Best of
Gender

1

Against the Madness of Manu: B.R. Ambedkar's Writings on Brahmanical Patriarchy


B.R. Ambedkar
    A Brahman Congress leader suggests that a Dalit chief minister be raped and paid compensation. In his 1916 paper Castes in India , the 25-year-old Ambedkar offered the insight that the caste system thrives by its control of women, and that caste is a product of sustained endogamy. Since then, till the time he piloted the Hindu Code Bill, seeking to radicalise women s rights in the 1950s, Ambedkar deployed a range of arguments to make his case against Brahmanism and its twin, patriarchy. While Ambedkar s original insights have been neglected by sociologists, political theorists and even feminists, they have been kept alive, celebrated and memorialised by Dalit musical troupes and booklets in Maharashtra. Sharmila Rege, in this compelling selection of Ambedkar s writings on the theme of Brahmanical patriarchy, illuminates for us his unprecedented sociological observations. Rege demonstrates how and why Ambedkar laid the base for what was, properly speaking, a feminist take on caste.

Patriarchy Blues: Reflections on Manhood


Frederick Joseph
    From fatherhood, and "manning up" to abuse and therapy, he fearlessly and thoughtfully tackles the complex realities of men's lives today and their significance for society, lending his insights as a Black man.Written in Joseph's unique voice, with an intelligence and raw honesty that demonstrates both his vulnerability and compassion, Patriarchy Blues forces us to consider the joys, pains, and destructive nature of manhood and the stereotypes it engenders.

Fine: A Comic About Gender


Rhea Ewing
    A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country. Questions such as “How do you Identify” produced fiercely honest stories of dealing with adolescence, taking hormones, changing pronouns—and how these experiences can differ, often drastically, depending on culture, race, and religion. Amidst beautifully rendered scenes emerges Ewing’s own story of growing up in rural Kentucky, grappling with their identity as a teenager, and ultimately finding themself through art—and by creating something this very fine. Tender and wise, inclusive and inviting, Fine is an indispensable account for anyone eager to define gender in their own terms.

Nonbinary


Melanie Gillman
    Topics covered include: pronoun changes, dysphoria, dealing with reactions from friends/family/employers/etc., misconceptions about nonbinary people, and more.

The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities (Zine)


Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
    

Velour: The Drag Magazine [Collector's Edition]


Sasha Velour
    Designed by Velour in her signature style, it features illustrations, collages, fashion editorials, poems, interviews, and essays by over 75 queer artists and drag performers from around the world. Since it's inception in 2013, the magazine has been dedicated to showcasing the work of drag queens and drag kings, queer, trans, AFAB, and non-binary drag artists from all backgrounds. This new collector's edition, which compiles all 3 issues of Velour for the first time, showcases House of Velour's dedication to celebrating every drag artist who dares to create work that pushes boundaries in both queer and mainstream culture. Now larger and in hardback form, the compiled issues of Velour are a comprehensive study of the complex and varied nature and vision of drag today. Hardcover 9.25" x 11" 300 pages, Color, Offset Printed Published November 2018

Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance


bell hooks
    

Assume Nothing


Rebecca Swan
    Assume Nothing features frank and arresting images of twenty-five participants, along with their candid—and sometimes heartrending—comments about what it has meant to exist outside of traditional gender identities.The participants range in age from twenty to sixty. They are Haitian American, Samoan New Zealander, Maori, European Australian, Aboriginal, and African English. They are gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, and pansexual. In terms of gender, they are transsexuals, gender queers, eunuchs, sister girls, drag kings and queens, and the alternative gender roles traditional to Maori and Samoan cultures.In their blurring of boundaries, Swan’s images ask readers to examine their assumptions—and even, at moments, their own sexuality. They reveal the harm that results from forcing living bodies to conform to preexisting roles and capture a deeper reality of struggle, uncertainty, and process. Above all, they point the way to the creation of a new vocabulary of gender and a world of increased tolerance where, when it comes to gender, nothing is assumed.

Women as Revolutionary Agents of Change: The Hite Reports, 1972-1993


Shere Hite
    To read this outstanding distillation of Hite's writings is to see the continuing impact of her prodigious work over two decades, to hear her views on the issues facing women as agents of social change, and to be taken to the cutting edge of current debates on sexual politics.

Law Enforcement Violence Against Women of Color & Trans People of Color: A Critical Intersection of Gender Violence & State Violence


Incite! Women of Color Against Violence
    It includes fact sheets, ideas for organizing, and sample tools created by other organizations.

The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex


Gayle S. Rubin
    She asserts that these writers fail to adequately explain women's subjugation; therefore, Rubin offers a reinterpretation of their ideas. Rubin addresses Marxist thought by identifying women's role within a capitalist society. She argues that the reproduction of labor power depends upon women's housework to transform commodities into sustenance for the worker. A capitalistic system cannot generate surplus without women, yet society does not grant women access to the resulting capital.

This Time for Me


Alexandra Billings
    When she started transitioning in 1980, the word “Transgender” didn’t exist. With no Trans role models and no path to follow, Alexandra did what her family, teachers, and even friends said was impossible: Alexandra forged ahead.Spanning five decades, from profound lows to exhilarating highs, This Time for Me captures the events of a pioneering life. An award-winning actor and history-making LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist, Alexandra shares not only her own ever-evolving story but also the parallel ways in which queer identity has dramatically changed since the Stonewall riots of 1969. She weaves a true coming-of-age story of richly imaginative lies, of friends being swept away by a plague that decimated the community, of her determination to establish a career that would break boundaries, and of the recognition of her own power.A celebration of endless possibilities, Alexandra’s bracing memoir is a fight-to-the-death revolution against all expectations.

X


Davey Davis
    But everything changes when Lee is dragged to a warehouse party by their best friend, where they find themself in the clutches of the seductive and bloodthirsty X. When Lee seeks her out again, she’s nowhere to be found. Amid the steady constriction of civil rights and the purging of migrants and refugees, the U.S. government has recently begun encouraging the semi-voluntary “exporting” of undesirable citizens—the radicalized, the dissident, and the ungovernable. Word has it that X may be among those leaving. If Lee doesn’t track her down soon, she may be gone forever.

Climate Justice: A Man-Made Problem With a Feminist Solution


Mary Robinson
    

Alice Austen Lived Here


Alex Gino
    They're nonbinary, and their best friend, TJ, is nonbinary as well. Sam's family is very cool with it... as long as Sam remembers that nonbinary kids are also required to clean their rooms, do their homework, and try not to antagonize their teachers too much.The teacher-respect thing is hard when it comes to Sam’s history class, because their teacher seems to believe that only Dead Straight Cis White Men are responsible for history. When Sam’s home borough of Staten Island opens up a contest for a new statue, Sam finds the perfect non-DSCWM subject: photographer Alice Austen, whose house has been turned into a museum, and who lived with a female partner for decades.Soon, Sam's project isn't just about winning the contest. It's about discovering a rich queer history that Sam's a part of -- a queer history that no longer needs to be quiet, as long as there are kids like Sam and TJ to stand up for it.

Women Don't Owe You Pretty / Girl Woman Other / Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race


Florence Given
    

My Mother's Way Of Wearing A Sari


Sujata Bhatt
    

The Third Person


Emma Grove
    She wants to share this wonderful new book she’s reading, but Toby, her therapist, is concerned with other things. Emma is transgender, and has sought out Toby for approval for hormone replacement therapy. Emma has shown up at the therapy sessions as an outgoing, confident young woman named Katina, and a depressed, submissive workaholic named Ed. She has little or no memory of her actions when presenting as these other two people. And then Toby asks about her childhood . . .As the story unfolds, we discover clues to Emma’s troubled past and how and why these other two people may have come into existence. As Toby juggles treating three separate people, each with their own unique personalities and memories, he begins to wonder if Emma is merely acting out to get attention, or if she actually has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Is she just a troubled woman in need of help? And is “the third person” in her brain protecting her, or derailing her chances of ever finding peace?The Third Person is a riveting memoir from newcomer Emma Grove. Drawn in thick, emotive lines, with the refined style of a comics vet, Grove has created a singular, gripping depiction of the intersection of identities and trauma. The Third Person is a testament to the importance of having the space to heal and live authentically.

Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa


Emma Barnes
    We became teenagers in the nineties when New Zealand felt a lot less cool about queerness and gender felt much more rigid. We knew instinctively that hiding was the safest strategy. But how to find your community if you’re hidden? Aotearoa is a land of extraordinary queer writers, many of whom have contributed to our rich literary history. But you wouldn’t know it. Decades of erasure and homophobia have rendered some of our most powerful writing invisible. Out Here will change that. This landmark book brings together and celebrates queer New Zealand writers from across the gender and LGBTQIA+ spectrum with a generous selection of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and much, much more. From established names to electrifying newcomers, the cacophony of voices brought together in Out Here sing out loud and proud, ensuring that future generations of queers are afforded the space to tell their stories and be themselves without fear of retribution or harm.

Lace Sick Bag


Joon Oluchi Lee
    Borne from a desire to embody femininity, these are stories that sound and feel like women. They traverse opposite coasts of bodily existence, as men turn into women, women turn into men, children become mothers, mothers become children. (And geographic coasts as well: New York and San Francisco turn into each other.) They burrow deep into the psyche and then spring out to teach how to glimmeringly show your insides on the outside.

Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop


Danyel SmithDanyel Smith
    This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story—written by one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation. A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo. Smith’s detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley. Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight—and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.

Add your own colors to the Rainbow!


Sophie Labelle
    Written and mostly drawn by Sophie Labelle, the author of the webcomic Assigned Male, with guest illustrations by :H-P Lehkonen (@hplehkonen)Elijah Haswell (www.facebook.com/helloworlditseli)Apila Pepita (www.apilapepita.com)Michael Kay (www.patreon.com/serpentenialart)Arvi Tammi (@arvitammi)Bria "The Lightning" Symington (lifeofbria.com)Sam (http://mantimecomic.tumblr.com)Sam Orchard (www.roostertailscomic.com)Guy (www.facebook.com/dessinemoiuneguimauve)Stc019 (stc019.artstation.com &www.facebook.com/stc019rouleenmob)

The Darkness


Crystal Connor
    She is one of the founding members of the Skyward Group, a privately funded, secret, research facility conducting experiments that ease what tradition has established as the boundaries separating the realm of man from the realm of God. Artemisia has everything she wants - money, fame, knowledge and power - except for a child.Inanna is a powerful and dangerous witch, also wealthy beyond imagination. Her powers are greater and more deadly than any in the long tradition before her. Inanna has everything she wants - money, knowledge and God-like power - except for a child.The Child has nothing. At three months of age, he knows only what he has experienced through the bars of his locked cage. He has nothing. He doesn't have a mommy. He doesn't have a daddy. He doesn't have a name. The scientists who created him do not handle him, because they know The Child is dangerous.In The Darkness, Two women clash in a vicious battle that has been fought since the days of King Solomon - the fight over a child. One woman unleashes the nightmarish arsenal of modern science while the other dispatches the weaponries of witchcraft. And as The Child grows up, his love for one and resentment for the other will change the fate of both these women, forever.

Christianity & Manhood


Brett McKay
    

Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do


Tracy Dawson
    Tracy has such a gift for storytelling and making history leap off the page. Her book has a wit that suggests it was written by a man since everyone knows women aren't this funny.”—Kay Cannon, writer, producer, director (Pitch Perfect, Cinderella)“A smart, funny journey through history that introduces us to the rule breakers who made history worth traveling through.”—Patton Oswalt“I came up with Tracy as a fellow sketch comedian on the vomit-soaked stages of the Toronto comedy scene. And like the brilliant, resourceful, rule-breaking, damn-well-stubborn sisters in Let Me Be Frank, Tracy is someone who gets the job done, and gets it done well.”—Samantha Bee "This spirited feminist history entertains and enlightens."—Publishers WeeklyLet Me Be Frank illuminates with a wry warmth the incredible stories of a diverse group of women from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds who have defied the patriarchy, refusing to allow men or the status quo to define their lives or break their spirit. An often sardonic and thoroughly impassioned homage to female ingenuity and tenacity, the women profiled in this inspiring anthology broke the rules to reach their goals and refused to take “no” for an answer. These women took matters into their own hands, dressing—sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively—as men to do what they wanted to do. This includes competing in marathons, publishing books, escaping enslavement, practicing medicine, tunneling deep in the earth as miners, taking to the seas as pirates and serving on the frontlines in the military, among many other pursuits. Not only did these women persist, many unknowingly made history and ultimately inspired later generations in doing so. This compendium is an informative and enthralling celebration of these revolutionary badasses who have changed the world and our lives.Let Me Be Frank is filled with more than two dozen specially commissioned, full-color illustrations and hand-lettering by artist Tina Berning, whose multi-award-winning work has been published in numerous publications and anthologies worldwide, and is designed by Alex Kalman.WOMEN PROFILED INCLUDE: Jeanne Baret * Anne Bonny and Mary Read * Christian Caddell * Ellen Craft * Catalina De Erauso * Louise Augustine Gleizes * Hatshepsut * Annie Hindle and Florence Hines* Pili Hussein * Joan of Arc * Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi * Margaret King * Dorothy Lawrence * Tarpé Mills * Hannah Snell * Kathrine Switzer * Maria Toorpakai * Dr. Mary Edwards Walker * Cathay Williams

Gender, Sex, and Politics: In the Streets and Between the Sheets in the 21st Century


Shira Tarrant
    

Ookami Shounen wa Kyou mo Uso o Kasaneru #1


namo
    Keitarou tries to confess to the girl he likes, Aoi Tokujira, but she rejects him flat out. Thinking that his eyes were the reason why she rejected him, he confides in his older sister about it at her salon, who helps by giving him a complete makeover...as a pretty girl! Forced to head home like this, he runs into Aoi in town, but she doesn't recognize him and thinks he's a somewhat manly girl. Before he can leave, Aoi asks him to help her overcome a problem she's had for many years: an intense fear of men.

Marmalade Me


Jill Johnston
    Originally published in 1971, MARMALADE ME achieved cult status as Jill Johnston's critical reputation grew. Reissued here with 18 previously uncollected articles, the book provides a fascinating view of the '60s and of one of the art world's most influential voices. 13 illustrations.

Queer Korea


Todd A. HenryMerose Hwang
    Throughout these turbulent times, “queer” Koreans were ignored, minimized, and erased in narratives of their modern nation, East Asia, and the wider world. This interdisciplinary volume challenges such marginalization through critical analyses of non-normative sexuality and gender variance. Considering both personal and collective forces, contributors extend individualized notions of queer neoliberalism beyond those typically set in Western queer theory. Along the way, they recount a range of illuminating topics, from shamanic rituals during the colonial era and B-grade comedy films under Cold War dictatorship to toxic masculinity in today’s South Korean military and transgender confrontations with the resident registration system. More broadly, Queer Korea offers readers new ways of understanding the limits and possibilities of human liberation under exclusionary conditions of modernity in Asia and beyond.

A Feminist Theory of Violence: A Decolonial Perspective


Françoise Vergès
    Davis ***Winner of an English PEN Award 2022*** The mainstream conversation surrounding gender equality is a repertoire of violence: harassment, rape, abuse, femicide. These words suggest a cruel reality. But they also hide another reality: that of gendered violence committed with the complicity of the State. In this book, Françoise Vergès denounces the carceral turn in the fight against sexism. By focusing on 'violent men', we fail to question the sources of their violence. There is no doubt as to the underlying causes: racial capitalism, ultra-conservative populism, the crushing of the Global South by wars and imperialist looting, the exile of millions and the proliferation of prisons - these all put masculinity in the service of a policy of death. Against the spirit of the times, Françoise Vergès refuses the punitive obsession of the State in favour of restorative justice.

Delusions of Gender / Testosterone Rex / A Mind of Its Own


Cordelia Fine
    Description:- Testosterone Rex: Testosterone Rex is the powerful myth that squashes hopes of sex equality by telling us that men and women have evolved different natures. Fixed in an ancestral past that rewarded competitive men and caring women, these differences are supposedly re-created in each generation by sex hormones and male and female brains. Testosterone, so we’re told, is the very essence of masculinity, and biological sex is a fundamental force in our development. Not so, says psychologist Cordelia Fine, who shows, with wit and panache, that sex doesn’t create male and female natures. Instead, sex, hormones, culture and evolution work together in ways that make past and present gender dynamics only a serving suggestion for the future – not a recipe. Delusions of Gender: Sex discrimination is supposedly a distant memory. This title dispels the pseudo-scientific claims about the differences between the sexes. It shows how old myths, dressed up in the scientific finery, help perpetuate the status quo. It reveals the mind's plasticity, and shows the influence of culture on identity. A Mind of Its Own: Perhaps your brain seems to stumble when faced with the 13 times table, or persistently fails to master parallel parking. But you’re in control of it, right? Sorry. Think again. Dotted with popular explanations of social psychology research and fascinating real-life examples, A Mind of Its Own tours the less salubrious side of human psychology. Psychologist Cordelia Fine shows that the human brain is in fact stubborn, emotional and deceitful, and

Cut From the Same Cloth


Sabeena Akhtar (editor)
    A ground-breaking collection of essays written by British Hijabis.

If Found Return to Astropop


Lucas Hargis
    Genderfluid, sixteen-year-old Robin “Astropop” Chicory lost a journal three months ago. When a stranger (known only as Pippopotamus) secretly returns it, Astro discovers that Pip read their innermost thoughts and meticulously traced Astro’s past movements. Without meeting, Pip believes s/he is smitten with Astropop. Astro knows this because Pip wrote a heartfelt journal in response.Astro reads both journals side-by-side, amazed at how simple words on paper can exert a mutual gravity between complete strangers. As their tandem confessions and intimate stories tangle with the drama in Astro’s everyday life, Astro ends up hopelessly smitten with Pip, too. But because of distance, timing, and interference from the universe, it’s impossible for them to ever meet.When Astro flips to Pip’s last precious page, a supernova of hope explodes—a precise time and place where shy Pip will be waiting. Astro can finally meet the intriguing Pip, but fears their deep, inexplicable connection will be broken. And there’s the world-shattering chance the revelations of who they each truly are will eclipse their imagined versions of one another.