’s name “He Burt” instead of the Louisiana French “ay-bear”. As a Louisianan, whether intentional or unintentional, I found it delightful.

Every feminist must read this

Smart, engaging and highly thought-provoking - exposes how pervasive sexism truly has been and how we have to be more conscious of the words we use to describe, talk to and raise women

Not great takes overall lots of white feminism

Overly focused on politics and white feminism within that doesn’t view things in a complex way no accounting for class or race