Feminists have had plenty to be opinionated about in 2020 and 2021. The pandemic exposed gender inequity in the workforce with lockdowns impacting particularly on industries with high female participation. Lockdowns also made it more difficult for women to leave abusive relationships. And then, there were the events in our nation’s capital- violence against women, sexual harassment, side eyes, thinking about rape like a father, mansplaining about how women should behave when invited to Kirribilli House, and so on. Self-confessed “professional feminist”, cabaret artist, songwriter and proudly qualified but non-practicing lawyer Millicent Sarre has had enough of misogynist patriarchy and is on a mission to bring it to its knees. In a self-penned show of songs and monologue and accompanying herself on piano, Sarre demonstrated that she had plenty to offer artistically and that second wave (or are we in the third wave?) feminists not only continue to fight on fundamental issues of reproductive rights and pay inequity, but have broadened the debate to tackle more insidious forms of misogyny. Before Jenny Morrison could scream “manners”, Sarre had the audience hooked with her opening song Opinionated Woman, an anthem that could have been about Grace Tame or Brittany Higgins themselves, women who have “set the world on fire”. Enter Sarre’s misogynist alter ego ‘Kevin’, a quasi-Gen Z Sir Les Patterson singing Feminism’s Gone Too Far, a bloke’s lament to the good old days of groping and unsolicited comments on looks. The discussion turned to sex and relationships where Sarre demanded vulva equality, asserting that a man who doesn’t give equal attention to the female orgasm in the bedroom will be equally indifferent to the woman in the boardroom. Night of the Haunted Vibrator, an ode to self-stimulation gone wrong when you don’t invest in quality product, felt a little out of place, but things got back on track with the witty ditty If You’re an Adult Man Dating a Teenager, You’re a Creep- hard to argue with that proposition. After a feminist rap that wowed the audience, the show took on a more serious, personal note and ventured into what Sarre called “internalised misogyny”, two topics in particular. The first was the way women are conditioned to compete rather than rejoice in other womens’ success encapsulated in the song Second Thought, where Sarre has taught herself to pause and resist that conditioning. The second topic was body shaming where the song I Fell a Bit Out of Love with my Body that Day pinpointed the origins of the relentless manner in which unrealistic body images are circulated and the instant damage they do to the psyche of young women. Sarre made it clear that she is not going to settle for anything less than the end of patriarchy with the finale I Will be Mine Before I am Yours. The journey is generational and it continues. I could sense the empowerment that this thoughtful show engendered in the women in the audience. Hopefully, the dudes that were present were enlightened.