Though tricksters and con artists have existed throughout history, the 19th century confidence man was a creature that many Victorians considered to be uniquely American. Not a thief in the traditional sense, he seduced his prey with silky words and fantastical promises until his victims willingly gave him their trust, their money, and, quite literally, their confidence. This propensity for slick talk and tall tales does tend to put one in mind of a stereotypical American of that era. But was the 19th century American...

  The millennial icon gives us a behind the scenes look into terracotta, meditation, and Instagram photoshoots.  6AM: Every day I wake up to the smell of fresh coffee. This is because I live in the windowsill of Foam, a coffee/bookshop by day and a gallery/performance venue with an expired liquor license by night. Sometimes, there will be a vintage toy or medical device on sale, ‘cause why not? It’s a wacky place. It reminds me of Pee Wee’s Playhouse, but with a lease. This morning, the light...

Every year, we keep track of our most-read articles and compile them in one place for your reading pleasure. This year we have 10 important reads that cover topics including trans healthcare, postpartum parties, the orgasm gap, and more. So, here are our top reads of 2018—which you should read again! 10. DJ Khaled, Oral Sex, And The Orgasm Gap by Samantha Mann Photo: still from "You Mine" by DJ Khaled via YouTube9. On Being Fat In Ways White Girls Don’t Understand by Savala Nolan Trepczynski Photo: PXHere Creative...

Which witch resonates with each zodiac sign? Find your inner witch by using pop culture witches from film and TV to match your zodiac sign. Aries (March 21-April 19): Sarah Bailey, Nancy Downs, Bonnie Harper, and Rochelle Zimmerman from The CraftPicking a favorite character from The Craft is extremely hard (although we are partial to Rochelle Zimmerman), which is why we enlisted the whole cast. Each character strives to be the best at their craft and the strongest witch of the bunch—exactly like the ram, who longs to...

Superstition made living in Europe around 1560–1630 very dangerous for any woman who bucked the norm. Panic was widespread, and accusations soon escalated to executions. Here are three important witch trials you've never heard of, but should learn about. 1. THE BERWICK WITCHES Now, this was far from the first witch trial in England—but it was the catalyst for things being particularly burn-y during the reign of King James l. In 1590, King James and his new wife, Anne of Denmark, were sailing home from their wedding in...

Two girls, ages 11 and 12, have been arrested for planning a murder spree in their Florida middle school. Found by an assistant principal with a pizza cutter and butcher knives, the girls later told detectives they had planned to stab more than a dozen younger students to death. “They told us they were Satan worshipers,” Bartow Police Chief Joe Hall said at a news conference, reports the Washington Post. “They did make comments that they were willing to drink blood and possibly eat flesh.” The plan was...

According to historians, the legend of the unicorn first emerged in 398 BC, courtesy of the Greek physician Ctesias. Ctesias wrote an account of India, titled Indica. In it, he attests that all recorded within his account are things that he has witnessed himself or that he has had related to him by credible witnesses. This account of India, though largely lost, has been preserved in a fragmentary abstract made in the 9th century by Photios I of Constantinople. In the twenty-fifth fragment, Ctesias writes of the...

The third of Henry VIII’s wives, Jane Seymour, is mainly remembered as the one that Henry liked the most (which is kind of damning with faint praise) and erm…that’s kind of it. She’s sort of seen as the wet flannel of his wives. Nice and mainly inoffensive, but…well, she had a reputation as boring. BUT that couldn’t be more wrong, you see: Jane Seymour was a wily motherfucker. And I mean that in the best way possible. Prepare to have all your perceptions of Jane smashed! So before we get...

In December of 1888, the Gloucester Citizen reported on the arrest of a Parisian dog thief. Mind you, this was not a human who dognapped canines. It was, in fact, a dog who regularly absconded with goods from the fashionable shops of Paris. This dog thief is described as “a big Newfoundland.” On the day of his arrest, he entered a large shop located near the Bastille. According to the Gloucester Citizen: “After having ‘prospected around’ for some time, [he] selected a bundle of shooting jackets, seized them between...

 Keeping an indie magazine afloat for 25 years is no easy feat. This year marks our 25th anniversary, and to celebrate, founders Debbie Stoller and Laurie Henzel sat down to talk all about the history of BUST and the importance of feminist media, from 1993 to now.  “We were the first generation of women to really be raised with feminism,” says Debbie, BUST’s Editor-in-Chief. “We learned about feminism as kids, and when we got into young adulthood, all the women’s magazines out there were just talking about...