New post: The death of Kiwi Farms doesn't mean the end of free speech

blog/2022/august/separatism-redux.html

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 				<blockquote>All space becomes male space unless females maintain a concerted effort to mark a space for themselves.<br>- Sheila Jeffreys</blockquote>
 				<p>For a long <em>long</em> time I have wished for a female-only lowercase-I internet. Even just a darknet, an overlay network a la Yggdrasil, a place no man could ever traverse. (Of course, it would be difficult without some kind of centralization to verify that only females are accessing the network, but this post is not concerned with implementation details.) A place without the cruft and scum and constant fighting for recognition of my worth as a person that defines the male-dominated Internet. From what I have seen of the few spaces like this on the clearnet I have found, I can extrapolate what this new network would look like: far less (maybe even no) pornography being spammed everywhere, less needless software complexity in the name of "dick-swinging" to pad out one's programming portfolio or resume, less soulless corporatist minimalism, fewer threats of violence, less harassment (sexual or otherwise), less SEO spam and blog chum... kinder interactions, more vibrant personality on personal websites...</p>
 				<p>Less energy spent "proving" my worth as a (physically) human being.</p>
-				<p>As far as socializing with strangers online goes, I have within the past few months taken up refuge in Ovarit (and ThePinkPill when the former doesn't have an appropriate "circle" for what I want to post or when said thing has already been posted but the discussion is dead and archived). In the process, I have discovered that <strong>I don't hate social media, I'm just tired of interacting with men.</strong> I have literally never had an argument on Ovarit in my time there. Plenty of disagreements and differences in opinion, sure, but no actual <em>fights</em> in the same way I did on an obscure forum in June when some "moid" was insultingly dismissive of my anxiety over the fall of <em>Roe v. Wade</em>. All my interactions on Ovarit have been respectful, if not warm and friendly and supportive. The archetypal social media user who only logs on to stir up shit and be a contrarian has a hard time taking root, quickly banned as a troll uninterested in arguing in good faith or contributing to a productive conversation. The women there (and maybe outside, if I were brave enough to share some of my writing away from the keyboard) just seem to understand my writing in a way that men appear to be fundamentally incapable of: the latter maybe a few key concepts here and there, but rarely, if ever, in its complex totality.</p>
+				<p>As far as socializing with strangers online goes, I have within the past few months taken up refuge in Ovarit (and ThePinkPill when the former doesn't have an appropriate "circle" for what I want to post or when said thing has already been posted but the discussion is dead and archived). In the process, I have discovered that <strong>I don't hate social media, I'm just tired of interacting with men.</strong> <del>I have literally never had an argument on Ovarit in my time there.</del> Plenty of disagreements and differences in opinion, sure, but no actual <em>fights</em> in the same way I did on an obscure forum in June when some "moid" was insultingly dismissive of my anxiety over the fall of <em>Roe v. Wade</em>. (Almost) all my interactions on Ovarit have been respectful, if not warm and friendly and supportive. (<b>EDIT 2022-08-27: I've had <em>one</em> person call me "condescending" when I asked them to explain why I should have empathy for men. Fortunately the site has a block button.</b>) The archetypal social media user who only logs on to stir up shit and be a contrarian has a hard time taking root, quickly banned as a troll uninterested in arguing in good faith or contributing to a productive conversation. The women there (and maybe outside, if I were brave enough to share some of my writing away from the keyboard) just seem to understand my writing in a way that men appear to be fundamentally incapable of: the latter maybe a few key concepts here and there, but rarely, if ever, in its complex totality.</p>
 				<p>It's funny the respect among users that naturally forms when you're surrounded by people who have already implicitly agreed on the value of your life and your words and your <em>personhood</em>.</p>
 				<p>Despite it being a public website, I feel safe there in a way I haven't felt online in a long time. It is the same overwhelming feeling of sudden safety oft documented by women entering womyn's festivals for the first time (I think specifically of <a href="ipfs://QmUT6pjdhn6tC3GD1am64TAzpoqPD7hmjbG8hBGncyTkaY"><em>The Disappearing L</em> by Bonnie J. Morris</a>) and every time thereafter. Being in an environment of all women when one has been living in the world of men all their lives, suddenly cognizant of the male voyeur implanted in their brains since birth demanding they stay "pretty" and "consumable" all the time and how utterly useless it is there. It fills me with sorrow and yet hope at the same time: hopeful because the safety and camaraderie and solidarity expressed in the journals and snippets within prove that female separatist micro-societies <em>can</em> in fact function without men, sorrowful because many of them were shuttered before I came out and ever knew of them, but hopeful again because what once was can be yet again - and <em>is</em>, now, today, in many places throughout the world.</p>
 				<p>What levels of freedom can I not even conceive of because of the weight of misogyny I've carried all my life? What does a truly liberated female who has never known male-caused violence, male-caused sexualization, male-caused <em>dehumanization</em> look like?</p>