Girllove



Girllove is a map attraction to girls. A person experiencing such an attraction is called a girllover (commonly abbreviated as GL).

Definition and types of GLs
Girllove is an attraction towards significantly younger children or adolescents who are girls. People who find this attraction personally important to their identity may call themselves girllovers. Girllove does not need to be exclusive or preferential, girllovers may also be attracted to boys and nonbinary children, as well as women, men, and nonbinary adults. Their own gender may also vary. A girllover may have other identities, such as boylover or childlover. An attraction to really young girls is sometimes called "little girl love".

History and community
Historically girllove and boylove communities were often separate, due to common beliefs about inherent differences between boys and girls. The gap was significantly lessened through creation of inclusive initiatives, such as a mental support space Life Line, and later through appearance of less homogenous, more diverse map communities on mainstream social media platforms. Currently the main places for GLs to socialize together are GirlChat and Visions of Alice. The girllove logo (pictured above) was developed in late 90s by an activist going by AP. According to his explanation of the symbol, the inner small heart represents a girl, but the outer heart, unlike with boylove logo, symbolizes a gender neutral adult.

AP’s own site, Puellula, was also dedicated largely to girllove and girls.

Girlloving women
There isn't much known about women in map activism due to decades of erasure, but the bits of information that we do have, indicate that many map women are GLs. We're aware of only two books about female childlove. "Op een oude fiets moet je het leren" ("Special Women's Issue" of Paidika) is MOSTLY about female girl-love, "Daar sta je dan... alleen!" is ONLY about female girl-love:

An interesting Dutch book about female childlove is "Op een oude fiets moet je het leren" (1992), written by feminists Marjan Sax and Sjuul Deckwitz (and others). It is about erotic and sexual relationships between women and young girls and boys. It includes interviews and discusses the historic, psychological and sociological aspects of women-child relationships. The ISBN number of the book is 90-6012-885-0. The English version, "Special Women's Issue" of Paidika, includes almost the same articles as this book.

Another good, but also sad, Dutch book about female childlove is "Daar sta je dan... alleen!" (1984), by Danielle Vandenbosch. It is the diary of a sixteen year old girl, describing her discovery of her special feelings for and relations with young girls. The ISBN number of the book is 90-71033-01-5, but the book can only be bought via Stichting Jep, Eindhoven (the Netherlands). Their phonenumber is +31-(0)40-434434. - Female Childlove site The Female Childlove site also posted a letter from a female GL Isabella with a following confession: "It wasn't before I was past 30 that I realized I was also pedophile. I always thought of age as being unimportant and of homosexual pedophilia as being part of homosexuality, so I never put any borders between ages or who I fell in love with or felt attracted to."

Real life

 * John Ruskin (8 February 1819 - 20 January 1900), an English writer and philosopher. According to his own admission, he fell in love with 11 year old Rose La Touche, whom he met when she was 9 or 10 and proposed later, when she was 17. He also made numerous requests for his artist friend Kate Greenaway to draw nude girls for him.
 * Lewis Carrol, aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 - January 14, 1898), an English writer and mathematician. He is known for a very intense emotional relationship with Alice Liddel, who was 3 years old when they first met, and also for a special interest in taking photos of little girls, sometimes nude.

Fiction

 * Humbert Humbert, the protagonist of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. He is an adult man with an almost exclusive attraction to young adolescent girls.
 * Thomas Lynn, one of the key characters of Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. He meets the protagonist Polly when she is 10 years old and falls in love with her as their friendship develops in the following couple of years.