What does it really mean to dismantle systems of oppression? In this episode of Assigned Reading, Becky is joined by writer and publicist Cher to unpack Audre Lorde’s iconic 1979 speech “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” They explore tokenism, parenting under patriarchy, the trap of girlboss feminism, and how discomfort is often a necessary part of real allyship and liberation. From personal storytelling to deep analysis, this conversation is a powerful, intersectional reflection on how we show up—for ourselves and each other.

This week’s text:
✍️ “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” by Audre Lorde

This week’s guest: Cher Hale is a publicist, writer, and creative multi-hyphenate who explores the intersections of identity, equity, and expression. She’s known for her radical integrity, boundary-setting magic, and powerful voice.

Find Cher:
 🌐 https://www.cherhale.com
📱 https://www.instagram.com/cherhale

Discussed in this episode:

• Tokenism in feminist spaces
• Parenting without power-over dynamics
• Creating diverse friendships with intention
• Why TERFs are not feminists
• Rejecting girlboss, hyper-capitalist feminism
• Navigating rejection and community building
• The challenge of creative expression under capitalism

Resources mentioned:

• The Messy Liberation Podcast
• Erica Courdae (imperfect allyship)
• The Peanut app
• Jordan Maney’s episode on rest and asking for help

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower

 🎤 Proud members of the Feminist Podcasters Collective

Becky Mollenkamp and Sandhya Sudhakar dive into adrienne maree brown’s blog post "Relinquishing the Patriarchy." This rich, layered discussion covers gender roles, emotional labor, discomfort, and how patriarchy harms us all. From parenting to dating, personal identity to privilege, they explore how internalized systems shape us—and what it really takes to unlearn them. With insights into Enneagram types, somatic therapy, and white womanhood, this is a powerful reflection on liberation, healing, and building a better future.

This week’s text:
✍️ "Relinquishing the Patriarchy" by adrienne maree brown

This week’s guest: Sandhya Sudhakar
🌐 https://www.selfatwork.com/
🎧 Working Your Way Podcast
📱 LinkedIn

Discussed in this episode:

• The emotional and practical challenges of raising a white son under patriarchy
• How dating cishet men intersects with feminist values
• What men are “owed” by society (and what they aren’t)
• The emotional cost of privilege and power
• Enneagram as a tool for understanding social roles
• White discomfort, male fragility, and the journey to awareness
• The limits of "burn it all down" rhetoric
• Somatic therapy, internal safety, and how to actually do the work

Resources mentioned:

• Somatic Experiencing International practitioner directory
• “My Grandmother's Hands” by Resmaa Menakem
• Enneagram Institute
• The Narrative Enneagram
  
  

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower, for more conversations that call in your heart and your brain: https://beckymollenkamp.com/rants

 🎤 Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/

This week, Becky and Goddess Erica discuss Andrea Dworkin’s 1988 essay on pornography and power. They explore ethical porn, sex education reform, and the intersection of pleasure, patriarchy, and AI. A bold, vulnerable conversation about dismantling shame and building new systems for healing and desire.

This week’s text:  ✍️ “Pornography: Men Possessing Women” by Andrea Dworkin

Goddess Erica:

🌐 https://goddesserica.com
🎧 https://podcasts.apple.com/goddess-erica-show
📱 https://instagram.com/goddesserica

Discussed in this episode

• Andrea Dworkin’s legacy and critiques
• Mainstream porn vs. feminist porn
• The role of AI in shaping porn culture
• Teaching kids sex education through pleasure and media literacy
• Make Love Not Porn and other ethical platforms
• The difference between erotic and pornographic
• Reclaiming bodily agency through semi-nude meditation

Resources mentioned

• Make Love Not Porn
• Dipsea
• Audre Lorde’s 'Uses of the Erotic'

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower

🎤 PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

In this episode of Assigned Reading, Becky and Kim unpack Barbara Love’s essay on developing a liberatory consciousness. Using the framework of the “4 A’s”—Awareness, Analysis, Action, and Accountability—they reflect on the deeply personal work of moving from complicity to liberation. This episode explores queer identity, internalized oppression, white feminism, and how awareness shapes every step of meaningful change.

This week’s text:

✍️ “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness” by Barbara Love

This week’s guest: Kim Romain is a seasoned coach, facilitator, and intuitive guide who supports high-achieving women and gender-expansive folks to embrace their inner knowing, get unshackled from grind culture, and create spacious, values-aligned lives.

🌐 https://kimromain.com  

🎧 https://anchor.fm/kimromain  

📱 https://www.instagram.com/kimromain  

Discussed in this episode:

• Barbara Love’s 4 A’s of liberatory consciousness
• How internalized oppression shows up in dominant and subordinate identities
• White saviorism and perfectionism in anti-racism work
• The emotional process of coming out as queer later in life
• Intersectionality and identity overlap
• What liberatory embodiment *feels* like

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower, for more conversations that call in your heart and your brain. https://beckymollenkamp.com/rants

🎤 PROUD MEMBER OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

Aging, feminism, and power collide in this juicy conversation. Becky and podcast producer Ana Xavier discuss Susan Sontag’s The Double Standard of Aging and how it still resonates decades later. From gray hair and menopause to child-free choices and decentering men, this feminist talk gets real about the aging double standard and what it means to opt out of performative femininity.

This week’s text: ✍️ “The Double Standard of Aging” by Susan Sontag 

This week’s guest: Ana Xavier Ana Xavier is a podcast producer and strategist who helps creators amplify their voices through meaningful content.

🌐 Website | 🎧 Podcast |📱 Instagram 

Discussed in this episode:

• Susan Sontag’s essay and its continued relevance
• Aging without shame
• Gray hair and public perception
• Child-free by choice and societal pressure
• Decentering men from life decisions
• Performative femininity and gender roles
• Aging and career reinvention
• Cultural differences in how aging is viewed

Resources mentioned:

• “The Double Standard of Aging” by Susan Sontag
• “Fearing the Black Body” by Sabrina Strings

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower, for more conversations that call in your heart and your brain. https://beckymollenkamp.com/rants

🎤 PROUD MEMBER OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

What happens when the law can't see you? This episode dives into Kimberle Crenshaw’s landmark 1989 essay on intersectionality, exploring how courts systematically erase Black women. Becky and Tori break down Crenshaw’s trapdoor metaphor, legal analysis, and the continuing relevance of intersectional feminism today.

This week’s text

✍️ “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” by Kimberlé Crenshaw

This week’s guest

Tori, aka Tori, Etc., is a neurodivergent speaker and educator on deconstructing fundamentalism, white supremacy, and internalized misogyny. Raised in a far-right religious household, she now brings sharp analysis and vulnerable storytelling to conversations about identity, power, and liberation.

Find TORI

🌐 https://instagram.com/tori.etc
 🎧 https://www.torietc.com/podcast
 📱 https://www.instagram.com/tori.etc

Discussed in this episode

 • The legal system’s failure to recognize Black women’s intersectional oppression
 • Crenshaw’s trapdoor and street intersection metaphors
 • Gaslighting in law and social discourse
 • Moynihan Report and structural racism
 • The burden of perfectionism in white supremacy and capitalism
 • Personal narratives of unlearning from fundamentalism

Resource mentioned

 • "My Grandmother’s Hands" by Resmaa Menakem

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower

🎤 PROUD MEMBER OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

In this episode, Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown dive deep into Sylvia Rivera’s 2001 speech, "Bitch on Wheels." They unpack Rivera’s righteous rage, explore the erasure of trans voices in LGBTQ history, and reflect on the importance of solidarity and intersectionality in the fight for liberation. This raw speech from a legendary activist is just as urgent today.

This week’s text: ✍️ “Bitch on Wheels” by Sylvia Rivera

This week’s guest: Taina Brown is a justice-centered DEI consultant and co-host of the Messy Liberation podcast. She brings an academic and embodied lens to conversations about liberation, identity, and collective care.

Find Taina:
🌐 https://www.ifthenand.org/
🎧 https://messyliberation.com
📱 Instagram

Discussed in this episode

• Sylvia Rivera’s legacy and speech context
• Stonewall riots from a trans perspective
• Marsha P. Johnson and Rivera’s activism
• Respectability politics and performative feminism
• White saviorism, allyship, and call-in vs. call-out
• Suicide and mental health in the trans community
• The role of anger in activism
• Collective care and intersectionality

Resources mentioned

• Lee Brewster history

🎤 PROUD MEMBER OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

In this powerful conversation, Becky Mollenkamp and Faith Clarke unpack Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s iconic essay *We Should All Be Feminists*. They explore how feminism intersects with race, colonization, shame, and identity. Faith shares deep insights from a Black Caribbean lens, and the two reflect on how culture is created—and can be disrupted.

This week’s text:  ✍️ “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This week’s guest: Faith Clarke is an organizational health and inclusion specialist for organizations committed to healthy workplace culture. She’s redefining work ecosystems for post-pandemic humans looking to do work better. From computer programmer on Wall Street to autism advocate to organizational health expert, Faith’s whole career has been influenced by systems and engineering—she helps people by creating systems that integrate human motivation.

Find Faith:
🌐 https://faithclarke.com

Discussed in this episode

• Chimamanda’s evolving views on trans women and nuance in public dialogue
• Patriarchy’s harm to men and the myth of neutrality
• The prison of whiteness and how identity shapes oppression
• Black women’s complicated relationship with feminism
• Storytelling and culture-building as resistance
• Shame, fear, and the backlash to DEI
• Social Change Now framework by Deepa Iyer
• Misogynoir and internalized misogyny

Resources mentioned

• Social Change Now by Deepa Iyer

🎤 PROUD MEMBER OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE

 ✍️ This week’s essay:
“Love as the Practice of Freedom” by bell hooks

🎙 This week’s guest:
Heather Vickery is a coach, speaker, podcast host, and joy-bringer. Her work centers around intentional living, courageous leadership, and aligning action with values. Heather brings radical honesty and warmth to everything she does—even when it’s tough love.

Find Heather:
 🌐 vickeryandco.com
🎧 Was it Chance?
📷 @vickeryandco

Discussed in this episode:

• What “love as liberation” really means in the context of political and personal resistance
• The difference between kindness and niceness—and why love is often neither
• How to balance boundaries with compassion without playing the “both sides” game
• Love as an ethic, a choice, and a verb—not a passive feeling
• How domination, control, and toxic positivity masquerade as “love”
• Heather’s personal experience with self-love, queerness, and choosing relationships with intention
• Parenting through a feminist love ethic: Holding boundaries as an act of care
• Navigating the guilt of not doing “enough” while doing what’s possible with what you’ve got
• Why white women talking about love must include interrogating privilege and practicing collective accountability

Resources mentioned:

• “All About Love” by bell hooks
• “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck

👉🏼 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower, for more conversations that call in your heart and your brain.

This week’s text:
✍️ “What No One Else Will Tell You About Feminism” by Lindy West

This week’s guest:
Paige Worthy (she/her) is a writer, editor, and brand messaging strategist for progressive entrepreneurs. Known for her spicy takes, thoughtful wordcraft, and zero tolerance for misogynist bullshit, Paige shows up in business and life as a truth-teller and cat-loving rage queen. She’s currently on sabbatical—joyfully making pottery, resisting capitalist productivity, and embracing rest as rebellion.

Find Paige:
 🌐 paigeworthy.com

Discussed in this episode:

• What this essay gets right—and all the ways it misses the mark
• Rage, burnout, and taking sabbaticals in a broken world
• White feminism, exclusion, and the danger of ignoring intersectionality
• Why catty jokes and sarcasm aren’t the revolution
• How our feminism has evolved since “girl power” and Jezebel days
• Why trying to “educate men” isn’t the job of feminists
• The difference between calling in vs calling out—and when each makes sense
• How to keep growing, even when learning out loud is scary
• Substack, internet rage, and nostalgia for the blog era

Resources mentioned:

• “White Feminism” by Koa Beck: https://amzn.to/42UtHrU
• “Abortion, Everyday” Jessica Valenti’s Substack: https://jessica.substack.com/
•  📺 Shrill on Hulu

🚨 Sign up for Becky’s newsletter, Feminist Rants Are My Superpower: https://beckymollenkamp.com/rants

🎤 PROUD MEMBER OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE 🎤http://feministpodcastcollective.com/