AfterEllen (also known as AfterEllen.com) is an American culture website founded in 2002, with a focus on entertainment, interviews, reviews, and news of interest to the

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

and

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

women's community. The site covers

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

and lifestyle issues from a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

perspective; and the political climate as it pertains to the community. AfterEllen is not affiliated with entertainer Ellen DeGeneres, although its name refers to her

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, specifically when her character came out in " The Puppy Episode" (1997) on her eponymous sitcom. AfterEllen originally reported on subjects of popular culture, such as celebrities, fashion, film, television, music, and books; publishing articles, regular columns, opinion pieces, interviews, reviews, recaps of television shows with lesbian and bisexual characters or subtextual content, and popularity contests. Weekly vlogs were a key feature, the more popular of which included "Brunch With Bridget", "Lesbian Love", and "Is This Awesome?" The site also featured popular web series such as the

Streamy Award The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The forma ...

-winning and Webby Award-nominated '' Anyone But Me''. AfterEllen later included news and politics affecting lesbians, bi women, and the general community. Its podcast, ''Let's Process'', ran from 2014 to 2016, and was revived in 2020 as the ''AfterEllen Podcast''. Ownership of the website changed hands in 2006 (Logo), 2014 (Evolve Media), and 2019 (Lesbian Nation).

History

2002–2005

AfterEllen was founded April 15, 2002 by Sarah Warn and Lori Grant, under their corporation Erosion Media. (via HighBeam Research) A companion site focusing on the portrayal of gay and bisexual men in the media, AfterElton.com, was founded in January 2005. Its name was an homage to

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. The site rebranded as

TheBacklot.com TheBacklot.com (TheBacklot), founded in January 2005 as AfterElton.com (AfterElton), was a culture website that focused on the portrayal of gay and bisexual men in the media and was the companion site of AfterEllen.com (AfterEllen). TheBacklot was ...

in April 2013, and was dissolved in June 2015.

2006–2013

In 2006, AfterEllen and AfterElton were acquired by cable television channel Logo. In 2007, in response to the popular " Maxim Hot 100" readers contest for heterosexual men, the annual "AfterEllen Hot 100 List" poll of women in "film, television, music, sports and fashion" was created. The special feature ran until 2016. In March 2008, AfterEllen was named one of "the world's 50 most powerful blogs" by British newspaper '' The Guardian'' for its "irreverent look at how the lesbian community is represented in the media. At the time considered the top website for lesbian women, that same year it averaged "over 700,000 readers" per month. In October 2009, Sarah Warn announced that associate editor Karman Kregloe would take over as Editor in Chief. In June 2011, the site ranked as the second most popular LGBT website with 203,924 monthly visitors, after ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States *''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...

''.

2014–2018

In October 2014, Evolve Media acquired AfterEllen from Viacom Media Networks, the parent company of Logo, and made it a part of its TotallyHer Media subsidiary. Kregloe announced that managing editor Trish Bendix would be assuming the role of Editor in Chief. In November 2014, TotallyHer Media announced the launch of ''The Lphabet'', an original AfterEllen online comedy series that would "demystify terms from the lesbian and bi community". According to Karman Kregloe, in 2015 AfterEllen "averaged 1.25 million readers" per month. In September 2016, Trish Bendix announced her departure on her personal Tumblr blog and stated that AfterEllen was shutting down, with only its archive to be kept live. TotallyHer Media denied the allegation by Bendix, calling it a "false rumor", and on September 20, 2016, Evolve Media fired Bendix ahead of her scheduled departure. Bendix told ''

'', "I share the feelings of the community at large that contributing to a site that is run by a cisgender, heterosexual male is not what we are looking for in a virtual home". Emrah Kovacoglu, General Manager of TotallyHer Media, explained that a drawback was triggered by the lack of "increased audience" and "enough advertiser support to justify continuing to invest at the same levels". Memoree Joelle became Editor in Chief of AfterEllen in December 2016. Joelle promised readers that there would be a return to the website's original intention of maintaining a "feminist perspective" and staying "true to a lesbian/bi perspective", as well as "more racial diversity and age diversity". Soon afterwards, Joelle issued a statement in which she questioned the motives behind the increase in "attack" language directed at lesbians from members of the LGBT community, and the decline in interest within it "to hear the variety of perspectives in our community". Under her editorial direction, articles and essays of political nature became more frequent. In December 2016, Joelle added her personal signature and endorsement statement to the "L is out of GBT" petition on '' Change.org'': Former AfterEllen senior editor Heather Hogan criticized Joelle on Twitter for doing so, accusing Joelle of promoting a " lesbophobia" movement on AfterEllen which, according to Hogan, was a disguise for "anti- trans, anti-bi" rhetoric. Joelle denied Hogan's accusations and described her reasoning as "a FORM of

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

". In 2018 — after banning use of the controversial term " TERF" on its website and social media channels, publishing articles such as "Girl Dick, the

Cotton Ceiling Cotton ceiling is the purported marginalization of trans women in queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-se ...

and the Cultural War on Lesbians, Girls and Women" by Miranda Yardley, and the

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

"How I became the most hated lesbian in Baltimore" by Julia Beck, as well as for giving publicity to vloggers who criticized trans women activism in the lesbian community — AfterEllen (although not specifically mentioned) was by implication accused of transphobia in a general declaration titled "Not in our name" signed by representatives of nine lesbian and queer publications in which " trans misogynistic content" in "so-called lesbian publications" was condemned, including "male-owned media companies" that profited "from the traffic generated by uchcontroversies". The trans-related controversy received coverage on ''NBC Out'', the LGBTQ section of

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Chomsky, Noam, ''"What makes mai ...

'' NBC News''. In response to ''NBC Outs news story, Joelle and AfterEllen colleagues described the "Not in our name" statement as "a continuation of a false narrative that's been created to perpetuate division and anxiety within the lesbian community", and denounced the backlash launched against AfterEllen for addressing issues such as "lesbians eingcalled 'vagina fetishists' with 'genital preferences'"; repudiating the "idea that lesbians are not allowed to have an opinion, or feel anything for that matter. That we can't have any autonomy. That we must bow to groupthink at every turn or be subjected to homophobic slurs, attacks on our jobs, doxing." It was also revealed that AfterEllen "was invited...to sign the statement as well, the day after it was released."

2019–present

In March 2019, AfterEllen was bought by Lesbian Nation, a multimedia company owned by Memoree Joelle and business partner Gaye Chapman. With this change in ownership, articles and opinion pieces concerning controversies affecting lesbians and bisexual women increased. "AfterEllen does not use the word queer to describe lesbians" was announced in an editorial addendum to a March 2020 article. In September 2020, the site declared their stance on terms used for referring to females: "We will NEVER use the words '

womxn The term ''womxn'' is an alternative spelling of the English word ''woman''. ''Womxn'' has been found in writing since the 1970s, along with the term womyn, to avoid perceived sexism in the standard spelling, which contains the word ''man''. The ...

' or ' cis' or any other derogatory, insulting, abusive terms directed at females. Women are women." In June 2020, Joelle announced the promotion of Jocelyn Macdonald, managing editor of AfterEllen, to Editor in Chief. In December 2020, the website experienced technical difficulties and was inaccessible for a week, prompting ''

Out Out may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 * ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander * ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...

'' to publish a hostile article speculating about AfterEllen's demise. Gaye Chapman, co-founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Lesbian Nation LLC, issued a rebuke through her Twitter account and announced that the site would "be back soon". On February 18, 2021, AfterEllen announced that the business partnership between Gaye Chapman and Memoree Joelle had been dissolved, with Chapman retaining sole ownership of Lesbian Nation LLC and AfterEllen.

Podcast

AfterEllen's official podcast, ''Let's Process'', premiered on November 18, 2014, and continued until January 13, 2016. The podcast was relaunched under a new name, ''AfterEllen Podcast'', on April 29, 2020.

Notes

References

External links

AfterEllen

AfterEllen Podcast

AfteEllen
at SimilarWeb {{lesbian feminism 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2019 mergers and acquisitions 2014 podcast debuts 2016 podcast endings 2020 podcast debuts American entertainment news websites American women's websites Audio podcasts Feminist websites Lesbian-related websites Radical feminist mass media Internet properties established in 2002 Lesbian culture in the United States Lesbian-related mass media in the United States