Gail Williams

Last updated
Gail Williams
Gail Williams 2008.jpg
Williams in 2008
Born
Berkeley, California, United States
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Occupation(s)Writer, actor, theater manager, online community manager
Years active1978–2016
Spouse
Steven Shapiro
(m. 2010)
Website gailwilliams.com

Gail Ann Williams (born in Berkeley, California) was the director of The WELL from 1998 to 2016. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in the 1970s and got involved in political theater as both a creative and management member of the Plutonium Players troupe. She was a principal in their long-touring satirical show spoofing anti-feminist politics, Ladies Against Women, throughout the years of the Ronald Reagan presidency. The show was inspired in part by the anti-feminist campaigns of Phyllis Schlafly, who was parodied by the troupe as Phyllis LeShaft. [1]

In the same period the troupe created the "Reagan for Shah Campaign," featuring numerous fictional constituent organizations of which Ladies Against Women was the most popular. The show toured the East and West Coasts in 1980 and performed outside the Republican Convention in Dallas in 1984. Both Ladies Against Women and Reagan for Shah were cited by Andrew Boyd as helping to inspire his Billionaires for Bush theatrical project. [2]

In December 1991, she joined the management team of the prototypic online community, The WELL, in the role of community manager. In 1998 she took the post of Executive Director. When The WELL was acquired by Salon.com in 1999, Williams stayed on. Currently she serves as Salon's Director of Communities, overseeing The WELL and Salon's Table Talk community.

She is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. In 2000 Williams was named as one of the Top 25 Women of the Web. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Coulter</span> American conservative political commentator (born 1961)

Ann Hart Coulter is an American conservative media pundit, author, syndicated columnist, and lawyer. She became known as a media pundit in the late 1990s, appearing in print and on cable news as an outspoken critic of the Clinton administration. Her first book concerned the impeachment of Bill Clinton and sprang from her experience writing legal briefs for Paula Jones's attorneys, as well as columns she wrote about the cases. Coulter's syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate appears in newspapers and is featured on conservative websites. Coulter has also written 13 books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Schlafly</span> American activist (1924–2016)

Phyllis Stewart Schlafly was an American attorney, conservative activist, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She held paleoconservative social and political views, opposed feminism, gay rights and abortion, and successfully campaigned against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial (sexual act)</span> Sexual activity involving ejaculating on the face of another

A facial is a sexual activity in which a man ejaculates semen onto the face of one or more sexual partners. A facial is a form of non-penetrative sex, though it is generally performed after some other means of sexual stimulation, such as vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, manual sex or masturbation. Facials are regularly portrayed in pornographic films and videos, often as a way to close a scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The WELL</span> Virtual community

The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL or, alternatively, The Well, is a virtual community that was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. A 1997 feature in Wired magazine called it "The world's most influential online community." In 2012, when it was last publicly offered for sale, it had 2,693 members. It is best known for its Internet forums, but also provides email, shell accounts, and web pages. Discussion topics are organized into conferences that cover broad areas of interest. User anonymity is prohibited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johanna Fateman</span> American songwriter

Johanna Rachel Fateman is an American writer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. She is a member of the post-punk rock band Le Tigre and founded the band MEN with Le Tigre bandmate JD Samson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminists for Life</span> Non-governmental organization

Feminists for Life of America (FFL) is a non-profit, anti-abortion feminist, non-governmental organization (NGO). Established in 1972, and now based in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization publishes a biannual magazine, The American Feminist, and aims to reach young women, college students in particular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Willis</span> American writer

Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist, feminist, and pop music critic. A 2014 collection of her essays, The Essential Ellen Willis, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

Phyllis Chesler is an American writer, psychotherapist, and professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at the College of Staten Island (CUNY). She is a renowned second-wave feminist psychologist and the author of 18 books, including the best-sellers Women and Madness (1972), With Child: A Diary of Motherhood (1979), and An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir (2013). Chesler has written extensively about topics such as gender, mental illness, divorce and child custody, surrogacy, second-wave feminism, pornography, prostitution, incest, and violence against women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Ann Dorsey</span> American singer and bassist

Gail Ann Dorsey is an American musician. With a long career as a session musician mainly on bass guitar, she performed regularly in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to Bowie's last tour in 2004.

Women Against Pornography (WAP) was a radical feminist activist group based out of New York City that was influential in the anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) was a feminist anti-pornography activist group based in San Francisco and an influential force in the larger feminist anti-pornography movement of the late 1970s and 1980s.

The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, sex wars or porn wars, are collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexuality deeply polarized the feminist movement, particularly leading feminist thinkers, in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continue to influence debate amongst feminists to this day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Organization for Women</span> American feminist organization

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It is the largest feminist organization in the United States with around 500,000 members. NOW is regarded as one of the main liberal feminist organizations in the US, and primarily lobbies for gender equality within the existing political system. NOW campaigns for constitutional equality, economic justice, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA+ rights and racial justice, and against violence against women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewelle Gomez</span> American author, poet, critic and playwright (born 1948)

Jewelle Lydia Gomez is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Anne Rawson</span>

Mary Anne Rawson (1801–1887) was an abolitionist who also a campaigned with the Tract Society and the British and Foreign Bible Society, for Italian nationalism and against child labour. She was first involved with a Sheffield group, which successfully campaigned for people to boycott sugar from the West Indies, as it was produced by slave labour. She is pictured attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.

Feminist views on pornography range from total condemnation of the medium as an inherent form of violence against women to an embracing of some forms as a medium of feminist expression. This debate reflects larger concerns surrounding feminist views on sexuality, and is closely related to those on prostitution, BDSM, and other issues. Pornography has been one of the most divisive issues in feminism, particularly in Anglophone (English-speaking) countries. This division was exemplified in the feminist sex wars of the 1980s, which pitted anti-pornography activists against pro-pornography ones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Dines</span> Anti-pornography campaigner

Gail Dines is professor emerita of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts.

Women in conservatism in the United States have advocated for social, political, economic, and cultural conservative policies since anti-suffragism. Leading conservative women such as Phyllis Schlafly have expressed that women should embrace their privileged essential nature. This thread of belief can be traced through the anti-suffrage movement, the Red Scare, and the Reagan Era, and is still present in the 21st century, especially in several conservative women's organizations such as Concerned Women for America and the Independent Women's Forum.

Stop Porn Culture is an international feminist anti-porn organization with branches in the United States, Norway, and the United Kingdom. It works as an advisory body, trains trainers, and builds public health educational materials based on empirical research. It has a network of volunteers and activists and collaborates with other organizations in the U.S. and Europe. Some of its work is grassroots activist work.

Kim Katrin is a Canadian American writer, multidisciplinary artist, activist, consultant, and educator. She was formerly credited as Kim Crosby and Kim Katrin Milan. She speaks on panels and keynotes conferences nationally, and facilitates radical community dialogues. Her art, activism and writing has been recognized nationally.

References

  1. Fudge, Rachel (June 9, 2002). "Ladies First to protest with style and humor, of course". bitchmedia.
  2. Roselund, Christian (May 2004). "The Billionaires Get Ready". The Brooklyn Rail.
  3. Mayfield, Kendra (January 2, 2000). "Women Geeks Honor Their Own". Wired News. CondéNet. Archived from the original on 2011-03-25. Retrieved 2007-11-08.