The Bluesky Panopticon
Aug. 26th, 2025 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingEarlier this year, I wrote and published an essay called “Dark Academia for Dark Times.” The editor of an emerging horror fiction magazine shared a link to the essay in an appreciative post on Bluesky and tagged me, and this morning I retweeted it. I instantly lost ten followers.
It has occurred to me that this might have something to do with the link preview automatically generated by Bluesky. The essay basically opens like this: For better or worse, an entire generation grew up with Harry Potter; but, given that JK Rowling has turned out to be a massive transphobic piece of shit, we need to reconsider what that means.
Unfortunately, the text in the article preview cuts off with the words “Harry Potter,” so... I guess, based on the first ten words in an article I wrote about finding subversive queer joy in Elden Ring, maybe people think I’m transphobic?
To put this in context, I’m agender and nonbinary in a major way, and the world can sometimes feel like an obstacle course of bigotry, discrimination, and menace. I mean, the majority of American voters are apparently happy to suffer through a prolonged economic recession and lose their homes, savings, and healthcare if it means they don’t have to use gender-neutral pronouns.
And so now I feel like... Well, there’s really no safe space anymore, is there? No matter where it’s coming from, and even if it’s something stupid like this, it’s upsetting to be punished for being an LBGTQ+ author writing about LBGTQ+ issues.
The funny thing is that I didn't even know that ten people cared about anything I did. Like, I feel lucky if any of my posts on Bluesky gets ten notes. Once again I find myself wishing that people who consider themselves to be LGBTQ+ activists were as quick to support work made by LGBTQ+ creators as they are to call out what they perceive to be community infractions.
It has occurred to me that this might have something to do with the link preview automatically generated by Bluesky. The essay basically opens like this: For better or worse, an entire generation grew up with Harry Potter; but, given that JK Rowling has turned out to be a massive transphobic piece of shit, we need to reconsider what that means.
Unfortunately, the text in the article preview cuts off with the words “Harry Potter,” so... I guess, based on the first ten words in an article I wrote about finding subversive queer joy in Elden Ring, maybe people think I’m transphobic?
To put this in context, I’m agender and nonbinary in a major way, and the world can sometimes feel like an obstacle course of bigotry, discrimination, and menace. I mean, the majority of American voters are apparently happy to suffer through a prolonged economic recession and lose their homes, savings, and healthcare if it means they don’t have to use gender-neutral pronouns.
And so now I feel like... Well, there’s really no safe space anymore, is there? No matter where it’s coming from, and even if it’s something stupid like this, it’s upsetting to be punished for being an LBGTQ+ author writing about LBGTQ+ issues.
The funny thing is that I didn't even know that ten people cared about anything I did. Like, I feel lucky if any of my posts on Bluesky gets ten notes. Once again I find myself wishing that people who consider themselves to be LGBTQ+ activists were as quick to support work made by LGBTQ+ creators as they are to call out what they perceive to be community infractions.
