Julia Penelope

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.

Early life and education

Julia Penelope Stanley was born at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, to Frederick William Stanley and his wife, Frances.

In 1959, she was asked to leave Florida State University in Tallahassee because of her lesbianism. This was around the time that the Johns Commission was harassing gay faculty and students at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, but she was not interviewed by that commission. She transferred to the University of Miami, a private university, where she was required to live off campus. Eight weeks later, two gay male friends were rehearsing a college production of Lysistrata at her apartment and stayed overnight. A neighbor reported this to the university, and she was expelled for having men in her room. 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.

Career

Her first teaching position was at the University of Georgia in Athens, in 1968. She was one of the first scholars to teach women's studies courses, including Twentieth-Century Lesbian Novels and Feminist Literary Criticism.

Death

Julia Penelope, aged 71, died on January 19, 2013, in Texas.

Works