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Cyrena Touros

@cyrenatouros.bsky.social

cultural critic talking about new music, gender, labor, social structures, queer stuff, etc. looking for a job outside journalism member & organizer • FSP-NWU Floridian white-knuckling her way through it https://midnight-transmission.ghost.io/

1,159 Followers  |  359 Following  |  709 Posts  |  Joined: 24.07.2023  |  2.4903

Latest posts by cyrenatouros.bsky.social on Bluesky

We stand in solidarity with our @condeunion.bsky.social siblings at @teenvogue.com who were unceremoniously laid off last week.

Layoffs are not a solution to unbalanced budgets, especially when those laid off come from marginalized backgrounds typically not represented at major media orgs.

07.11.2025 18:30 — 👍 20    🔁 11    💬 1    📌 0

I was part of the team who helped draft NWU's statement following Vox Media's sale of Polygon to Valnet, and the subsequent gutting of the site's staff. This decision, made by the corporate leadership at Vox Media, is a gut punch. I am angry & upset—for my editors, for myself, for this industry.

06.05.2025 18:35 — 👍 14    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0
05.05.2025 20:53 — 👍 873    🔁 152    💬 6    📌 1
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Whewwwwww 🔥🔥🔥 First star ⭐️ to hit the #MetGala carpet Teyana Taylor #Dapper #Dandy #BlackFashion “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”

05.05.2025 20:58 — 👍 1077    🔁 294    💬 13    📌 84

And if you can, here's the GoFundMe to support the workers who were laid off without warning.

05.05.2025 18:52 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Join Now | NWU

Every day it gets harder to envision a future for entertainment journalism without radical change to this industry. That's what we're fighting for.

nwu.org/join-now/

05.05.2025 18:35 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Screenshot of a statement from the National Writers Union in response to the sale of games and entertainment website Polygon. It reads: In a precarious industry in which freelance workers simultaneously compose the majority of journalists covering entertainment and compete for vanishing assignments at lower and lower pay, Polygon has been a bastion of ethical entertainment journalism. To our union’s knowledge, Polygon’s editorial staff have consistently followed the key tenets of the Freelance Solidarity Project’s Principles for Working with Freelancers: being transparent and fair with their rates, providing clear contracts at the outset of an assignment, and paying freelancers in a timely manner. Every website sold to Valnet is a tragedy for entertainment journalism and internet culture, but losing the workers who make Polygon a great publication both to freelance for and to read is a particular gut punch.

Screenshot of a statement from the National Writers Union in response to the sale of games and entertainment website Polygon. It reads: In a precarious industry in which freelance workers simultaneously compose the majority of journalists covering entertainment and compete for vanishing assignments at lower and lower pay, Polygon has been a bastion of ethical entertainment journalism. To our union’s knowledge, Polygon’s editorial staff have consistently followed the key tenets of the Freelance Solidarity Project’s Principles for Working with Freelancers: being transparent and fair with their rates, providing clear contracts at the outset of an assignment, and paying freelancers in a timely manner. Every website sold to Valnet is a tragedy for entertainment journalism and internet culture, but losing the workers who make Polygon a great publication both to freelance for and to read is a particular gut punch.

Hi, we heard about the layoffs and we're pissed off.

Read the statement here: nwu.org/polygon/

05.05.2025 18:29 — 👍 224    🔁 53    💬 5    📌 1

Proud to be a union member today and every day!

And of you have:
written an article
worked on a book
designed art
published a newsletter
shot photo or video
produced audio
edited
written copy

...or really created anything at all, the National Writers Union is your union

01.05.2025 14:22 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A book on a table, the cover reads The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis

A book on a table, the cover reads The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis

My book officially releases one week from today. Extremely grateful for everyone who has pre-ordered, posted about it, shared, etc. it helps so, so much.

For a debut, these early numbers can change everything. They can help me get future work, they can help the book find an audience and be seen.

29.04.2025 13:39 — 👍 195    🔁 47    💬 1    📌 4

Happy to say that my union NWU has echoed this formally: nwu.org/nwu-sanctuar...

(are you a freelance writer/audio person/editor/etc and want to join a union? ask me about it!)

18.02.2025 16:37 — 👍 29    🔁 8    💬 0    📌 0

If you're in line to be the next spineless cog in the fascism machine, get out of line!!!!!!

13.02.2025 23:45 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 13, 2025 CONTACT Gillian Branstetter, gbranstetter@aclu.org Tom Warnke, twarnke@lambdalegal.org BALTIMORE – In a victory for transgender youth, their families, and their medical providers, a federal district court today issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a Trump administration executive order attempting to shut down access nationwide to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19. The decision by Judge Brendan Hurson was issued from the bench with a written order to come soon. The nationwide restraining order prohibits federal agencies from conditioning or withholding federal funding based on the fact that a healthcare entity or health professional provides gender-affirming medical care to a patient under nineteen. “Good and decent parents of transgender kids should never be in the frightening position of having their child’s prescribed, medically necessary care canceled at the whim and threat of a politician. But that’s exactly what President Trump’s executive order did to PFLAG families with trans youth and young adults nationwide,” said Brian K. Bond (he/him), Chief Executive Officer of PFLAG National. “Today’s decision rights a grievous wrong to our nation's families and children, and PFLAG families will be vigilant to ensure our transgender loved ones receive the healthcare they need—as this legal ruling demands.” “Forcing providers to withhold medically-necessary, evidence-based care not only threatens patient health and well-being, but also undermines the integrity of our healthcare system in its entirety,” said Alex Sheldon (they/them), GLMA executive director. “Today's intervention by the court underscores the cruelty and recklessness that is embedded in this order and affirms our commitment to resist the administration’s extremist agenda that targets trans and non-binary young people and privileges political ideology over medical expertise. We are hopeful that…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 13, 2025 CONTACT Gillian Branstetter, gbranstetter@aclu.org Tom Warnke, twarnke@lambdalegal.org BALTIMORE – In a victory for transgender youth, their families, and their medical providers, a federal district court today issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a Trump administration executive order attempting to shut down access nationwide to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19. The decision by Judge Brendan Hurson was issued from the bench with a written order to come soon. The nationwide restraining order prohibits federal agencies from conditioning or withholding federal funding based on the fact that a healthcare entity or health professional provides gender-affirming medical care to a patient under nineteen. “Good and decent parents of transgender kids should never be in the frightening position of having their child’s prescribed, medically necessary care canceled at the whim and threat of a politician. But that’s exactly what President Trump’s executive order did to PFLAG families with trans youth and young adults nationwide,” said Brian K. Bond (he/him), Chief Executive Officer of PFLAG National. “Today’s decision rights a grievous wrong to our nation's families and children, and PFLAG families will be vigilant to ensure our transgender loved ones receive the healthcare they need—as this legal ruling demands.” “Forcing providers to withhold medically-necessary, evidence-based care not only threatens patient health and well-being, but also undermines the integrity of our healthcare system in its entirety,” said Alex Sheldon (they/them), GLMA executive director. “Today's intervention by the court underscores the cruelty and recklessness that is embedded in this order and affirms our commitment to resist the administration’s extremist agenda that targets trans and non-binary young people and privileges political ideology over medical expertise. We are hopeful that…

In the first week after the order was signed, some hospitals across the country — in Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Colorado, and Virginia at least — abruptly halted medical care for transgender people under age 19, canceling appointments and turning away patients, including some who had been receiving this care for most of their life. This prompted protests of support for transgender youth and in opposition to the order nationwide. On Feb. 4, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Maryland, and law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells on behalf of transgender young adults and adolescents and their families whose health care has been disrupted by President Trump’s order. Also joining the case as plaintiffs are PFLAG National, the nation’s largest organization supporting LGBTQ+ people and their families, with over 550,000 members and supporters and nearly 350 chapters across the country; and GLMA, the country’s largest organization of LGBTQ and allied health professionals. "Across the country, this unlawful order from the president has sown fear among transgender youth and confusion among their providers,” said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “But today’s decision should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution. Providers who’ve suspended healthcare for their transgender patients should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse. “The president’s orders sought to take away from transgender young people the very care that they, their families, and their medical providers all agree is best for them – medical care that is evidence-based and well-established. But these decisions are for patients, their families, and their doctors to make, not for politicians or Washington bureaucrats,” said Omar Gonzale…

In the first week after the order was signed, some hospitals across the country — in Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Colorado, and Virginia at least — abruptly halted medical care for transgender people under age 19, canceling appointments and turning away patients, including some who had been receiving this care for most of their life. This prompted protests of support for transgender youth and in opposition to the order nationwide. On Feb. 4, a lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Maryland, and law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells on behalf of transgender young adults and adolescents and their families whose health care has been disrupted by President Trump’s order. Also joining the case as plaintiffs are PFLAG National, the nation’s largest organization supporting LGBTQ+ people and their families, with over 550,000 members and supporters and nearly 350 chapters across the country; and GLMA, the country’s largest organization of LGBTQ and allied health professionals. "Across the country, this unlawful order from the president has sown fear among transgender youth and confusion among their providers,” said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “But today’s decision should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution. Providers who’ve suspended healthcare for their transgender patients should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse. “The president’s orders sought to take away from transgender young people the very care that they, their families, and their medical providers all agree is best for them – medical care that is evidence-based and well-established. But these decisions are for patients, their families, and their doctors to make, not for politicians or Washington bureaucrats,” said Omar Gonzale…

Incredible news!

The Trump administration's under 19 trans care ban has been BLOCKED in federal court via a bench temporary restraining order.

The administration CANNOT withhold funds from hospitals providing trans youth care.

ACLU statement here:

13.02.2025 21:06 — 👍 8883    🔁 2609    💬 65    📌 104
Preview
Deadliest year on record for journalists; 70% killed by Israel - Committee to Protect Journalists Journalist killings reached unprecedented toll in 2024  Freelancers account for one in three killings worldwide New York, February 12, 2025 — A record number of journalists were killed worldwide in 20...

“A record number of journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, figures published today by the Committee to Protect Journalists show. Israel is responsible for nearly 70 percent of that total.

At least 124 journalists across 18 countries were killed last year.”

13.02.2025 14:57 — 👍 410    🔁 217    💬 5    📌 9
Preview
Fuck, by TDA 6 track album

Thank you to the band *checks notes* titsdickass.

titsdickass.bandcamp.com/album/fuck-3

10.02.2025 17:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Listening to an 18-minute punk song that is entirely high-volume cymbal crashes and kicks. Five minutes in, the band's singer rips a "extra brutally murdered in a disaster movie"-type scream.

The exhale of relief I let out! That's the stuff, baby!

10.02.2025 17:35 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Kendrick with dancers in gang colors positioned to resemble the US flag.

Kendrick with dancers in gang colors positioned to resemble the US flag.

This organized crime we call a country.

10.02.2025 01:33 — 👍 1357    🔁 104    💬 3    📌 4

An American flag composed only of Black people kinda sick

10.02.2025 01:30 — 👍 2585    🔁 304    💬 20    📌 6

Me: well you see Kendrick's whole body of work is an epic about the cosmic battle between good and evil as told through one man, his family, and his neighborhood. And that epic exposes the rot at the heart of America and in the hearts of man
My dad: ...
Me: And also he really fucking hates Drake

10.02.2025 01:47 — 👍 12    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
Preview
what the fuck are we doing anymore yes this is about social media

Anyway, you can find Kate's essay here, and although it's hard to remember, the solution to feeling tiny and insignificant and crushed under the boot of platforms like Substack is to organize with your fellow writers

16.01.2025 16:29 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

What do you mean I had to take a month-long break from this platform because my follower count kept doubling overnight and I was so anxious about losing my anonymity and having to perform Professional Writer again that it felt like termites were going to start crawling out of my ears?

16.01.2025 16:27 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
A screenshot from Kate Wagner's newsletter, The Late Review. The post is titled "what the fuck are we doing anymore" and the text reads: Hence, to return to my opening statement, I am being driven insane. But a more vulnerable thing to say would be: I am afraid. Every day I am afraid that the end is coming for me, that the walls are closing in, that I didn’t play my cards right at the right time, that everyone hates me or has lost patience with me as a human being and thinker. It doesn’t matter if the fears are true or not — the fear itself is. These unbearable feelings are the end product — no, the end logic — of not only the media industry and what it’s done to writers and writing but of so many years of using tools that have constructed within my soul an evil little panopticon. As I told my psychoanalyst recently, my superego looks less like my mother these days and more like the X user interface.

A screenshot from Kate Wagner's newsletter, The Late Review. The post is titled "what the fuck are we doing anymore" and the text reads: Hence, to return to my opening statement, I am being driven insane. But a more vulnerable thing to say would be: I am afraid. Every day I am afraid that the end is coming for me, that the walls are closing in, that I didn’t play my cards right at the right time, that everyone hates me or has lost patience with me as a human being and thinker. It doesn’t matter if the fears are true or not — the fear itself is. These unbearable feelings are the end product — no, the end logic — of not only the media industry and what it’s done to writers and writing but of so many years of using tools that have constructed within my soul an evil little panopticon. As I told my psychoanalyst recently, my superego looks less like my mother these days and more like the X user interface.

Aha aha ahahahahaha what do you mean in one paragraph @katewagner.bsky.social summed up my inability to commit to writing my newsletter when thinking about the futility of capturing an audience in this media economy and feeling sunk under the weight of hypothetical audience scrutiny regardless?

16.01.2025 16:23 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 3    📌 0
Do you know what I know? On Dec. 6, I had the pleasure of reading not one but two opinions from cisgender women on whether I should be allowed in women-only spaces. How won- derful it feels to be today's topic of armchair debate! On Megan McArdle's "Civil rights isn't the right framework for assessing many trans issues": Perhaps The Post's vaunted fact-checkers could determine whether there are any non-hypothetical trans people in non-hypothetical prisons. You might find that cis women aren't the only ones threatened by gender- based violence! On Kathleen Parker's "Transgender restroom is- sue reeks of mean-girl stunt": I cannot shed light on whether trans women sit or stand in the bathroom stall, for I am sworn to secrecy. But I can join Parker in imploring restroom users of all genders to please consider your fellow travelers who like wearing cute shoes. To the Opinions editors, thank you for carrying on the bold tradition of reacting to a backlash against a minority by publishing the thoughts of the majority about how they themselves are affected. The arc of the moral universe sure is bending somewhere! Lillian McLaughlin, Chicago

Do you know what I know? On Dec. 6, I had the pleasure of reading not one but two opinions from cisgender women on whether I should be allowed in women-only spaces. How won- derful it feels to be today's topic of armchair debate! On Megan McArdle's "Civil rights isn't the right framework for assessing many trans issues": Perhaps The Post's vaunted fact-checkers could determine whether there are any non-hypothetical trans people in non-hypothetical prisons. You might find that cis women aren't the only ones threatened by gender- based violence! On Kathleen Parker's "Transgender restroom is- sue reeks of mean-girl stunt": I cannot shed light on whether trans women sit or stand in the bathroom stall, for I am sworn to secrecy. But I can join Parker in imploring restroom users of all genders to please consider your fellow travelers who like wearing cute shoes. To the Opinions editors, thank you for carrying on the bold tradition of reacting to a backlash against a minority by publishing the thoughts of the majority about how they themselves are affected. The arc of the moral universe sure is bending somewhere! Lillian McLaughlin, Chicago

Fuck em up Lillian

14.12.2024 14:03 — 👍 1036    🔁 230    💬 4    📌 6
Baby otter on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter sitting up while on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter sitting up while on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter on mothers lap floating in water

Baby otter on mothers lap floating in water

Just some baby sea otters in Morro Bay CA

12.12.2024 15:12 — 👍 215    🔁 39    💬 7    📌 2

OOP!!!

13.12.2024 15:34 — 👍 239    🔁 24    💬 5    📌 0

Have you seen it before?

My single gripe with this movie is that they cast Queen Latifah and LL Cool J and yet did not commission an original song??? Missed opportunity

Other than that, it is my absolute favorite and I watch it every year

14.12.2024 16:36 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

@cyrenatouros is following 18 prominent accounts