Hot Girl Murder Club

Chapter 8. Grey, the Detective

Where did the name Our Ladies of the Dark come from?

It seems the term was first used not by the women themselves, but by graffiti artists in the Midwest. Later, online groups, perhaps picking up on it, referred to themselves by the variants “Our Ladies of the Dark Country” and “Our Ladies of the Dark Decade.” And, of course, those opposed to the women’s aims have always branded them the more derogatory “Hot Girl Murder Club.” We may never know what Sage and her contemporaries intended to call themselves, if their intention even matters.

After all, who you are to history is rarely within your control.

—Frances Vogel, “Our Ladies of the Dark: A History,” PhD dissertation presented to the UCLA Department of History