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American linguist, author, and philosopher (1941–2013)
Julia Penelope
Born
Julia Penelope Stanley
(1941-06-19)June 19, 1941
Miami, Florida
Died
January 19, 2013(2013-01-19) (aged 71)
Nationality
American
Occupation(s)
American author, linguist, academic, philosopher; lgbt and feminist activist
Julia Penelope (June 19, 1941 – January 19, 2013) was an American linguist, author, and philosopher. She was part of an international movement of critical thinkers on lesbian and feminist issues. A self-described "white, working-class, fat butch dyke who never passed," she started what she called "rabble rousing" when she was a young woman.[1]
Julia Penelope Stanley was born at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida to Frederick William Stanley and his wife, Frances.[2]
In 1959, she was asked to leave Florida State UniversityinTallahassee because of her lesbianism. She transferred to the University of Miami, where, eight weeks later, investigations of the Charlie Johns Investigating Committee on Communism and Homosexuality led to her expulsion on the grounds of suspected lesbianism. She then earned a BA in English and linguistics from City College of New York in 1966, followed by graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin where she received a doctoral degree in English in 1971.[3]
Her first teaching position was at the University of Georgia in Athens, in 1968.[2] She went on to teach for eleven years at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she was passed over for promotions because her research on lesbians was deemed "too narrow".[3] She "was a separatist whose lesbian publications were often controversial, criticizing sadomasochism and other practices within lesbian communities."[3][4] After relocating to Texas, she pursued a career as a freelance lexicographer, and a copy editor for commercial presses.[citation needed]
An activist and an organizer, Penelope attended the first conference of the Gay Academic Union in 1973 at the City College of New York. She was a delegate to the National Women's ConferenceinHouston in 1977, and she participated in the planning meetings that led to the founding of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. She founded several activist groups, including the "Lincoln Legion of Lesbians" and "Lesbians for Lesbians."[4] She was one of the first scholars to teach women's studies courses, including Twentieth-Century Lesbian Novels and Feminist Literary Criticism.[2]
In 1988, she co-edited with Sarah Lucia Hoagland the first anthology on lesbian separatism, For Lesbians Only: A Separatist Anthology. As a lesbian separatist, Penelope was controversial among lesbians. According to her biography in Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (2000), she became disheartened by lesbian infighting and withdrew from lesbian writing.[3]
She helped found the Lubbock County Green Party, and ran for Congress in 2003 as a Green candidate in Texas's 19th congressional district special election.[5] Her platform emphasized environmental protection and opposition to war with Iraq as well as support for human rights.[2]
For a brief period of her life, Penelope was open about being a kept butch, "(a butch who is supported by another woman, often, but not always, a prostitute, a call girl, or the mistress of a wealthy man)".[3][4]
Penelope, Julia; Wolfe, Susan (1989). The Original Coming Out Stories. Crossing Press. ISBN9780895943392.
Penelope, Julia; Grey, Morgan (1989). Found Goddesses: Asphalta to Viscera. illustrated by Allison Bechdel. New Victoria Publishers. ISBN9780934678186.
Feminism
LGBT
United States
