Case studies include The Exorcist's portrayal of female puberty, the murderer Ed Gein who inspired Psycho and the Frankenstein author Mary Shelley's real-life experiences relating to childbirth.

[1] While writing the book proposal for Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers, media personality Donald Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election—this and other events led Doyle to change their perspective from Trainwreck, where they had thought women's rights were advancing, to be more pessimistic and contain more hopelessness.

[6] In Carrie (1976), the film adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel of the same name (1974), the title character is a young girl who has begun menstruating; she is controlled by an abusive mother with a negative conception of women's bodies.

[4] Women are the primary audience for true crime stories and horror fiction; Doyle states that they are attracted to the genres as a way of processing and speaking about the systemic violence they face.

[3][2] In a conclusion, "The Woman at the Edge of the Woods", Doyle talks about contemporary American culture, such as Modern Pagan opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump and the power held by other men accused of sexual assault.

[4] Jenny Rogers of The Washington Post criticized many of Doyle's arguments as tenuous, negatively reviewing the minimal focus on contemporary media and the overuse of poetry analysis.

[5] Similarly, in Frames Cinema Journal, Srishti Walia wrote that the book presents its arguments with "rigorous resoluteness", but fails to engage in nuance, attributing all negative actions by women to misogyny as the root cause.

[10] Shannon Carlin rated it four out of five stars for Bust, praising the humor and summarizing that Doyle "writes as if ... ready to lead a revolution for women who are tired of being underestimated and mistreated".

[13] Sarah Beth Gilbert of Femspec praised the structure of the book and Doyle's argument, saying that it made a "compelling case for the power that feminist theory has when applied to pop culture and history".

Bowles praised that Doyle transitions "seamlessly from feminist theory and pop culture analysis to damning real-life examples of the dangers women face" and called the book a "vital read on femininity and sexuality".

[3] Booklist's Annie Bostrom commented that "teen patriarchy-crushers will likely appreciate Doyle's superinformed, no-nonsense, and even sometimes funny take on female monstrosity", praising the humor and the documentation of sources.