Notices by Cleo of Topless Topics (toplesstopics@eldritch.cafe)

I made a YouTube short about #patreon banning a post on my already-marked-as-18+ account as "sexually gratifying" simply for having female nipples. I'd really appreciate a like & comment on the video itself so that MAYBE enough of us can shame patreon into unbanning my post❤️ https://youtu.be/G1j1bWM3kC4?si=PquzoBKAAITgBOlu

As I tucked my kids into bed tonight, I told my eight year old that because he came to the protest with me today, that meant he was a part of history, and he seemed to think that was pretty amazing. 😊 Of course I had him with me at the first Women's March too, but he wasn't even a year old then 😅

I can't bear to see his stupid fucking face or hear his stupid fucking voice, but just hearing how others describe it is enough to make me feel sick with disgust and hatred. I've never thought too kindly of America, but we're definitely at the lowest point our country has ever fallen to, and it's only going to get worse.

#USPol #trump #ukraine

currently talking to someone about clothing-optional beaches vs actual #nudist / #naturist resorts and it's once again making me think about the video idea I had ages ago called "the 'isms of nudism: classism, racism, queerphobia, and ableism" that addresses the prevalence of these issues in many (perhaps most) specifically-nudist spaces, though I'd highlight any who are actively NOT these things.

I want to heavily research if first though, and that's a lot of work so I've been dragging my feet. maybe some nudists want to speak on their honest experiences, and/or especially nudists who don't fit the straight/white/cis/tattooless/male stereotypical mold?

@slothrop
Sorta... Depends on the instance, still seems like most of them are like every other patriarchy-designed platform in that only "female looking nipples" are required to have nudity and adult content warnings placed over them while "male looking nipples" aren't 🙄

of course I'll take ALL nipples being censored over only "female looking NIPPLES," that at least is better than all the mainstream apps.

@slothrop
I'm glad you're having at least that level of interaction, and it seems likely to grow 😊 I still need to find an android app for pixelfed that works well on my phone... I've tried two so far but they both have designs I don't love. That's the only benefit to corporate owned platforms, really--they can afford to hire front-end designers who design apps to actually be easy to use for those of us without a computer science degree.

@slothrop
Lol yep. This is what I'm talking about... Just spent ten minutes laboriously copying text and writing alt text using my thumb only on my phone to try to post it pixelfed via pixelix, only for the post to time out with no option to refresh and try again without losing everything. Oh, fediverse 😩

@slothrop
That's great! Does anyone interact with the posts, though? I'm still going to be using pixelfed more than Instagram going forward, but my experiences with decentralized platforms has been an extreme difficulty in actually finding people to interact with. I mean, it's taken me over two years of posting and replying every day on this account to establish whatever interaction I can on here, and it's still very limited. (and I'm not saying I care from a "social media engagement business angle," I know there's no monetization or "trending" model on fedi, I just mean that I don't post to SOCIAL media just to hear my own self talk)

For those of you who don't understand why places like #youtube "age-gating" my topless equality content (when it's not banned entirely, as happens most of the time) is still a death sentence to creators, @jessiegender has this phenomenal video titled "YouTube Is Destroying Its Creators": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwuEK4KV2eM&t=1022s

I'm actually in the process of setting up an interview with Jessie in the near future (I can't believe I had the cervix to ask her, and that she said yes!!) and of course the biggest focus of the interview will probably be further discussion on what she says in this video--

how corporate-owned social media platforms (so, everything but decentralized platforms like Mastodon that only computer programmers use) all like to claim they're "safe spaces for fostering artistic creativity" and yet their business models prove they're anything but.

I really recommend watching the video I linked to upthread, and if you have ideas for addendum questions you want to ask
@jessiegender , let me know and I'll consider adding them to the interview script. :)

@valhalla
That's the problem with non-capitalist tech ventures... No money for a user-friendly interface speciality department, so the only people seeing the tech are deep in the tech world and won't understand the limitations non-tech people face in trying to use it 🙃 (I can barely use mastodon, and certainly haven't found a concise and unintimidating way to explain how hashtags [don't] work, to convince other non-computer-programmers to join)
@aehdeschaine

@aehdeschaine
Until my dad died two weeks ago, I was so on the fence about getting an Alexa or something similar, because he JUST DIDN'T UNDERSTAND how to use ANY device using his hands, no matter how I dressed it up with color coding and tactile buttons. I mean, a single-button toddler's walkie talkie confused him. Man I wish we had accessibility options for people who can't handle anything visual or tactile, that didn't constantly spy on you and send your data who knows where.

@slothrop
Betting odds are that any apparent "femaleNess" from the subject increases chances of their appearance being categorized as nudity by 89.64%
@schratze

@forteller You think this is "coherent"? You could replace him with a DJ board programmed with sound clips of his "greatest hits" and it would be indistinguishable.

I find myself reminded of many years ago when I still used Facebook, of no longer mentioning my dog's bad behavior (when he was still a puppy) because EVERY time I did, I was flooded with unsolicited advice (almost always by cis men!) and this was a group of people I at least somewhat knew, not total strangers.

Like, I get the desire to connect with someone by replying to their story with one of your own. But this is more than the often-autistic thing of "I'm attempting to show you empathy by describing a similar situation I experienced." It's jumping to "THIS is how you SHOULD handle this situation," almost entirely at people who DIDN'T ASK FOR YOUR ADVICE.

Consider the massive difference:
"I'm looking for alternatives to (name of tech thing, service, whatever)" vs "I'm having issues with (tech thing)"

One is a direct solicitation of advice. The other is a gripe.

You CAN, by my own standards of internet etiquette (others may vary), reply with something like "I had that issue too, that's why I started using (alternative tech thing)." that is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from "you SHOULD use (alternative tech thing) because (tech thing you're currently using) is trash."

I mean, the difference is obvious to me, but judging by the posts by so many others dealing with #replyGuys, it apparently isn't? And yes, I do think #whitePrivilege and #malePrivilege do play a role, because it's simply the reality that our culture places the utmost value on the words spoken by people who are white, male, or both. You don't have to choose privilege to benefit from it.

Anyway this post, itself, is a gripe/rant, and is not, in fact, a solicitation of advice for how to deal with reply guys. Feel free to reply with your own experiences with them, but for the love of Apollo, please DON'T reply with anything that can be boiled down into "you should..."

Or you're just further exemplifying the very issue I'm right now griping about 🙃

Work-in-progress quote I just thought of:

More than ever, this year's presidental election remains a choice of "pick your poison." Nonetheless, do you pick the smaller dose of poison that will kill you slowly, leaving you time to look for a cure? Or the poison that will kill you rapidly, and take out millions of marginalized people with you?

#USPol

Don't @ me with "just vote third party/don't vote at all." a wasted vote is a vote for Trump, don't delude yourself otherwise.

A panel from the #graphicNovel adaptation of @neilhimself
's book #Coraline drawn by P Craig Russell that immediately made me think of " #aiArt" 😏

(I hope I'm tagging the real Neil Gaiman and not an imitator... We gotta get him off mastodon.social if he is; half the smaller instances have already defederated from @mastodon.social for not having sufficient moderation 😅)

@attacus I like the ones where you set them out by weke or month as well. They get mocked a lot as something only old people use but they're actually really useful.

Lol this dude is really complaining that #barbie made more box office money than two yet more superhero movies (and Flash was extra plagued with controversy since Ezra Miller turned out to be a creep)

@Radical_EgoCom "joe biden hates black..." Jee I wonder if they're a rightwinger who paid for their blue check 🤪