Our fave, Adriana Herrera, is with us this week to talk about feminism, romance, and how the two intersect. We talk about the history of the genre, about the evolution of feminism within it, and about what we want from the texts we're reading now, as the world does whatever it is it's doing. Oh, and we recommend some feminist romance, because of course we do.

If you'd like more romance chat in your life, please consider joining our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! There, magnificent firebirds hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com. 

Notes

Welcome back to the podcast, Adriana Herrera. Her first time on the podcast was way back in Season One, talking about Bowen and Mariketa, and then there were all these other times we’ve talked with her or about her books. Her latest project is the After the End kickstarter, which was just ending as this podcast aired. But you might be able to get in on it for a few more days if you act fast. 

Choice feminism isn’t the way, even if you’re Charlotte from Sex in the City… why did Jen think it was Samantha? Because memory is weird, okay. 

In 2025, the New York Times reports that 350k Black women have lost their jobs and the goal of the administration broadly seems to be resegregation. 

We recommend books about feminism below, from beginner to advanced. But we’ve also collected some web-based resources you might want to check out: 

• The Race to Innocence: watch this TikTok or read this 1998 paper by Fellows & Razack which first defined the phenomenon.
• Intersectionality: This idea was first defined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. You can read more about the basics of intersectionality here, here, or here.
• Feminist Theory: The Four Waves of Feminism explained; The Uses of the Erotic: the Erotic as Power by Audre Lorde; No Offense by Jia Tolentino.
• Transmisogyny: Transmisogyny defined; why trans rights are human rights, and why feminism must support trans people.

Books

• Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole
• Hold by Claire Kent
• Fanta C by Sandra Brown
• Darling Obstacles by Barbara Boswell
• A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera
• Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women
• Careless Whispers by Synithia Williams
• The Bone King and the Starling by Elizabeth Stephens
• Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane
• Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole 
• Only Lovers in the Building by Nadine Gonzales
• Ain’t She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• The Bright Falls series by Ashley Herring Blake
• Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean
• Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre
• Streams and Schemes by Rebecca Kinkade
• All About Love by bell hooks
• Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi
• The Portable Feminist Reader
• The Trouble with White Women by Kyla Schuller

Sponsors

• Melody Beckett, author of Alien Desire, available at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• HarperCollins, publishers of A. T. Qureshi's The Baby Dragon Bakery, available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
• Pippa Grant, author of The Spite Date, available at Amazon, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/feminism-in-romance
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.