Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

 Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe-240 pages

Gender Queer is the story of Maia Kobabe's journey to realizing e doesn't identify as female or male. Maia goes by the pronouns e, em, eir. I wanted to read this because there's been a lot of talk about it and it's been challenged frequently. There are some somewhat sexual images, but they are all in the context of Maia's exploration of eir gender identity. Maia was assigned female at birth, but as I mentioned, doesn't identify as female or male and identifies as asexual. This is a very personal story about Maia's journey. 

Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 176 pages

Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 176 pages

This is a pretty awesome feminist work of fiction from the early 20th century.  Three explorers set out to find an undiscovered land- and what they find is a society comprised solely of women.  Not only is the society functioning, but it is thriving.  For being written in 1915, this does not really shy away from questions of sex, femininity, masculinity, and gender roles, in general.  It is part of a trilogy, so it has a sort of abrupt, "huh?" ending, but as a piece of historical literature and part of the feminist canon, I really enjoyed it.

Princess Knight, part one, by Osamu Tezuka

Princess Knight, part one, by Osamu Tezuka, 382 pages

Before babies are born, they are given a girl or a boy heart. When a playful angel named Tink tricks a baby into taking a girl and a boy heart, he is sent to Earth in order to make sure that the baby grows up to be a girl.  The baby turns out to be the child of the king and queen, and to protect the family line, the world is told that the baby is a boy.  Raised in the public eye as Prince Sapphire, but raised at home as a girl, Sapphire must discover which identity is the real one, protect the throne, find true love, and battle an evil duke and an unrelenting witch.  As long as you don't analyze the gender roles and depictions too hard, it is a light fun read.  And if you do look at the gender depictions, you can at least try to laugh at how outmoded they are.