Lauren Herold

Jan 9, 2025 | autostraddle.com | Lauren Herold

2024 was a big year for innovation in country music. From the release of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s epic, genre-busting album centering the contributions of Black country artists, to the sapphic cowgirl swagger of Chappell Roan’s new song “The Giver,” contemporary artists are subverting the norms of country western music and claiming space for those underrepresented in the genre. Both releases sparked cultural debates about what “counts” as commercial country music.

Sep 6, 2024 | autostraddle.com | Lauren Herold

“Biographies normativize people,” Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs tells me. “It’s like: this is a person, they were born, they died, their life is linear, they’re only one person. My queer approach doesn’t necessarily agree with any of those things. Does our life begin when we’re born? Does it end after we die? Are we ever one person?

Jul 13, 2024 | autostraddle.com | Lauren Herold

What do you think about when you hear the phrase “second wave feminism”? Is it the stereotype of the bra-burning, angry lesbian feminist? Or consciousness raising groups where women looked at their vulvas with hand-held mirrors? Lesbian separatists creating their own “women-only” communes? Or groups of white, straight, middle class women fighting for their rights, while leaving behind women of color, poor women, lesbians, and trans people?

Jun 21, 2024 | yesmagazine.org | Lauren Herold

“Hello to all you lovely lesbians out there! My name is Debbie, and I’m here to show you a few things about taking care of your vaginal health.”So opens the first “Lesbian Health” segment on Dyke TV, a lesbian feminist television series that aired on New York’s public access stations from 1993 to 2006. The half-hour program focused on lesbian activism, community issues, art and film, news, health, sports, and culture.

Jun 4, 2024 | tolerance.ca | Lauren Herold |Kenyon College

By Lauren Herold, Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies, Kenyon College Because public access TV was relatively unregulated, shows could talk about sexual health and air racier segments that would have otherwise been censored on broadcast networks. Read complete article© The Conversation -