Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Girls Can Kiss Now | 2022 | Jill Gutowitz | Buy |
Jill Gutowitz’s Girls Can Kiss Now (2022) collects essays about queer identity, pop culture obsessions, and the evolution of lesbian representation. The book combines personal coming-out stories with cultural criticism, examining how media representation has shifted for queer women.
Gutowitz writes about growing up in the era when lesbian characters on television were rare and often killed off. She traces the shift from that scarcity to shows and films where queer women get full storylines and happy endings. The essays cover specific cultural touchstones and mix humor with more serious reflection on what it means to see yourself in media.
Before the book, Gutowitz built a following as a culture writer for outlets including the Los Angeles Times. Girls Can Kiss Now grew out of that work, and the essays read with the same conversational tone that made her journalism popular. The book has found an audience with readers interested in both LGBTQ+ memoir and pop culture criticism.