@Tracie: Did Squeaky Fromme really fundamentally change what people thought women were capable of? I don't think she did. I don't think the patriarchal society we live in today would exist if people actually believed that women were by their nature nurturing. That was always a normative demand rather than a…

@Tracie: You make a fair point. It could be argued that Susan Atkins et al followed the path set out by Bonnie Parker and Caril Ann Fugate — women joining with men to commit random and brutal murders. The Manson women might have carried the trope a step farther in carrying out the murders outside of Manson's…

While I don't disagree with the comparison to second-wave feminism challenging female stereotypes, it seems a bit reductive to argue that the Manson Family helped "debunk" the myth of the nurturing female. The growing availability of the birth control pill, advocacy of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the foundation of…