Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme

I find it interesting on this site when a journalist/politician says something and then gets very angry at people for misreading them.

If it is one or two then, sure, there'll always be illiterates. If the vast majority are 'misreading' them then as communicators the problem is theirs, no?

Consider that this would have been compounded by sexist perceptions of who has what jobs and being a computer science professor would have ALSO been a massive strike against me

Trans people can BE a lot more things now, practically, and still get what we need, and we need to fight to preserve that

Consider that I would have probably been refused hormones because I am in a loving, healthy lesbian relationship, and because my skin sensitivities and allergies don't allow me to wear makeup.

And that's the mild version.

Don't underestimate how much progress we've made/what they want to take away

This is an important piece of our history that younger trans folks might not know about. Transmedicalism was and continues to be a real thing, and it's the horrible nonsense described here. The current media narratives are partially aimed towards returning to this state of affairs (at best).

The thing that about child safety online is that it is going in the exact wrong direction.

As a kid I had it drilled into me that I was never to disclose my real name, location, age or other identifiable information so that people couldn't groom me.

But that's hard on marketers, so.

I prefer years when I kinda forget about my birthday and get surprised by it. Alas, this year is too big a milestone for that to hold. Instead, I will be ambiently grumpy about everything.

The gremlin in me is definitely grumbling hopefully about "finally not having to use that piece of shit chat platform anymore"

Welp, at least we know Discord's IPO will be an all-time failure now.

IDK who forgot to tell them that you're supposed to wait to gut your product until AFTER you get all the money from tech investment idiots

it drives you insane how much erosion of freedom is justified by concern for kids when the people who actually hurt them will never face consequences

She shoved herself into a box half her size to retaliate against me, and has stuck her tongue out at me several times from inside the box

So yeah this is basically EXACTLY how Worf's days went

Just got growled at because I told Jadzia she couldn't eat a ballpoint pen, now I know how Worf felt

This is creepy when we recognise contemporary AI is all humans all the way down, just obfuscated behind the screen or dashboard. Based on stolen data, stolen labour, stolen humanity... AI is not currently emancipatory and just serves the privileged and deskills those who think this is automation.

We'd also appreciate your help spreading the word on this one! As part of our privacy protections, we don't collect recruiting lists or maintain any kind of participant database, so the way we get the word out is classic word of mouth.

And remember, you don't have to be in the US to participate!

Also feel free to DM me with questions - I know it's a weird time for trans research, and there's some *really suspicious* studies out there run by cis folks, but we're a lab full of trans folks who want to help our own. We need your help to do that, so what we create works for ALL of us.

Any app/service we come up with from this work will be released *completely* free!

This project also has all the extra data security protections we use in my lab, including E2EE data storage only we have keys to, and your safety being our primary concern throughout the research process.

So, if you:

Have ever tried to find trans health info online
Are any type of transfem
Have been on, are on, or have considered HRT
And you're over 18

Please consider signing up! All the detailed info and the signup are here, on my lab's website: sealab.sites.northeastern.edu/research/tra...

This is part of our broader push re: research BY trans folks FOR trans folks, and is being run by two trans women! We're trying to find better ways to help find trans health info and make decisions based on it, because there's a LOT of varied info out there, and we need tools to sort through it all.

NEW STUDY!

@juliahusar.bsky.social and I have a grant to build trans health and wellbeing tech, and we need input from other trans women and transfems to make sure it serves us all well. This is research BY transfems FOR transfems and we're inviting y'all to be part of it. Also, we're paying!

It is really infuriating to see how misogyny really does unite men across the sociopolitical spectrum. And, in so far as the Epstein files go, they sort women into two categories: fuckable or irrelevant. When they near a hint of accountability they complain about not being able to make women prey.

a close up of a man 's face with the words more on the bottom right ALT: a close up of a man 's face with the words more on the bottom right

Me, looking at the Bitcoin price drop:

Says nothing about city buses, mind you, so that option is always there

Also... it specifies I'm not allowed to drive a school bus?

Which... I wasn't planning on it, but it feels weird to mention that, and only that, so specifically

I feel like those would have to be *awfully* strong magnets to serve their functions - and if I accidentally erase a hard drive with my bra, my colleagues are going to be *very* upset

Be warned: the Massachusetts RMV has cameras that can capture your inner truth

I don't remember being even the slightest bit angry, and yet, the eyes are full of rage

My new license came in the mail and friends, this picture makes me look the angriest I've ever been in my entire life

Human/Computer Interaction

Personally, I am digging being in my "and" era

One of my favorite tiny little things is that HCI authorship credits work on basically the same system as American TV credits - the "star" (first author) is of course listed first, and then if you're the supervisor of the whole thing you get the prestigious "and" credit at the very end of the list.

I feel bad for the straight girls in retrospect... not only were they actually in a relationship with a lesbian, they were in a relationship with a *femme* lesbian who was generally more femme then they were, because I always gravitated towards women with a bit of butchness