Melissa Johnson, PhD
@ladyhistorian.bsky.social
Historian. Associate Professor. Community College enthusiast. Researching 17th-c gossip. Weighs more than a duck. Employed by George and Gracie. She/her.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
The firm handshake, "your word is your bond" type of masculinity that was communicated to me as a kid was hacknied and often toxic in practice, but at least it explicitly valued saying what you mean. A far better value than saying whatever provokes a reaction in others.
It was still toxic, but there was something genuine at the heart of it. Magnum and the masculinity he portrayed *believed* in something, which our postmodern masculinity definitively does not.
December 9, 2025 at 2:07 AM
The firm handshake, "your word is your bond" type of masculinity that was communicated to me as a kid was hacknied and often toxic in practice, but at least it explicitly valued saying what you mean. A far better value than saying whatever provokes a reaction in others.
During the second Reconstruction, we should finally make this the national anthem
"As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free," goes harder than any Civil War song has any right to go.
December 9, 2025 at 4:33 AM
During the second Reconstruction, we should finally make this the national anthem
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Read this as an American woman and then go break something.
December 8, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Read this as an American woman and then go break something.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
I know Americans overly romanticize Europe but I still think moving to a little house on a canal in the Netherlands could solve like 82% of my problems
December 9, 2025 at 2:23 AM
I know Americans overly romanticize Europe but I still think moving to a little house on a canal in the Netherlands could solve like 82% of my problems
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
if you try to serve me a ‘woman-sized dinner’ i’m going to bury one of my ‘woman-sized fists’ in your eye socket
December 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
if you try to serve me a ‘woman-sized dinner’ i’m going to bury one of my ‘woman-sized fists’ in your eye socket
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
The way student loans are meant to limit your options in general is truly unhinged. I have fully paid off the amount I took out twice and still owe more than I took out.
December 8, 2025 at 8:47 PM
The way student loans are meant to limit your options in general is truly unhinged. I have fully paid off the amount I took out twice and still owe more than I took out.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Look man, I want to live in a society where even if you don’t hold virtue in your heart, society is constructed in such a way that pretending you’re virtuous is coterminous with getting ahead, and demonstrating that you lack it leaves you behind. That’s better than where we are.
we all got cowed into avoiding "virtue signaling" as if the public affirmation of socially agreed upon ethical principles was somehow cringey instead of a significant part of what a "society" even is. now all there's left is vice signaling, and it's reshaping society.
December 8, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Look man, I want to live in a society where even if you don’t hold virtue in your heart, society is constructed in such a way that pretending you’re virtuous is coterminous with getting ahead, and demonstrating that you lack it leaves you behind. That’s better than where we are.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Okay #AcademicSky, #HistorySky, etc:
There's a lot of chatter abt how we're moving forward with assignments in the "Age of AI." Especially for those of us in writing disciplines.
I also want to hear what YOU'RE doing. Let's create a master resource thread-list here!
There's a lot of chatter abt how we're moving forward with assignments in the "Age of AI." Especially for those of us in writing disciplines.
I also want to hear what YOU'RE doing. Let's create a master resource thread-list here!
December 8, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Okay #AcademicSky, #HistorySky, etc:
There's a lot of chatter abt how we're moving forward with assignments in the "Age of AI." Especially for those of us in writing disciplines.
I also want to hear what YOU'RE doing. Let's create a master resource thread-list here!
There's a lot of chatter abt how we're moving forward with assignments in the "Age of AI." Especially for those of us in writing disciplines.
I also want to hear what YOU'RE doing. Let's create a master resource thread-list here!
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
The unitary executive theory is just a farce. An absolute whopper of bullshit. They should just say they want a strong leader and drop the pretense of constitutionalism.
December 8, 2025 at 5:38 PM
The unitary executive theory is just a farce. An absolute whopper of bullshit. They should just say they want a strong leader and drop the pretense of constitutionalism.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Wait I’ve spoken French for 30 years and am just learning that eggnog in French is called chicken milk?????
It’s everyone’s favourite time of year!
Milk of chicken time 🐓🥛
Milk of chicken time 🐓🥛
December 8, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Wait I’ve spoken French for 30 years and am just learning that eggnog in French is called chicken milk?????
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Is it a storm if it's just normal wind & rain? The dogs on the stormy beach. Sylvie, age 9, gets a raincoat. Teaho, age 1, chose to run into the ocean to chase the lone gull she found. No gull chasing on video just dogs saying yay in miserable weather.
December 8, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Is it a storm if it's just normal wind & rain? The dogs on the stormy beach. Sylvie, age 9, gets a raincoat. Teaho, age 1, chose to run into the ocean to chase the lone gull she found. No gull chasing on video just dogs saying yay in miserable weather.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Really fuckin tired of how they take every case and use it to address some hypothetical future harm that doesn’t exist instead of the very much real harm sitting in front of them.
The conservative justices have their talking point -- what if Congress turned every department into a multimember commission -- and it is totally absurd considering that has never happened under the existing law.
December 8, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Really fuckin tired of how they take every case and use it to address some hypothetical future harm that doesn’t exist instead of the very much real harm sitting in front of them.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
anybody else sick of seeing these WHORES at disney world???? these women of low merit?? hello??
December 8, 2025 at 11:56 AM
anybody else sick of seeing these WHORES at disney world???? these women of low merit?? hello??
I have a theory about this
December 8, 2025 at 5:49 AM
I have a theory about this
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
OH THAT IS INTERESTING
December 7, 2025 at 9:11 PM
OH THAT IS INTERESTING
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
The way that originalism works folks is that the reconstruction amendments aren’t really constitutional so you have to imagine what the founding fathers would have believed the 14th amendment to mean while their slaves were serving them their tea
December 8, 2025 at 4:44 AM
The way that originalism works folks is that the reconstruction amendments aren’t really constitutional so you have to imagine what the founding fathers would have believed the 14th amendment to mean while their slaves were serving them their tea
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
It would be great if Google could just let me Google things instead of spending the energy equivalent of 9 seconds of television to non-consensually provide me with wildly inaccurate summaries of my Google results
December 8, 2025 at 3:13 AM
It would be great if Google could just let me Google things instead of spending the energy equivalent of 9 seconds of television to non-consensually provide me with wildly inaccurate summaries of my Google results
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
gaze in horror upon the answer
December 8, 2025 at 12:35 AM
gaze in horror upon the answer
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
Living Colour: Tiny Desk Concert
YouTube video by NPR Music
m.youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
I can’t believe a technical solution to a complex social problem didn’t work. Ah well, nevertheless
One Laptop Per Child, 10 years later: "we find no significant effects on academic performance but some evidence of negative effects on grade progression... computer access significantly improved students’ computer skills but not their cognitive skills" www.nber.org/papers/w34495
Laptops in the Long Run: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program in Rural Peru
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
December 7, 2025 at 9:26 PM
I can’t believe a technical solution to a complex social problem didn’t work. Ah well, nevertheless
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
One argument I used to make to my students about why it was important to learn history (and historical thinking) is that someone was always going to be trying to tell you things were natural or had always been this way and that you needed to be able to see that as an exercise of power.
December 7, 2025 at 10:09 PM
One argument I used to make to my students about why it was important to learn history (and historical thinking) is that someone was always going to be trying to tell you things were natural or had always been this way and that you needed to be able to see that as an exercise of power.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
The replies to this and @jackiantonovich.bsky.social's original post remind us that the most dangerous thing is insisting that something exists in a meaningful way outside of human understanding of it. No matter how "hard" the discipline.
discussed this in seminar yesterday, albeit with reference to “race science” generally. If you understand science as a historical phenomenon then the question is what was science then, not whether it would count as science now, and the implication is that what science is now is not forever, either
1. Historically, eugenics was not a pseudoscience. It was *science* Almost every scientist, social scientist, academic, etc. believed in the validity of eugenics. You would have to search far & wide to find a scientist that didn't believe in some form of it. They taught it in college!
December 7, 2025 at 10:03 PM
The replies to this and @jackiantonovich.bsky.social's original post remind us that the most dangerous thing is insisting that something exists in a meaningful way outside of human understanding of it. No matter how "hard" the discipline.
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
the feel of knowing, without the work or the knowledge. it’s like they bottled twitter
"When participants used ChatGPT to draft essays, brain scans revealed a 47 percent drop in neural connectivity... their brains worked less, but they felt just as engaged—a kind of metacognitive mirage. Eighty-three percent of heavy AI users couldn’t recall key points from what they’d “written"...
"It’s classic neoliberal jiu-jitsu: reframe the erosion of institutional norms as a character-building opportunity."
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
December 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
the feel of knowing, without the work or the knowledge. it’s like they bottled twitter
Reposted by Melissa Johnson, PhD
I need you all to know that Warren G Harding gave his penis a nickname.
And I’ll tell you if you’re really nice to me
And I’ll tell you if you’re really nice to me
Has anyone done a ranking of US Presidents from most to least obsessed with penis size? I think DJT and LBJ would be at the top of that list.
December 7, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I need you all to know that Warren G Harding gave his penis a nickname.
And I’ll tell you if you’re really nice to me
And I’ll tell you if you’re really nice to me