Disrupting & Investigating Narratives around Intersecting Identities 

People are made up of many layers of identities — race, culture, able-bodiedness, gender, class, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, and so much more. All these layers have many ways of being interpreted by the world depending on the society and time period we have been thrown into. Some of these aspects of the self are privileged and valued, and some are harmed and marginalized. How these parts come together gives a unique experience and life.

I wanted to create a page of many different narratives and voices that could speak about the unique configuration of these individual experiences in the hope of building connections and understanding. These books and resources have been compiled from different people to aid in deconstructing and educating on these layers of identity and on how history and context give shape.

Books

  • Laura Brown, Feminist Therapy

  • Kimberlé Crenshaw, On Intersectionality: Essential Writings

  • Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Miners, and Beth Richie, Abolition. Feminism. Now

  • Angela Davis, Women, Culture & Politics

  • Angela Davis, Women, Race & Class

  • Rose Hackman, Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power

  • bell hooks, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism

  • bell hooks, Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

  • bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

  • Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgo

Feminism

  • Mimi Marinucci, Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection between Queer and Feminist Theory

  • Kristin Neff, Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive

  • Barbra Sullivan, Psychotherapy Grounded in the Feminine Principle

  • Françoise Vergès, A Feminist Theory of Violence: A Decolonial Perspective

Gender and Sexual exploration

Books

  • Meg-John Barker, Alex Iantaffi, Life is Not Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between

  • Julie Fennell, Please Scream Quietly: Diverse Sexualities, Genders, and Relationships

  • Iris Gottlieb, Seeing Gender: An Illustrated Guide To Identity And Expression

  • Dara Hoffman-Fox, Zander Keig, You and Your Gender Indenity: A Guide to Discovery

  • bell hooks, The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

  • Sam Killermann, The Social Justice Advocate's Handbook: A Guide to Gender

  • Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer: A Memoir

  • Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts

  • Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

  • Micah Rajunov, Scott Duane, Nonbinary Memoirs of Gender and Identity

Deconstructing Race and systematic Racism

Books

  • Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message

  • Angela Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle

  • Angela Davis, Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution and Imprisonment

  • Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

  • W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

  • Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

  • Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

  • Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

  • Arlie Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

  • bell hooks, Killing Rage: Ending Racism

  • bell hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation

  • Ibram Kendi, How to be an Antiracist

  • Toni Morrison: The Origins of Others

  • Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

  • Sabrina Strings, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia

  • Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

  • Kwame Ture, Charles Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation

  • Donald Yacovone, Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of our National Identity

Other

13th — A documentary by Ava DuVernay showing how slavery didn’t end with the 13th Amendment and merely evolved into mass incarceration

Trauma and Borderline

Books

  • Janina Fisher, Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation

  • Stephanie Foo, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma

  • Lindsay Gibson, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents

  • Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery

  • Christine Ann Lawson, Understanding the Borderline Mother: Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable, and Volatile Relationship.

  • Renee Linklater, Lexis Mehl-Madrona, Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies

  • Shari Manning, Loving Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder: How to Keep Out-of-Control Emotions from Destroying Your Relationship

  • Paul TT Mason, Stop Walking on Eggshells: Taking your Life Back When Someone You Care About Has Borderline Personality Disorder

  • Gabor Mate, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in Toxic Culture

  • Karyl McBride, Will I Ever Be Good Enough? Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers

  • Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending out Hearts and Bodies

  • Mercedes Okosi, The Complex PTSD Journal: A Guided Journal to Help You Heal, Grow, and Thrive

  • Surviving a Borderline Parent: How to Heal Your Childhood Wounds and Build Trust, Boundaries, and Self-Esteem.

  • Arielle Schwartz, A Practical Guide to Complex PTSD: Compassionate Strategies to Begin Healing from Childhood Trauma

  • Pete Walker, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: A guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma

Anti-Capitalism and Decolonization

Books

  • Aja Barber, Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism

  • Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good

  • Celeste Headlee, Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving

  • John Hausdoerffer, Brooke Parry Hecht, Melissa Nelson, Katherine Kassouf Cummings, What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?

  • Roman Krnaric, The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking

  • Robin Wall Limmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

  • Rose Luxemburg, Helen Scott, The Essential Rosa Luxemburg: Reform or Revolution and the Mass Strike

  • Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

  • Cedric Robinson, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition

  • Kambiz Sakhai, Capitalism and Psychopathology: Alienation as Mental Illness

  • Rebecca Solnit, Thelma Young Lutunatabua, Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility

The Spectrum of Neurodiversity

Books

  • Elaine Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You

  • KC Davis, How to Keep House While Drowning: 31 days of Compassionate Help

  • Edward Hallowell, John Ratey, Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder

  • Theresa Kestly, The Interpersonal Neurobiology of Play: Brain-Building Interventions for Emotional Well-Being (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

  • Gabor Mate, Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

  • Carol Stock Kranowitz, Lucy Jane Miller, The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder

  • Lucy Jane Miller, Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)

  • John Robinson, Look Me in the Eye

  • Ted Zeff, Elaine Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide: Essential Skills for Living Well in an Overstimulating World

Fat Liberation, Embodied Bodies, and Disability

Books

  • Lucy Aphramor, Lindo Bacon, Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand About Weight

  • Lindo Bacon, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight

  • Deidre Fay, Becoming Safely Embodied: A Guide to Organize Your Mind, Body and Heart to Feel Secure in the World

  • Christy Harrison, Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating

  • Christy Harrison, The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses, and Find Your True Well-Being

  • Gabor Maté, When The Body Says No: The Hidden Cost of Stress

  • Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors

  • Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

  • Evelyn Tribole, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works

Other

https://asdah.org/health-at-every-size-haes-approach/ —HAES information

https://asdah.org/listing/ —HAES provider listings

https://www.fatfriendlydocs.com/usa/us_wa.html —Find a fat friendly provider in WA

See Community Resources for more Disability Resources

Other Recommendations

Books

  • Deb Dana, Polyvagel Theory (various)

  • Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?

  • Jonathan Grayson, Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty

  • Jessica Fern, Eve Rickert, Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy

  • Janet Hardy, Dossie Easton, The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love

  • Mariame Kaba, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitonist Organizing and Transforming Justice

  • Gabor Mate, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction