This list started out as a holiday gift guide, but is now acting as a list of things to read / watch / listen to (you can still use it as a gift guide though!). Please feel free to send me suggestions (and let me know if any of the links go wonky).
Films and TV Series
This guide to transgender and gender diverse characters in film and TV shows can give you some ideas about DVDs and series box sets.
Here’s an extensive list of films featuring women of color.
8 Empowering Movies About Young Women Of Color.
If your BFF happens to be obsessed with horror films, like mine is, here’s a list of fifteen horror films directed by women.
Here’s an even more comprehensive list of fifty horror films directed by women.
Here’s a list of ten girl-power films.
10 films featuring fantastic female casts.
100 films directed by women that you can watch on Netflix.
50 essential feminist films.
“Movies about gay ladies” conveniently organized by genre.
The Top 175 Essential Films of All Time for LGBT Viewers.
10 best LGBT documentaries of 2014.
Five must-see movies for tween girls.
The most radical films about young women’s lives.
Geeky stuff
Comics:
The holidays are a great time to start a new comic book series – here’s a list of ten kick-ass female comic book characters.
Eight current comics featuring awesome ladies.
Video Games:
Video games with trans-friendly characters!
Five upcoming female-led games.
Nine video game heroines to inspire your daughters.
Other:
Nine women who shaped science fiction.
Music
Feminist mixtapes courtesy of Bitch Magazine.
Ten empowering hip-hop artists.
Ten new feminist songs for winter.
Five recent feminist albums.
Ten queer female bands and musicians you need to know right now!
Five queer music icons for 2014.
Ten queer indie rockers you should know.
YA feminist books
Top ten feminist books of 2013 for young readers.
Ten must-read books for young feminists.
Or, if you prefer the classics, here are 20 classic YA female protagonists, ranked.
YA books by / for / about LGBT / queer people
YA novels featuring LGBTQI characters.
This list is billed as “every YA novel with lesbians“.
YA novels featuring LGBT characters and characters of color, list one and list two.
Here’s a really comprehensive list of YA LGBT novels where the focus is something other than coming out.
Six YA novels featuring queer disabled protagonists.
The “QUILTBAG Compendium,” a SUPER-comprehensive list of sites for YA books featuring LGBT / queer characters.
Here’s a preview of 2015 LGBTQIA YA books.
YA books by / for / about people of color
Six children’s / YA novels featuring disabled Black protagonists.
Recent new releases in diverse YA.
YA books featuring LGBT characters of color.
2015 YA reads written by authors of color.
Books for kids
25 children’s books featuring black female protagonists.
Children’s books (searchable by age range) featuring characters of color.
Children’s books featuring boys in unconventional roles.
15 multicultural books for babies and toddlers.
10 multicultural books for ages 3 to 13.
American Indians in Children’s Literature.
13 children’s picture books whose characters have special needs.
Books for kids and parents about bullying.
LGBT children’s and picture books.
Books by, for, or about LGBT / queer people
Here’s a list of 37 books by, for, or about bisexual or otherwise non-monosexual people.
Ten essential spring books for queers and feminists.
Ten great LGBT summer reads.
Ten novels and memoirs by and about LGBTQ athletes.
A Dozen Pre-Stonewall Novels by Lesbian Authors with Lesbian Characters or Content.
Check out the Lambda Literary Award finalists for works published in 2013 – the list contains fiction, nonfiction, poetry, YA books, graphic novels, erotica, etc. Winners to be announced at the ceremony on June 2, 2014!
Queer books published in August 2014.
The year’s ten best transgender non-fiction books.
21 classic works of gay literature.
Books by, for, or about feminists and/or women of color
Here is a really thorough list of feminist books by women of color.
15 black feminist books for everyone.
Another list of books on black feminism.
15 books about black women’s history.
The Melissa Harris-Perry black feminism syllabus.
100 books by black women that everyone should read.
If you like your books even more intersectional, these books are by, for, or about LGBT / queer people of color
Books published in 2013 featuring queer people of color.
Ten novels and memoirs by and about black lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.
Memoirs by transgender women of color.
50 zines by queer people of color.
Books listed as feminist or about feminism
General feminist book list. (Shameless self-promotion – you can also check out my reviews of Caitlin Moran’s How to be a Woman, Heather Rudulph and Jennifer Armstrong’s Sexy Feminism, Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism, Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs, and Julie Zeilinger’s A Little F’ed Up).
25 feminist reads for the holidays (and beyond).
Feminist Theory 101: The book list.
28 feminist writers recommend books that every man should read.
11 new and recent books for the feminist reader.
Top 10 feminist and/or queer books of 2014.
Feminism 101 book list.
Books by, for, or about women
“Books for bold women” via the New York Public Library.
The Huffington Post’s list of “18 books that changed how we felt about ourselves as women“.
50 excellent novels by women under 50.
14 great female authors list their 41 favorite female authors!
Ten great female novelists under 50.
50 essential books about the female experience.
50 books about inspiring women.
Other books to widen your perspective
Here’s a list of the best books translated into English this year; great resource if you’re looking to get a more global perspective!
Books to start a conversation about race in America.
Fifteen diverse authors for 2015.
Recommendations from a woman who read a book from every country.
Magazine subscriptions (they’re the gift that keeps on giving!):
Verily Magazine, a style and culture magazine that has vowed to not use Photoshop on its models.
Bust Magazine (a classic!)
General gift-giving guides for the girls, women, and feminists in your life:
AAUW’s 2013 gift guide for girls
Holiday gifts for young feminists
Girl empowerment holiday gift guide
Ten feminist gifts for awesome girls
Diversity in YA’s 2014 gift guide
Further Resources
Mixed diversity reads – children’s books reviews.
What are your feminist reading, watching, listening, and gift-giving recommendations? Leave them in the comments!
*Keep in mind that all of these lists were compiled by other people at other websites. Including them here doesn’t mean that I 100% endorse every book/artist/suggestion as totally feminist*
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