Amy Goodloe

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Amy Goodloe
Born1967or1968(age 56–57) [1]
Known forCreating and maintaining web-based discussion spaces and resources geared toward lesbians
Website amygoodloe.com

Amy Goodloe is the creator of the websites Women Online and Lesbian.org, a non-profit organization focused on documenting activities and work by lesbians on the web. [2] She also initiated and maintained mailing lists that served as online discussion spaces for LGBTQ communities. She was a professor of writing in the Women and Gender Studies department at the University of Colorado-Boulder. [3]

Career

In the 1990s, Goodloe was responsible for starting and maintaining Usenet mailing lists for lesbians. [4] She is considered to be a leading figure in creating online spaces that allowed lesbians to easily interact with each other. [5] [6] Goodloe has contended that participation in these spaces represents a form of activism. [7]

By 1997, there were 46 e-mail lists available for lesbian audiences. Goodloe notes that many of these lists retained policies that restricted participation to women only, but discussion participants would frequently disagree over whether transgender or bisexual individuals should be included in these spaces. [8] Goodloe created the website repository Lesbian.org between 1994-1995 [4] [9] to both provide a platform for lesbians and to demonstrate their increasing presence online. [1] The website included resources such as literary journals, noticeboards, business listings, and information about art exhibitions featuring work by or about lesbians. [10]

Related Research Articles

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Erotica is art, literature or photography that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use any artistic form to depict erotic content, including painting, sculpture, drama, film or music. Erotic literature and erotic photography have become genres in their own right. Erotica also exists in a number of subgenres including gay, lesbian, women's, monster, tentacle erotica and bondage erotica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian</span> Homosexual woman or girl

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Femme is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian woman who exhibits a feminine identity or gender presentation. While commonly viewed as a lesbian term, alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word, notably some gay men and bisexuals. Some non-binary and transgender individuals also identify as lesbians using this term.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Generation Q: Science and Technology". The Advocate. Hare Publishing: 76. 19 August 1997. ISSN   0001-8996.
  2. Calvert, Melodie; Terry, Jennifer (2005). Processed Lives: Gender and Technology in Everyday Life. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN   1134824432.
  3. "Amy Townsend Goodloe". www.colorado.edu. University of Colorado. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 Auerbach, David (20 August 2014). "The First Gay Space on the Internet". Slate. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  5. Haggerty, George; Zimmerman, Bonnie (2003). Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. Taylor & Francis. p. 201. ISBN   1135578702.
  6. Wakeford, Nina (2007). "Cyberqueer". In Bell, David (ed.). The Cybercultures Reader (Repr. ed.). London [u.a.]: Routledge. p.  405. ISBN   978-0415183796.
  7. Wakeford 2002, p. 135.
  8. Auerbach, David (21 August 2014). "When AOL Was GayOL". Slate. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  9. Wakeford, Nina (2002). "New Technologies and 'Cyber-queer' Research". In Richardson, Diane; Seidman, Steven (eds.). Handbook of lesbian and gay studies. London: SAGE. p. 120. ISBN   1847876722.
  10. Senjen, Rye; Guthrey, Jane (1996). The Internet for women (Reprinted ed.). North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. p. 36. ISBN   1875559523.