Reposts from 1 June 2024

With the events in the US overnight I think it’s a prime time to remember that sex work is real work.

I've been using the Chromium browser for certain websites, and that's about to end. Google's greed-fueled moves -- this time to disable vital extensions that provide better privacy and security -- are unacceptable to me. The stakes here are quite high. If Google succeeds what it's attempting to do -- forcing us to use only Google-approved privacy and security choices -- we're in trouble. Firefox looks like the best way forward at this point.

Attached: 1 image This is a graph of Discord’s algorithmically inferred gender (extracted from “request your data” json; axes are probability and days) for a user whose display name is “Tiffany”, whose bio is “she/her”, whose pfp is a drawing of a girl and whose profile theme color is pink. Algorithmically inferred gender is worse than useless. Presumably the issue is that she talks about programming, and all the deliberate “I am explicitly telling you I am a girl” signaling in the world can’t convince a computer. I sometimes watch a livecoding streamer whose youtube stats claim his audience is 99% male even though you can see fem-coded chat participants regularly. Algorithms like this are deleting the women

Also it's ironic that they keep giving AI traditional women's names when it clearly should be a white man given how much it is promoted on potential

So #emfcamp had a pop-up #MathsJam evening, and of course I brought another lightning talk — enjoy! https://youtube.com/watch?v=GfCRA6zmRFo

Basically if you’re losing sleep over the fact you don’t like a Q* or you think there are too many groups represented on a flag then I’d like to congratulate you on your comfortable life and suggest you put the energy you have for arguing against representation into something more useful. If it doesn’t hurt anyone beyond making you personally uncomfortable that is decidedly a YOU problem. *I am aware of the “queer was used as a slur against me and thus it’s painful for me to see” but your discomfort can be healed through reclamation of language and community support, rather than force others to be uncomfortable and disincluded because you don’t like the way they refer to themself. I am not aware of any valid arguments on why we should not add black, brown, trans, intersex and whatever future styleguide updates come to the progress flag.

"'Queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live." bell hooks

I still think corporations have Pride Month backwards: this isn't a month to make money off me, this is a month to give me discounts for doing the public service of being this gay! I should be able to walk into any Target and get 30% off by kissing another girl or showing the cute bandaid from where I did my HRT shot! I should get free coffee at starbucks for walking in with carabiners and a fanny pack! I should be able to demand any random driver pull over and become a free uber by waving a rainbow flag so I can go spread my gayness across the city! Strangers should just hand me a twenty because I'm slouching bisexually in public!?! #RainbowCapitalism #Queer #PrideMonth #Pride

The other day at work, in an online meeting, a fuckhead said the phrase “Well, it’s probably because she’s a woman and she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about”, referring to an external contractor. I’m not out, but I stopped the meeting and said “You don’t get to talk like that in front of me. Now, I have to call HR.” There was laughter. To which I replied sternly, “It is not funny. Do better.” There was no laughter then. I don’t put up with that shit. Misogyny, any kind of trans- or queer- based phobia, racism. None. That’s how you ally - you speak up. You challenge the notion that these fuckers are in a safe place. You DO have power to create change. Be the voice for the voiceless. Afterwards, two of the other attendees reached out to me to thank for my courage to stand up to one of the “cool kids”. I don’t need thanks, I need people to be better. BE BETTER.