introductory communist theory recommendations, more online LGBTQ discourse, & Gaylor Easter eggs: 1 year anniversary & season 3 finale
The Lavender MenaceShow Notes
Happy 1 year anniversary of The Lavender Menace Podcast! We are dedicating our anniversary, season 3 finale, and 2022 Easter episode to answering three listener submitted hot takes, going over all of Taylor Swift’s Easter eggs pointing to her being gay, and reflecting on the media recommendations we’ve given each other in the past year. In discussing being a communist on the day to day, we recommend some beginner level theory: Angela Davis books (Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Women Race and Class, Women Culture and Politics, Are Prisons Obsolete,) Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti, Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, Lenin’s State and Revolution, Gender Accelerationist Manifesto, base and superstructure, Dialectical and Historical Materialism by Stalin, the podcast episodes Stalin was a mensch & Stalin a Marxist Leninist perspective. We also mention The Black Jacobins, Robin DG Kelley’s Hammer and Hoe, The Foundations of Lenininism by Stalin, The Castle of Truth and Other Stories by Hermynia Zur Muhlen, and Mao’s Combat Liberalism. (Also not mentioned in the episode but other really good theory recommendations: Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Neocolonialism by Kwame Nkrumah, Women’s Liberation and he African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara). We respond to a listener facing biphobia allegations and give our thoughts on radical feminism/trans exclusionary radical feminists (aka TERFs) with leads us to talking about attraction and sexual orientation’s relationship to one’s politics, “monosexuals”, heterosexual women’s misogyny, gay men’s misogyny, centering and attraction to men, the Bechdel test, and opposing transmisogyny. For another listener submitted hot take, we discuss how “androphobia” isn’t real, break down the phenomenon of fetishizing of transmisogyny, and namedrop @butchboyfriend on Tik Tok. Renaissance then leads the conversation into material conditions in response to the gender binary and patriarchy, lesbophobia vs biphobia, visibility vs material conditions, the gender trinary, and trans men/butch history. Finally, we tackle the hot takes around lesbians and ‘genital preferences’ and the politics of attraction. For the shared media portion of this episode, Renaissance goes through the timeline of Taylor Swift’s queer coded Easter eggs and get into Dianna Agron and RED. Sunny rants about reputation and Lover’s gayness and breaks down Cruel Summer which leads to Renaissance bringing up illicit affairs, Karlie Kloss, more Swiftgron, and an emphasis on Taylor’s lyricism: “the world was black and white but we were in screaming color” etc. Also, “ME! Out now” on lesbian visibility day. For the final and third section of today’s episode, we go through the things we’ve previously recommended each other on the podcast and have since consumed and enjoyed: Fleabag, Fortune Favors The Dead, Conversations With Friends, Assassination Nation, Professor Marsten and the Wonder Woman, Stella Bomkivist, and of course, the our love lasts so long article. Finally, get excited for our 4/20 bonus episode coming soon on Patreon!!! We get high and talk shit, and get more details on our origin story. Get 2 bonus episodes a month, early access, exclusive merch & more by supporting us on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLavenderMenace Thanks for joining us for this episode, and you can find us on twitter, instagram, Tik Tok, and letterboxd if you want to connect! Send your hot takes to [email protected].
More from The Lavender Menace
A very belated part 2 of our 2025 wrap up episode (LOL) recorded the same day as our most recent episode prior to this one. TLDL: art under capitalism is destroying art, anorexia is the devil and so is technology
A very belated 2025 wrap up episode (we recorded for over four hours back in December LOL so this is part one....) in which we discuss: Lesbian Feminist Book Club: https://www.instagram.com/lesbianfeministbookclub/ mindfulness meditation and letting ourselves be bored being anti-overconsumption and anti-internet and social media PHYSICAL MEDIA!!!!! Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World by Jonathan Crary All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence by Emily L. Thuma A Brick and Bible: Black Women's Radical Activism in the Midwest During the Great Depression by Melissa Ford When Driving Is Not An Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency by Anna Letitia Zivarts Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft Imperfect Victims: Criminalized Survivors and the Promise of Abolition Feminism by Leigh Goodmark Perfect Victims: and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed el-Kurd Kwaneta Harris: https://www.instagram.com/kwanetaharris/ Ra'jiva Tha Rulaa: https://www.youtube.com/@rajiva_tharulaa The Body Keeps the Score Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk Thanks for joining us for this episode! Send your hot takes to [email protected] and support us on Patreon or Substack for bonus content and early access: https://www.patreon.com/TheLavenderMenace https://www.patreon.com/TheLavenderMenace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheLavenderMenacePod
Are white queers entitled about their history and culture? Can femmes be nonbinary? And other pressing questions that our listeners, patrons, and substack subscribers have submitted to us... (Email us your hot takes at [email protected]!!!) Queer history is so so so important and most gay people do not know enough of it! The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader edited by Joan Nestle is one of the most important lesbian history books ever BTW, especially for femmes and butches. Silvia Federici's 2004 book Caliban & the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation is a book all feminists, Marxists, and Marxist feminists need to read. The politics of magic, the witch hunts, and the relationship between European colonialism and the dispossession of women and workers are some of the topics this book thoroughly explores. We cannot recommend it enough. Check out Sunny's recommendation of Sophie Lewis's books (Abolish the Family, Full Surrogacy Now, & Enemy Feminism) and Sunny's interview with Sophie, and Renaissance's Letterboxd and their recommendation of the documentary Feminism Inshallah: A History of Arab Feminism. Disclaimer: we recorded this episode back in the spring.
This episode includes discussion of: “butch-femme” aesthetic photos, our problem with Pinterest, internet personas and the importance of being earnest (and also genuine!) Also: the importance of female singer-songwriters and how CINEMA IS BACK which might be a recession/fascism indicator... In discussing the the racial and historical background of Sinners (2025), we examine the portrayal of truth and legacy in this surprisingly good blockbuster movie. From lynching to sharecropping, the frankness with which Ryan Coogler portrays 1932 Mississippi was incredibly moving. Our recommendations: https://www.solidaritycinema.com/ and The Wedding by Dorothy West. 01:04:04 — when we start talking about Sinners Thanks for joining us for this episode! Send your hot takes to [email protected] and support us on Patreon for bonus content and early access: https://www.patreon.com/TheLavenderMenace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheLavenderMenacePod Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/thelavenderpod/ Substack: https://thelavendermenace.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLavenderPod
This podcast episode brought to you today by lukewarm politics of hair takes re: Bush discourse (not the president) and Kanye/Bianca, a hot take from Sunny about the Doechii album, & Black lesbian film love from Renaissance Send your HOTTEST TAKES to [email protected] ! & Support your favorite indie dykes & get early episode access/exclusive bonus content on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheLavenderMenace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheLavenderMenacePod Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/thelavenderpod/ Substack: https://thelavendermenace.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheLavenderPod