When Black people ask for accountability, terms like “Woke Film Twitter” are deployed as dog-whistles to minimize, sensationalize, and deflect. This essay discusses a suicide attempt. This past Thursday, a traumatic family event removed me from the cesspool that is social media. I shut down my IG. I deactivated my Twitter. And I signed out...
Tag: twitter
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From Tumblr To Twitter: The Increasing Dangers of Stan Culture
In stan culture, the anonymity on social media collide with celebrity worship, spawning a toxic environment that rewards obsessive and violent behaviour. “Halsey Is Very Sorry for Accidentally Calling for Another 9/11” is a headline that I never would have imagined reading in 2020. In yet another entry in the Celebrities Can’t Take Criticism canon,...
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All Black Art Deserves Valid Critique
The act of thinking about Black art and its meaning in a larger cultural context is equally as important as the final creation. By Stephanie Smith-Strickland Over the last two years we’ve seen films like Black Panther — Ryan Coogler’s triumphant diaspora-spanning addition to the Marvel pantheon — and Get Out, Jordan Peele’s darkly comedic...
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Social Media Will Be the Death of Me: A Black Sex Worker’s Lament
Sex workers are shadow-banned, locked out of our accounts, and even banned from the platforms that we helped bring to prominence simply for daring to exist. This essay contains mentions of r/pe threats, suicide, whorephobic rhetoric, and child abuse. By Adrie Rose “We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end,” said Rev....
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#TweetYourHustle Brings Visibility and Praise For Some ‘Hustlers’ — But Not Sex Workers
The ‘Hustlers’ Twitter campaign should have been an opportunity to share the hustle of actual sex workers, but they found themselves marginalized yet again. This essay contains discussions of sexual violence, whorephobia/anti-sex work sentiment, and mentions r/pe By Adrie Rose Hustlers has potential. It’s foolish to pretend otherwise when the film has grossed more than...
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Nothing About Being Black is Easy, Including Our Hair Care.
Black people are allowed to be honest about our struggle with natural hair. Twitter is an interesting place. There are always arguments and debates happening, many of them inconsequential to my existence. But this week, I was stunned by a Twitter argument about natural hair that might seem small to most, but feels incredibly significant...
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From Sabrina Claudio to Selena Gomez, Non-Black Latinxs Uphold White Supremacy
Why do so many non-Black Latinx artists still make space for white supremacy? By Ruby Mora Singer Sabrina Claudio was recently outed on Twitter for writing anti-Black tweets and frequently using the n-word. The discovery was made by another Twitter user who came across a currently-deleted Twitter account which turned out to be Claudio’s from...
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How Using Memes Helped Me Deal With Depression
Memes are a valid form of expression and they can help us articulate the difficult, and often stigmatized, effects of depression. By Han Angus Memes in 2017 are a form of communication. We laugh with memes, we cry with memes and we express our annoyance with memes. I have over 500 of them saved on my...
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Why Social Media Sites Soft-Banning Sex Workers Matters
Sex workers are already criminalized, and these vague, underhanded policies are usually just the beginning. Last week there was yet another uproar about a social media site updating its ad policy — this time it was Twitter and not too long ago, Patreon did something similar. Many vanilla (non-sex worker) Twitter users response was to make...
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Twitter Is A Valid Educational Platform If You Want It To Be
While there may be plenty of negative issues with Twitter, the platform has provided me and many others with the opportunity to learn and grow at little cost. Our education system is elitist, expensive and unequal. It’s also racially and gender-biased. I have learned so much on Twitter about history from a non-white and non-male...