A collection of texts we'd personally recommend, categorized by topic. Updates will be logged on the homepage, links to access will be provided when available. If links are broken, or you have a link to access, send us a message!

Queer theory & Gender Studies

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Post-structuralist feminist philosophy text that is foundational to "queer theory" as a concept in regards to third-wave feminism. The main point of theory that people draw on is that gender is a performative act.

Female Masculinity by J. Jack Halberstam

(TBR by the editor). We recommend this on the basis of Jack Halberstam's writing, as well as the inclusion of both lived experience and empirical fact on the subject of the "borders" of gender between lesbians, trans men, trans mascs, trans fems, butches, etc. His work is another good jumping off point for queer theory in general.

Racialized voices

Where We Stand: class matters by bell hooks

(TBR by the editor). Having read a few of hooks' other publications (such as All About Love), we recommend this on the basis of her writing. hooks has given an honest and fair view of gender as it relates to race, and we feel that her work is foundational and approachable for people who are wanting to learn more about intersectionality.

True Reconciliation by Jody Wilson-Raybould

A very honest picture of what has happened with colonization in Canada, how it continues, and how the effects of colonization affect Indigenous people in Canada to this day. It's thesis is based on the 94 calls to action to the Canadian federal government for reconciliation with the Indigenous population, and addresses them as the bare minimum towards True Reconciliation. Includes both empirical and anecdotal evidence (which are equally valid) towards historical relations, as well as modern. A good start for anyone interested in the Landback and Idle No More movements in the Canadian context.

Abolition

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex eds. Eric A. Stanley & Nat Smith

A collection of essays from people who have experienced imprisonment firsthand and those who are advocating for an end to prisons and the abolitionist movement. Very good reader for gender studies/queer theory as it relates to the carceral context.

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault

Look, we know philosophy is long-winded. We know that French Philosophers say a lot of things, and the text is quite old, and this, that and the third. It's like eating broccoli, though, in terms of abolitionist theory. There are far newer texts that expand on far more interesting contexts, such as intersectionality. Use Foucault as a jumping off point for the deeper stuff. Post-structuralist philosophy begins with Foucault, Lacan, de Beauvoir, Irigaray, and then moves to the Judith Butlers of the field. Foucault is the "proto-punk" to the new wave movement, as narrow as his perspective may be in 2025.

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And The Next) by Dean Spade

A modern take on mutual aid work (the work we do to build community and foundations with the people we intend to also organize with) and survival work. Spade posits his guide in the perspective of the (ongoing) Covid-19 pandemic, and what we must do to survive. An approachable text for anyone unfamiliar with organizing, or want to organize more effectively in a pandemic.

Disability Justice & Advocacy

Biography & Memoir

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

This is an ice cold take, but this is a quintessential read for anyone on the borders of gender and sexuality. Feinberg draws heavily on lived experience, as well as the queer cultural context between the 1940s and 1980s in the United States. Be aware that there is frank and honest mention of homophobia (specifically lesbophobia), "corrective" sexual violence, anti-Semitism, classism, police brutality, gender transition, and more.

Gender Failure by Rae Spoon and Ivan Coyote

Spoon and Coyote illustrate the various ways in which they failed to conform to not only specified gender roles, but gender itself. We recommend this book because it gives quite a frank idea of what it's like to be non-binary and/or GNC in rural parts of Canada.

Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote

(The Editor's acknowledges bias as being non-binary and Canadian). One of Coyote's best books, in the editor's opinion. Another honest depiction of growing up GNC/non-binary in rural Canada. Coyote is a living example of how lived experiences, and labels and identities (whether chosen or imparted) shape one's gender as much as their individuality does. The stories and they language that they use is very approachable and warm.