On this episode of Messy Liberation, Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown share their feminist origin stories: how each of them came to see the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and what unlearning and relearning has looked like since. Taina talks about getting fired from her evangelical church and finding intersectional feminism at a women's college. Becky traces her path from "we don't see color" white feminism to Ferguson, bell hooks, and coming out as pansexual.

In this episode, we get into:

  • What "unlearning and relearning" means, and why it looks so different depending on your identities
  • Getting fired from a church, and how churches run like any other exploitative workplace
  • A congregation with "90 nations represented" and white men at the top
  • Why "my Black friend voted for Trump" isn't a real argument, and how internalized oppression works
  • Taina's move from evangelical faith to women's studies, and the three readings that gave her language for what she'd lived
  • Where intersectionality actually came from: Kimberlé Crenshaw's legal scholarship
  • Becky's mom, colorblind second-wave feminism, and what happened when Becky brought home a Black boyfriend
  • White saviorism, campaigning for Obama, and the disillusionment afterward
  • Ferguson, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and starting a feminist reading group
  • Being queer before you know you're queer, internalized homophobia, and no longer feeling like you're co-opting a community that's yours

Timestamps:

  • 01:00 – Origin stories, and why our journeys look different
  • 02:53 – Growing up evangelical
  • 04:33 – "I didn't think racism was still a thing"
  • 07:15 – Holding an identity doesn't protect you from internalizing oppression
  • 10:00 – An intense friendship and the first signs of queerness
  • 12:30 – The three classes that changed Taina's life
  • 16:34 – Leaving the church: "People are flawed, but God isn't"
  • 23:21 – Becky's origin story: raised outside religion
  • 26:02 – Second-wave feminism and "we don't see color"
  • 29:38 – White savior complex and campaigning for Obama
  • 32:38 – Ferguson and the murder of Michael Brown
  • 36:31 – Our pansexual identities
  • 42:37 – You don't need a PhD to belong

Resources mentioned:

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