goth femme joins a pillow fight then gets knocked over in the first few seconds. "oh nooo, it looks like i am a pillow princess on my back! someone please help me" 😏🖤

Someday, we’ll all take comfort in the internet’s “dark corners”

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me on SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and beyond!

Platforms decay. Tech bosses, unconstrained by competition; regulation; ad blockers and other adversarial interoperability; and their own workers, will inevitably hollow out their platforms, using ultraflexible digital technology to siphon value away from end users and business customers, leaving behind the bare minimum of value to keep all those users locked in:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

Enshittification is the inevitable result of high switching costs. Tech bosses are keenly attuned to opportunities to lock in their customers and users, because the harder is to leave a platform, the worse the platform can treat you – the more value it can rob you of – without risking your departure.

But platform users are a heterogeneous, lumpy mass. Different groups of users have different switching costs. An adult Facebook user of long tenure has more reasons to stay than a younger user: they have more complex social lives, with nonoverlapping social circles from high school, college, various jobs, affinity groups, and family. They are more likely to have a chronic illness, or to be caring for someone with chronic illness, and to be a member of a social media support group they value highly. They are more likely to be connected to practical communities, like little league carpool rotas.

That's the terrible irony of platform decay: the more value you get from a platform, the more cost that platform can extract, a cost denominated in your wellbeing, enjoyment and dignity.

(At this point, someone will pipe up and say, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." It's nonsense. Dignity, respect and fairness aren't frequent flier program perks that tech companies dribble out to their best customers. Companies will happily treat their paying customers as "products" if they think those customers can't avoid other forms of rent-extraction, such as "attention rents")

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Now, consider the converse proposition: for younger users, platforms deliver less value. Younger users have less complex social lives on average relative to their parents and grandparents, which means that platforms have fewer ways to sink their hooks into those young users. Further: young users tend to want things that the platforms don't want them to have, right from the first day they sign up. In particular, young users often want to conduct their socializing out of eyesight and earshot of adults, especially parents, teachers, and other authority figures. This means that a typical younger user has both more reasons to leave a platform as well as fewer reasons to stay there.

Younger people have an additional reason to bail on platforms early and often: if your online and offline social circles strongly overlap – if you see the same people at school as you do in your feed, it's much easier to reassemble your (smaller, less complex) social circle on a new platform.

And so: on average, young people like platforms less, hate them more, and have both less to lose and more to gain by leaving one platform for another. Sure, some young people are also burning with youth's neophilia. But even without that neophilia, young people are among the first to go when tech bosses start to ratchet up the enshittification.

Beyond young people, there are others who tend to jump ship early, like sex-workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Sex-workers' technology changes are only incidentally the result of some novelty-seeking impulse. The real reason to change platforms if you're a sex-worker is that the platforms are either absolutely hostile to sex-workers, or profoundly indifferent to the suffering their policy changes rain down upon them.

The same is broadly true of other disfavored groups, including those with out-of-mainstream political ideologies. Some of these groups hold progressive views, others are out-and-out Nazis, but all of them chafe at the platforms' policies at the best of times, and are far more ready to jump ship when the platforms tighten the noose on all their users.

This is where "dark corners" come in. The worst people on the internet have relocated to its so-called dark corners – privately hosted servers, groupchats, message-boards, etc. Some of these are notorious: Kiwi Farms, 4chan, 8kun, sprawling Telegram groupchats. Others only breach when they are implicated in waves of unthinkably cruel and grotesque crimes:

https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/

The answer to crimes committed in the internet's dark corners is the same as for crimes committed anywhere: catch the criminals, prosecute the crimes. But a distressing number of well-meaning people observe the nexus between dark corners and the crimes that fester there, and conclude that the problem is with the dark corners, themselves.

These people observe that social media platforms like Facebook, and intermediaries like Cloudflare, DNS providers, and domain registrars constitute a "nexus of control" – chokepoints that trap the online lives of billions of people – and conclude that these gigantic corporations can and should be made "responsible" for their users:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

From there, it's a short leap to conclude that anyone who isn't in a position to be controlled by these too big to jail, too big to fail, relentlessly enshittifying corporations must be pushed into their demesne.

This is a deal with the devil. In the name of preventing small groups of terrible people from gathering in private, beyond the control of the world's insufferable and cruel tech barons, we risk dooming everyone else to being permanently within those unworthy billionaires' thumbs.

This is why people like Mark Zuckerberg are so eager to see an increase in "intermediary liability" rules like Section 230. Zuckerberg's greatest fear isn't having to spend more on moderators or algorithms that suppress controversial subjects:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/instagram-users-outraged-by-app-limiting-political-content-ahead-of-elections/

The thing he fears the most is losing control over his users. That's why he bought Instagram: to recapture the young users who were fleeing his mismanaged, enshittified platform in droves:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

A legal mandate for Zuckerberg to police his users is a legal requirement that he surveil and control those users. It's fundamentally incompatible with the new drive in competition circles to force Zuckerberg and his fellow tech barons to offer gateways that make it easier to escape their grasp, by allowing users to depart Facebook and continue to socialize with the users who stay behind:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

Remember: the more locked-in a platform user is, the harder that platform will squeeze that user, safe in the knowledge that the cost of leaving is higher than the cost of staying and tolerating the platform's abuse.

This is the problem with "feudal security" – the warlord who lures you into his castle fortress with the promise of protection from external threats is, in reality, operating a prison where no one can protect you from him:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#manorialism

Rather than fighting to abolish dark corners because only the worst people on the internet use them today, we should be normalizing dark corners, making it easier for every kind of user to find a cozy nook that is shaded from the baleful glare of Zuck and his fellow, eminently guillotineable tech warlords:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/15/normalize-dark-corners/

Enshittification is relentless. The collapse of the restraints that penalized tech companies who abused their users – competition, regulation, interoperability and their own workers' consciences – has inculcated every tech boss with an incurable enshittification imperative.

Efforts to make the platforms safer for their users can only take us so far. Fundamentally, these vast, centralized systems that vest authority with flawed and mediocre and frail human dictators (who fancy themselves noble, brilliant and infallible) will never be safe for human habitation. Rather than focusing on improving the platforms, we should be evacuating them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/09/let-the-platforms-burn/

Online communities that control their own moderation policies won't always get it right. But there is a whole host of difficult moderation calls that can never be adequately handled by outsiders overseeing vast, sprawling platforms. Distinguishing friendly banter from harassment requires the context that only an insider can hope to possess.

We all deserve dark corners where we stand a chance of finding well-managed communities that can deliver the value that keeps us stuck to our decaying giant platforms. Eventually, the enshittification will chase every user off these platforms – not just kids or sex-workers or political radicals. When that happens, it sure would be nice if everyone could set up in a dark corner of their own.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

[“Coming out was very lonely. I had very few friends. Most of the adult lesbians I knew were alcoholics, chronically unemployed, prone to violence, self-hating, apolitical, closeted, cliquish. Lesbians hated each other. If you found a lover you stopped going to the bar because you could not trust other lesbians; they would try to break up your relationship. My first woman lover went into the military, where she turned in other lesbians so she would not be exposed. One of my dyke friends got a job as a supervisor in a cabinet-making company and refused to hire lesbians because, she said, they were unreliable employees who were disliked by the other workers. The only thing that seemed worse to me than the apolitical lesbian community I came out in was the strangulation of pretending to be straight. I came out only because I could not go back; there was no place for me to stand in the het world. I was driven out.

Moving to San Francisco improved things somewhat. There was more public lesbian space there—six bars instead of one. But it did not alleviate the loathing with which my family viewed me. Nor was San Francisco in the early seventies any sort of gay utopia. We had no gay-rights law, queer bashing was a frequent event, and everyone had lost at least one job or been denied a place to live. It was a relief to be surrounded by other lesbian feminists, but only to a point. Bar dykes and feminists still had contempt for one another. Feminism rapidly became a way to reconstitute sexual prudery, to the point that it seemed to me that bar dykes were actually more accepting of and knowledgeable about the range of behavior that constituted lesbianism. In the bars or in the women’s movement, separatism was pretty much mandatory, if you didn’t want to get your ass kicked or be shunned. Separatism deteriorated into a rationalization for witch hunts in the lesbian community rather than a way for women to bond with one another and become more powerful activists. The lesbian community of that decade did terrible things to bi women, transgender people, butch/femme lesbians, bar dykes, dykes who were not antiporn, bisexual and lesbian sex workers, fag hags, and dykes who were perceived as being perverts rather than über-feminists. We were so guilty about being queer that only a rigid adherence to a puritanical party line could redeem us from the hateful stereotypes of mental illness and sexual debauchery.

What did I gain? I came a little closer to making my insides match my outsides, and that was no small blessing. The first time I met other dykes I recognized a part of myself in them, and knew I would have to let it out so I could see who I was. For a time, being a lesbian quieted my gender dysphoria because it made it possible for me to be a different kind of woman. That was an enormous relief.

For a long time, I hoped that by being strong, sexually adventurous, and sharpening my feminist consciousness, I could achieve a better fit between my body and the rest of me. Lesbianism was a platform from which I could develop a different sort of feminism, one that included a demand for sexual freedom and had room for women of all different erotic proclivities. I had a little good sex and discovered that I was not a cold person, I could love other people. It was as a lesbian that I began to find my voice as a writer, because in the early days of the women’s movement, we valued every woman’s experience. There was a powerful ethic around making it possible for every woman to speak out, to testify, to have her say. But there were always these other big pieces of my internal reality that lesbianism left no room for.

The first big piece of cognitive dissonance I had to deal with, in my second coming out, was S/M. I date my coming out as a leather dyke from two different decisions. One was a decision to write down one of my sexual fantasies, the short story that eventually became “Jessie.” At the time I wrote the rough draft of that story, I had never tied anybody up or done anything else kinky. I was terribly blocked as a writer. I kept beginning stories and poems that I would destroy. I have no idea if they were any good or not. My self-loathing was so intense, my inner critic so strong, that I could not evaluate my own work.

So I decided to write this one piece, under the condition that I never had to publish it or show it to another person. I just wanted to tell the truth about one thing. And I was badly in need of connecting with my own sexuality since I was in the middle of what would be a five-year relationship with a woman who insisted we be monogamous, but refused to have sex with me. So I wrote about dominance and submission, the things I fantasized about when I masturbated that upset me so much I became nauseated. Lightning did not strike. As I read and reread my own words, I thought some of them were beautiful. I dared show this story to a few other people. Some of them hated it. Some of them were titillated. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. The story began to circulate in Xerox form, lesbian samizdat. I found the strength to defend my story when I was told it was unspeakable or wildly improbable.

In October of 1976, I attended a lesbian health conference in Los Angeles and went to a workshop there about S/M. In order to go to a workshop, you had to sign a registration sheet. I was harassed by dykes who were monitoring this space to see who dared sign up for that filthy workshop. On my way, I had to walk through a gauntlet of women who were booing and hissing, calling names, demanding that the workshop be canceled, threatening to storm the room and kick us all out of the conference. The body language and self-calming techniques I had learned when I had to deal with antigay harassment on the street came in very handy, but how odd it was to be using those defenses against the antagonism of other dykes. Their hatred felt like my mother’s hatred. I am so glad I did not let it stop me.

When I got home from that workshop, I knew that I was not the only one. Not only were there other lesbians who fantasized about sadomasochism, there were women who had done these things with each other. I decided to come out again. If there were other leather dykes in San Francisco, they had to be able to find me, so I had to make myself visible. This meant that I often did not get service at lesbian bars, or I was asked to leave women-only clubs and restaurants. I was called names, threatened, spit at. I got hate mail and crank calls. But I also found my tribe. And because I had already experienced my first coming out, I knew we were not going to be an ideal, happy family. I could be more patient with our dysfunctions, and see them as the result of being scared, marginalized, kicked around. Being a leather dyke took me another step closer to dealing with my gender issues. I could experiment with extreme femme and extreme butch drag; take on a male persona during sex play. I gave up separatism because I needed to take support from any place where it was available. Gay men already had a thriving leather culture, and I wanted to learn from them. I also wanted to have sex with them. It still wasn’t okay as far as lesbian feminism was concerned to be bisexual, to be transgendered, but I could bring those folks into my life and make alliances with them. I could defend them in print. There was even more good sex, and people who loved me and received my love despite the fact that it was dangerous for us to show ourselves to one another. I faced my sexual shadow, and she bowed to me and then danced beautifully in profile against the white walls of my consciousness. My writer’s voice was unlocked.”]

pat califa, from layers of the onion, spokes of the wheel, from a woman like that: lesbian and bisexual writers tell their coming out stories, 2000

Is it okay for people with agoraphobia to look and take some of the advice you have for housebound people on here? I'm not really great at picking up nuance so I'm worried that it'd be crossing some boundary or that it's not the intention of the tag

that’s completely okay, i appreciate your desire to be respectful even though i’m sorry you were concerned! i absolutely consider folks with agoraphobia my comrades + community members and i’d be super honored if anything i’ve shared is helpful (+ am always interested in hearing what that was if you’re comfortable!) the rest of this is not anything you need to answer your question, just thoughts i’ve been having on the subject

i haven’t had the opportunity to talk to enough homebound [due to chronic illness / “physical” reasons] people to know if this is a common experience but for me i’ve noticed that similar to chronic illness often carrying depression with it, since becoming homebound i’ve become terrified of leaving the house.

this is definitely influenced by the fact that it’s untenably painful, my photosensitivity (in the UV sense not the epilepsy sense), the ongoing pandemic, the fact that i only left the house to go to the doctor for over a year & i’m afraid of the doctors appointment itself due to medical trauma, etc etc but like. there’s also the very strong pull of habit – i’m an incredibly obsessive & ritualistic person – and what Goffman refers to as “the relief of self-isolation” for marginalized people sheltering from a hostile society, a phrase i read in undergrad 5 1/2 years ago that’s stuck with me ever since for how profoundly it resonates.

i’m not trying to say these are necessarily your or any other person with agoraphobia’s feelings & experiences, more to illustrate how the liberation of all homebound people & shut-ins & hermits is bound up together; any sanist strategy for oppressing agoraphobes can easily be leveraged against me, not least because as a severely underdiagnosed person, the medical establishment does not think there is any “legitimate” “physical” reason for me to be homebound. to respond to this oppression by arguing it’s inapplicable because i’m not crazy would be untrue + a cruel act of lateral violence.

i’ve been reading a lot of butch/femme history recently (i post about that on my main @campgender; followers age 18+ only please) & have found myself entirely reconfiguring my understanding of the queer art of isolation, the incredible ability of our ancestors to hunker down & survive under circumstances unimaginable to the average person. i absolutely don’t want to deny the deep pain – not only the aspects i experience but also the heightened isolation of people without or before internet access + the ways these circumstances / forms of oppression can foster abuse –

but my god, so many 50s butches didn’t leave their homes during daylight hours for years in order to not be hate crimed for their gender presentation, & that’s the folks who were making it to the bars. so many others – “discreet” couples who didn’t want to risk being outed by engaging in queer community; people assigned female who “passed” as men & their partners; butch sex workers & other people with identities perceived as contradictory or unacceptable – existed marginalized by both queer & normative communities.

every time i think substantially about homeboundedness i always get tracy chapman’s “subcity” stuck in my head. obviously my access to housing period is a huge position of privilege, & i’m in the most economically secure position of my adult life so far; the abjection i experience is nowhere near the scale of people in the position of the speaker of the song, who’s implied to be street homeless. but the line “people say it doesn’t exist ‘cause no one would like to admit that there is a city underground” is such a succinct & accurate depiction of living the kind of life society tries to convince itself is impossible. but there truly is a rich genealogy of homeboundedness especially in queer history.

again i hope some of my posts & such are helpful / resonant! wishing you all the best 💓💓

I have honestly never ran into the non binary community organizer named sock who mentions their chronic illnesses when their roommate asks them to do the dishes. Lgbt people who keep that meme floating around are such losers/would be those kinds of people if it was socially acceptable😭like are the sjws in the room with us rn..my last roommate was a sex worker who worked at an extremely bougie coffee shop who told me she thought Uniqlo was for poor people and she ended up marrying the owner of the coffee shop and she now talks to me like I’m a sick puppy anytime I run into her bc we have mutual friends

Legit, people who can't understand the concept of paying sex workers for their work is wild as fuck. Not at all the same, but:

As an nsfw artist, I really get how you feel, and I'm sorry you had to post that rant earlier o/

Honestly it is what it is, there is always some group of people who feel entitled to people's time, content, and energy.. things someone chronically ill like myself can't afford to give out to just ANYONE.

My devote followers/supporters have my attention FIRST, they're entitled to what little energy I have to respond.. because they're been here for me for so long and I'll never forget the kindness each one of them has shown me 🩷🩵 bc I remember names don't think I forget who's been here since the beginning

But for crying out loud 👏 pay your sex workers 👏 pay your artists 👏 pay the content creators who work their ass off everyday slaving away to the algorithm 👏 it ain't easy out here being a content creator or artist

We all have bills to pay and mouths to feed 😏 especially in a community like this, the pantry don't stay stocked, and the groceries don't pay for themselves.. respect your fetish models, some of them do this for a living (like me)

‼️ATTENTION Faggots! Sex Workers! People With Bodies‼️

Your rights to PrEP, Cancer Screenings, and other preventive care are at risk!

A Texas Judge (who previously failed to overturn ACA) invalidated the preventative care statute, which required insurance to fully cover vital preventative certain cancer screenings and PrEP. Your right to life saving HIV protection is at risk!

This is super fucking important for our community. It is also a directly motivated, violent homophobic attack. Not in a internet “homophobic in effect ergo one could say” way—

‼️The stated motivation of the man who brought the suit is to use AIDS to punish homosexuality and sex work. ‼️

Conservative mega donor Dr Steven Hotze, a anti gay hate group founder, election denier, Covid conspiracy theorist, and person who filled the suit that led to this decision has stated that HIV Pre exposure drugs “facilitate behaviors such as homosexual sodomy, prostitution, and intravenous drug use” which conflicts with his religious beliefs. I repeat THE POINT IS FOR AIDS TO PUNISH HOMOSEXUALITY.

(The Hotze is now charged in connection with an agrivated assault of a repairman by a PI hired by the mega-donor to “confirm” election fraud. We might live in hell.)

This may come down to a legal fight, this may be out of the hands of protesters. BUT WATCH THIS DEVELOPMENT AND PREPARE FOR COMMUNITY ACTION.

It is possible that you are not at immediate risk. Most employers and insurers will keep these kinds of care fully covered for the same reason it was mandated: it is the ethical choice, and it saves them way more than it costs. But roughly one in five may try to save money by asking at risk groups to pay out of pocket.

And the problem will only grow more acute and widespread. Things like anxiety screenings, contraception, and many interventions for the chronically ill are also at risk of returning to pre ACA levels of financially burden, at the whims of corporate interests.

ABOUT US!

Hello everyone! We had a blog on here before but we lost access to it so here’s the new one!

We are the colour wheel! We are a dissociative multiplicity. We’re pretty sure we have DID but we’ve been advised against self diagnosing by our psychiatrist, he told us to wait for our assessment to finish before we label ourselves with anything for definite.

We are physically 15, physically white, autistic (prof. diagnosed), dyspraxic (prof. diagnosed), hypermobile (prof. diagnosed), demand avoidant (prof. diagnosed), short sighted (prof. diagnosed), hard of hearing (APD) (self diagnosed), chronically anxious (prof. diagnosed), and we suffer from chronic pain.

We are diagnosed with C-PTSD, OCD, chronic Generalised Anxiety Disorder and heart arrhythmia. We’re suspected by our doctors to have Borderline Personality Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.

Most of us use xenoidentities due to our dissociation

This blog is a safe space for (plsint)…

The LGBTQIA2S+ community, disabled people (including partially disabled people), PwDID/PwOSDD, PoC, people with stigmatised mental illnesses (NPD, ASPD, BPD, BIID, Schizospec disorders, psychosis, bipolar, etc), young cane/walker/crutch/scooter users, SFW age regressors, SFW species regressors, legal paraphiles, CSA victims, SAM people, everyone on the aspec, neurodisabled/neurodisordered people, sex workers, xenogender users, neopronoun users, xenoidentity users.

This blog is NOT a safe space for (DNI)…

Racists, against BLM, all lives matter, nazis, alt-right, antisemitic, islamophobic, xenophobes, pedophiles, necrophiles, zoophiles, ableists, sexists, TERFs, SWERFs, Christians/members or supporters of the church, homophobes, transphobes, panphobes, xenogender/neopronoun antis, MOGAI antis, lesbifets (lesbian fetishists), transfets (transgender fetishists), fujoshis, proshipper/anti-anti, endogenic systems, demo systems, non-buddhist tulpamancers, people who are against lesbians who use pronouns other than she/her, people who are against gays who use pronouns that aren’t he/him, think pronouns = gender, joke about or try to justify incest/rape/pedophilia/zoophilia/necrophilia/sexualisation of minors/abusive relationships, spider posters, hypnosis posters, people who use slur pronouns, people who use slur based xenogenders, people who say slurs they can’t reclaim, people who kinshame/altershame, anyone who supports the above.

Break my DNI I will break yours. /srs /neg

RAISON D'ETRE

Why, as an angel with chronic mental illness, have I chosen to be a sex worker? I could be anything, theoretically. It tends to be different in practice and, well, the struggle is always real on this side of paradise. I have other interests, namely art and spirituality. I could be a writer and comic artist devoted to the might of the pen while moonlighting as a tarot consultant.

I mean, am I not those things, too? But I have yet to be stable enough for attending art school or reliably advertising my tarot skills. My disabilities affect it all. We've seen it impact my sex work pursuits, too. I've fallen enough for a lifetime, and yet I still get up.

And honestly, sex work is probably the most challenging pursuit of them all. Not only does it require intense emotional intelligence, but also personal upkeep beyond the norm and a fierce diligence against the puritanical ideologies that society is currently drowning in.

Let me tell you a story, I suppose:

As a young cherub, nigh 19 years of age in this human body, I worked alongside many activists in my community on the local branch of Occupy Wall Street. It was, in hardly simple terms, a religious experience. Ever since, I have believed in being the change I wish to see in the world, and it suits me well. Sex work is incredibly difficult compared to civilian work, but so is the rest of my life.

Sex work also ties all my interests in a funky little bow, melding my spirituality and creativity... into something new and subversive. I get to challenge old models of faith while I seek and portray sexual liberation. Whores have always been on the cutting edge of culture. We dance in the primordial fire of creation, leading the way where others dare not tread.

And so, that is why. I am a trailblazer, despite my challenges. In fact, I am launched into totally new creative, spiritual and political territory because I have become so devoted to overcoming my challenges. It's my special interest. I love sex, whether solo or with others. Why not take advantage of this pleasure... as a form of activism and self-actualization?

🍃🌸 420 is a magical day for tipping your favorite sex workers! plenty of us in the chronically ill/disabled sw realm use greens in addition to our mountains of prescriptions. maybe take a moment to thank a cute sex worker or five 🍃🌸

Disability Support Services

Disabled people need help with basic tasks such as washing, cleaning and making meals. They also need rehabilitation training to learn new skills. These services can help them become independent and not rely on their relatives for assistance.

Disability Support Services provides academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. We work proactively with each student to determine reasonable and appropriate accommodations. We protect the confidentiality of student records as required or permitted by law.

Disability is a lifelong condition

Disabilities are part of life, and people with disabilities should be treated as such. They should have access to quality health care and services, the same as everyone else. They also need access to work and community activities. Many disabled people are unable to work full-time, but they can get help by applying for disability support services benefits. These benefits are not only for the person with a disability, but they can help their family and friends.

Disabled people should have a voice in society. They should be encouraged to unite into organizations that represent their interests, advocate for change, and educate others about disabilities. In turn, these organizations should be supported and facilitated by government and other agencies.

A disability is any condition that affects a person’s mental or physical functioning and limits their ability to participate in everyday activities. It can range from mild to severe and can be caused by genetics or by injury or illness.

It is a social issue

Disabled persons are entitled to equal rights and deserve a life of dignity. They are not a “problem” or “burden.” They are valuable members of society, and they can be used as resources for social change. But society has to raise the bar and offer them real opportunities for inclusion. This means providing accessible education, employment and health services. It also means addressing the social determinants of health, such as poverty and exclusion from formal support mechanisms.

Disability is a cross-cutting issue that impacts every demographic group. It affects men, women and children; workers, students, and consumers. It also intersects with other identities and creates unique experiences of oppression and privilege. Often, the intersections are hidden from view. For example, people with invisible disabilities, such as lupus or diabetes, can experience discrimination and stigma that is not apparent to others. This is because the prevailing stereotype of disabled people is that they are lazy malingerers with trivial conditions.

It is a legal issue

Disability is a legal issue that affects the rights and freedoms of all people. These issues can be complex and require the help of an experienced attorney. A successful goods and services discrimination lawsuit can provide compensation and legally require the offending party to fix the problem for the future.

Individuals with disabilities have civil rights protections that extend to employment, transportation, state and local government services, public accommodations, and telecommunications. These protections are similar to those of other protected classes such as race, national origin, sex, and age. Discrimination against a person with a disability can be direct or indirect and may occur in any setting or environment that is open to the general public.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers must provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities unless it would be undue hardship to the employer. These accommodations could include modifications to equipment, devices, exams, or training materials. They could also include modifying job tasks or changing the workplace, if necessary.

It is a health issue

People with disabilities have unique health care needs. They are at higher risk of chronic conditions and use medical services more frequently than others. They also experience lower quality of life and have a greater need for access to support. This can be attributed to the fact that they are often excluded from social interaction and do not have easy access to mainstream healthcare and social services.

Disability support services Melbourne is a health issue because it results from the interaction between health conditions and personal, environmental and community factors. It is important that individuals with disabilities have access to the same healthcare services and programmes as everyone else. This includes specialised services such as physical therapy and nursing.

It is important to prevent disabilities by addressing the root causes, such as malnutrition, pollution, lack of hygiene and inadequate prenatal and postpartum care. Moreover, it is vital to invest in disability research and development. The technology for preventing or controlling most disability is available, but it requires commitment from society.

Transgender First Scholarship Essay Question

Transgender students may have difficulty affording college because of inhibited socioeconomic class mobility, medical and legal bills, estrangement from family members, workplace discrimination and assault, and disability. Health psychology accounts for the physical damage that mental trauma can inflict on transgender folks, and homelessness and domestic violence often precede poverty for transgender youth.

Some trans folks have no choice but to estrange themselves from their families due to abuse and domestic violence, losing familial connections and financial support. Domestic violence and sexual abuse, which transgender folks are at a higher risk of than cisgender and heterosexual folks, severely inhibit class mobility and impact a trans person’s ability to pay for college. For example, a transgender person may have to dedicate large amounts of their income to legal fees if they are pursuing a restraining order against transphobic abusers or trying to retrieve personal belongings left behind while escaping transphobic abuse. A transgender person may struggle to juggle paying for legal bills, medical bills, and rent, and become homeless without a stable job and support system.

Homelessness is another barrier to higher education for transgender students. Many transgender teens across the nation get kicked out of their homes for their identities. Homelessness has a drastic butterfly effect: no access to clean water or clothes, as well as transphobic bullying, may deter trans teens from going to school which, in turn, lowers their chances of getting into vocational schools, community colleges, or universities whose educations bolster one’s chances of getting a good-paying job. So, even before a homeless transgender student is eligible to attend college, they are often financially set back from their cisgender, heterosexual peers. If a homeless trans teen does manage to finish high school at a free, public school, they will likely face exorbitant tuition fees during college. Even with financial aid, a trans student may struggle to afford college after having experienced homelessness and might have to take on additional jobs that take away time that could be spent studying. 

For transgender women, especially those of Color and those who are Black, sex work may be the only viable way to get income to pay for college because of gender-based discrimination in both blue and white-collar jobs. Sex work is a highly stigmatized field, and Black trans-feminine sex workers face high rates of assault and murder because of their identities. Getting assaulted by a client may understandably deter a trans sex worker from continuing in their line of work, leaving tuition bills to pile up. Sexual trauma may also inflict PTSD and in turn chronic illnesses, which can disable a trans person and leave them unable to go to school, let alone afford it. 

Health psychology, a branch of science that focuses on how mental stress impacts the human body, explains how transgender and non-binary folks are at a higher risk for suicide than cisgender, heterosexual folks. The significant stress that accompanies gender-based discrimination can cause a transgender person to become ill and run down, resulting in sick days and loss of income. Medical bills for chronic illnesses, on top of those for gender-affirming care, can financially wipe out a transgender person, leaving no funds for tuition and fees. 

Transgender folks face many barriers to higher education, from homelessness and poverty to sexual abuse and workplace discrimination. The Transgender First Scholarship provides transgender youth with a glimmer of hope for affording college despite adverse circumstances.

Re: but what can I do?

I have come to the conclusion that most activism (or other "doing stuff") that comes from a sense of obligation is fundamentally toxic, and the healthiest forms of doing-stuff come from self-interest or something close to self-interest, like wanting people in your community to be OK.

People who want to "save" sex workers tend to get things horribly wrong, tend to have dramatically different goals from when sex workers themselves organize.

People who are doing things for others either go too far in and get burnt out, or (more often) don't go in far enough or pull out the moment things get messy.

Anyhow. So. If you want to "do something" appropriately and sustainably, don't start with your psychological need to feel like you're contributing. Start with what the need is and whether you can meet it. And start with yourself and go out.

Sometimes I get hungry or otherwise notice I haven't eaten in a while. When that happens and I eat, I am doing something to make my personal world better. (Ditto for chronic illness related self care, getting enough social interaction, getting enough rest, doing my PT so my back doesn't hurt when I wake up in the morning, etc.) Same for when I do a thing purely for pleasure. There's a need, or an opportunity for joy, can I meet it?

When I ask my partner how his day went, I am finding a need/opportunity for making his life better, and meeting it. Same for when I ask my mom how her golf game went. I don't care about golf, but she does and I care about her. (When I can ask about something I do care about, I am doing a thing for two people.)

When I pick up litter in my neighborhood, I am finding a need/opportunity for making my community's life better, and taking care of it. Ditto for contributing when someone says they need money, online or in person. Ditto for when I used to do Food Not Bombs and ride in Critical Mass. Ditto for when I'm able to get my act together enough to call a politician or send an email (not as often as I would like.)

For people who have had jobs, you know the work that needs to be done and the hours you're supposed to be working don't always line up nicely, it's the same for things you don't get paid for that need to be done. Sometimes there's nothing; sometimes there's more than you can do. It's not about whether you feel a need to contribute, it's about what's there.

And the thing is, what individual people need to take care of themseleves for themselves is more or less the same, but the bigger the group is the more likely people are to end up specializing and doing one or a few things a lot. Some people give blood as often as they can. Some pick up litter. Some do the jail support. Some do things that have a high risk of getting them arrested. Some are naturals at fundraising, or art or messaging, some can learn, some want nothing to do with that. What people are willing and able to do varies SO MUCH, which is fine because the things the world needs varies so much.

And this isn't expressly political, but there's always always always a need for caring and social labor. For someone to be the person who gets their friend group together. For someone to be the person who provides childcare so the moms can participate in the organizing meetings. For someone to be the person who makes sure the person with the broken leg is getting their groceries and the person with the chronic illness gets driven to their medical appointments. For someone to be the person who makes sure the old lady whose family all lives out of state (or who doesn't have a family, which is especially often the case with queer people) has someone to talk to. It's not less important just because people who aren't anarchists do it too. (It's not less impotent because it doesn't by itself challenge systems of oppression, for a few different reasons but in part because even in a perfect world that is work that needs to be done, and in part because improving the world isn't the only work that needs to be done, maintaining the world/the people in the world is work that needs to be done too.)

🍂Begin again, from the beginning.

I’m canceling myself. And starting over. I’m sick. I’m struggling with a lot of things. I’ve been struggling for a very long time, but it’s hard for me to take the time to navigate the things that I am struggling with because I must constantly keep going. Otherwise, my entire life will fall apart. I can’t afford that. I am a chronically ill and disabled woman, who is alone and taking care of herself at the end of the day. I must pick myself up and keep moving no matter what because I must keep a roof over my head and food on my table. I’m working on different ways to help myself and sustain myself over time, but right now I have what I have, and I need to keep my home and be able to maintain a diet that fits my chronic illness’ needs. There is no one directly in my life who is going to help me with any of that. I had some goals when I first started all of this. Like, I wanted to focus my energies on the sexual dysfunctions I experienced from becoming disabled and talk about how I used technology to help me navigate those dysfunctions. I wanted to focus on how VR gave me parts of my life back that I had lost when I became disabled. I wanted to be a virtual therapist who focused on things like sexual dysfunctions and relationships. I wanted to help people like me, and I was doing that. But somewhere along the way, I got really lost. I still know what I want, but I got a bit derailed from all of it because I’ve spent a good chunk of my time in fight-or-flight mode, trying to protect myself. I know that I am an online sex worker and that I make sexual content. But at the end of the day, when it comes to my actual sex life, and my body within an actual space outside of the internet, I only want to be with one person. I wound up in situations that weren’t what I wanted, or with people who didn’t think I deserved that, and feeling like I didn’t deserve that, and it was honestly a traumatizing experience for me. My trauma didn’t just affect the people that I was trying to protect myself from, but it affected everyone else around me too. It affected my community. It affected how I was spending my time. So much of what I wanted to focus on fell apart, and I feel like I’ve been operating on autopilot, just trying to keep my head above the water. I feel like some of the things I’ve tried to put my focus into, were defense mechanisms to keep my head above water while I was trying to navigate things. Time has been kind to me though. Things have been changing. People have come and gone in my life, and within this past month specifically, I feel like I have been waking up from living on autopilot and rediscovering the things about myself that I wanted and that I love. I feel like, even though I am still scared and uncertain about things, I’m able to be scared and concerned about things that matter to me. I’m relearning about what love is to me, and not having it be framed by what people think it should look like just because I talk about sex, have an interest in sex, or post photos on the internet. I’m picking up books again, and reading, and slowing down. Sitting in my rocking chair with a mug of tea, and taking the time to read, highlight, and jot down notes. I feel like I have stepped out of a whirlwind of chaos, and my life is going back to a slower, calmer pace. I can never be who I was before all of this, but I can slow down and accept this new phase of my life. I can redirect my focus to things that matter to me. I can’t start over completely, but I can begin again. I hope that you’ll be here for the next chapter of my life.

Why are you so monetized? Not saying you can’t make money off this, but literally to even speak to you it costs money. Do you not enjoy the community for what it is?

Because I'm chronically ill and can't work normal jobs, so I'm a content creator! I'm a sex worker, who does fetish content.. so yeah, this is my job ?? Porn isn't free, and I have bills to pay and a mouth (and growing gut) to feed

And I do enjoy this community, I've always been a foodie at heart and have thoroughly enjoyed being a feedee (and pred 😏) but saying it cost money to speak to me is silly, I post plenty of free content (even on snap) but yeah I offer payed content as well, and commissions since this is a JOB I've chosen to take

I have a handful of mutuals in this community that I love and adore, and speak to them on a regular.. but I don't engage in fetish conversations with just anyone, I'm not sexting for free, so people can get off to my content for FREE. I'm chronically ill and don't have the social energy to speak to just ANYONE all the time.

I have to micromanage where I spend my energy, and the people I respond to have been long time supporters of mine and have earned my time, and my response.. I face burnout frequently, and have to make sure I put myself first.

But I'm literally a sex worker, a FETISH MODEL. Content isn't free hunny, I'm sorry but this is literally my job..

And anyone who has followed me since the beginning knows how much I've struggled, how many times I've moved, and how hard it's been for me to pursue staying alive and not being homeless or starving.

I appreciate everyone who has stuck around and showed me so much support 🩷🩵 it means the world to me, but I've faced the bad part of the community as well.. those who steal and repost my content, those who have harassed me, those who don't value me as a human being, but just a fetish toy they jerk off to

I'd post more public content but the amount of times I've had my stuff stolen and reuploaded by other people, I've become very hesitant to interact with this community outside of the parts of my job... and that's not my fault, but the community members that took advantage of me and make me uncomfortable to even post.

Anyways if you want more public content, where I do chat with others and engage more personally, add my snap @ TheDevouress 😌 and if snap isnt your thing I now have a Fansly where I upload content (which includes my entire clipshop!) You can find that @ Sluttonous

And one final reminder, this is the internet, and most porn isn't free. Pay your sex workers, they work hard and deserve more recognition (especially when they're willing to throw away their figure for some delicious food and belly rubs 😳) cough cough

READ BEFORE FOLLOWING/INTERACTING/F.A.Q.

(THIS POST WILL CONTINUE TO BE UPDATED)

Put your fucking age in your bio! Ageless blogs will get blocked ! This is an 18+ ONLY blog and minors are NOT WELCOME, nor are minor supporters. I post/reblog/create nsfw content.

LUNA/Bug/Moth/Kiddo♡

GOOD VIBES OR GTFO♡

Basic about me:

2(4) | ♉ | Southern Cali | Pansexual |Genderqueer/Nonbinary creature | All Pronouns | They/it/she/he | In an ethically non monogamous/ polyamorous relationship (not actively looking but always open minded) | Disabled and chronically ill | 5'2" | 🇵🇭, 🇮🇪, 🇦🇸(and other😂)| I love animals and have a soft spot for pitbulls and reptiles and sea creatures | chaotic but in a cute way👀👉🏼👈🏼💚 | whiskey in a teacup |

Kinky about me:

Masochist/Pain slut | service sub | exhibitionist w/a sprinkle of voyeur | DDLG | Petplay🐶🐈‍⬛🦝🐄🐀🦊 | Ethically Non-monogamous/Polyamorous | size kink | knives/weapons💕| CNC/kidnapping | Impact play | breathplay (drowning/choking/asphyxiation/ etc) | cockwarming | aftercare is non-negotiable | |||||

Reasons i will block you :

Spam liking my comment or anyone else, you harass me (or anyone), racist, homophobic, transphobic, fat-phobic, terf, gatekeeping, hateful in any way, send disgusting/sexual/disrespectful things, etc.

Do NOT send me or anyone unsolicited photos of your genitals. it’s disgusting and you will get blocked & reported the first time this happens.

♡ BE FUCKING RESPECTFUL. OR GET BLOCKED ♡

Frequently Asked Questions:

My page is kink/sex work oriented, 420/710 friendly and a safe, judgement free place to explore yourself/your kinks!

Only safe & supportive energy and good vibes are allowed, anything hateful or harmful will be deleted & blocked. I am not here to please you and hate/harm is not welcome.

You can comment, like and reblog my content to help me out! Please DO NOT SAVE/REPOST MY content if you really want to help or like what I make you can reblog my content 😊

I do have a partner but we are both ethically non monogamous/ polyamorous and communicate openly with each other (he's not on tumblr, y'all don't know him😂)

No I don't want to swap nudes w you, idc what your gender is, you have to pay me for my services unless I really like you

sex & SW positive ! I am a sex worker and am constantly supporting other SW’s, pls don’t just spam like our content - reblog, comment, tip us or buy our content so you can help us sexy people out because we are really cute, work really hard and are pretty awesome at what we do!

if ever anything I reblog is offensive or from a blog that may be offensive or if a post is yours please let me know so I can adjust and or delete said post. I like to ensure it’s rb friendly before I post and am trying to reblog more from independent creators but sometimes things get through.

Payment/Snapchat/etc:

The only payment options I accept are these:

I'm always updating my wishlist but just wanted to say that you will get content if you buy something🥰

Please send me a screenshot so I know it's you😊 the content you get depends on how much you pay (matching to my prices)

No one is ever obligated to buy anything and my Cashapp/venmo (ChaosKiddo) is also available as a payment method.🥰

Snapchat is free/similar to tumblr/insta/ello and you can tip me for extra spicy content there as well 🤗

I respond better on snap/insta though. Keep in mind I still am busy and can get quite a few messages at times but I try to check tumblr messages 2-3x weekly. If you'd like to smoke w me, get to know me a lil bit better through what I post or just see me dance around in my panties occasionally then go ahead and add me on Snap and send me a message or a screenshot so I know you're an 18+ or you won't be added to my spicy story😊 (if you don't have your age in your bio here I block you, it's the same for my 18+ story)

Please keep in mind I do enjoy making friends but this is for work so I treat all messages as such, same as here. I'm also not as active with this work rn but am still always happy to help! I'm just trying to focus on things that make me really happy but I'll still occasionally make new things if I feel like doing so.

Snap: Babybratchaos

💘STAY SAFE💘

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY!