“When a marginalized person claims language to describe their oppressed identity, they are speaking themself into existence in a society that is trying to annihilate them.”

“Can we all agree that there is no such thing as a girl or a boy book?” Teacher and parent Pernille Ripp writes on the toxic effects of defining books by the gender of their supposed audience.

Cultural historian Benjamin Wild writes on a newly discovered portrait of Tudor monarch Elizabeth I — one that, unlike previously known depictions, doesn’t show her as a perfectly poised queen.

Medievalist Lucy Allen writes on the recent move among women in academia to add the title “Dr” to their Twitter name, which she views as “an act of faith, a promise to myself to keep my work from being erased.”

The discrimination and shame that often accompanies being fat can impede medical care, relationships, work — and your understanding of your own gender identity.

Looking for some good reading during the holiday season? Here’s every story that was chosen as number one in Longreads’ Weekly Top 5 email.

Western philosophy clashes with Rebecca Schuman’s birth plan in her hilarious, harrowing Longreads essay.

Lori Duron’s 10-year-old gender creative son: “I’m a boy who likes girl stuff. I don’t even like calling it girl stuff and boy stuff. There shouldn’t be girl stuff and boy stuff; it’s all just stuff.”

Elizabeth cried watching Wonder Woman. Why? “I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie where a woman character kicked ass and all of us didn’t have to pay the price for that by first watching at least one woman be violently dehumanized before us.”