Darlings.
It's finally happened. We've all seen this coming for a while, given the state of technofascism under which we currently exist. But the impotent cowards at twitter have finally banned my account @BARDOTSMITH. The specific reason is not important (I told some rapey bitch hobbyist account to seppuku, if you must know), but the technique of inconsistently enforcing their TOS to ban radicals, queers, activists, and whores is apparent daily now.
We've been watching as sites that built their platform on the backs of adult producers, cow to the demands of their "investors." (Investors, by the way, who FREQUENTLY patronize sex workers). These platforms would not have had the traction that they had in order to secure investment in the first place without us. They are cowards, and traitors to their own generation.
Their blood must not be spared in this revolution.
With the internet being nearly HALF adult content and search traffic...The HYPOCRISY of contorting the web's development in ways that make it more difficult for individual producers to monetize their content while loudly screaming about INNOVATION and THE NEW ECONOMY is STUNNING.
Beyond that, it is THEFT.
These companies are able to use our traffic flows to monetize their products and services, while we are expected to starve for the privilege.
In 2015, I wrote about tech & finance's looming interoperability for the now-defunct MODEL VIEW CULTURE. NOW, As adult content creators are pushed off of financial technology, we lose access to the very SYSTEM of financial services that allow us to function in society.
This is a modern form of redlining, and you BEST BELIEVE that it is the model for marginalization of other populations.
This isn't even about sex work fundamentally. It is about whether or not a centralized, privately owned technology company has the right to decide whether you are "allowed" to charge and accept money for anything that you do or make. The amazing fuckery of the situation can be evidenced in the failure of free-market enthusiasts to spend a breath on this issue. Capitalism commoditizes everything about us, especially our time and bodies. Defaulting suddenly to a moralistic argument when (predominantly) women/queer/poc stand to benefit in ways that society deems them unworthy of benefit should tell you all you need to know about what's happening here.
STAY VIGILANT.
In response to GIVE YOUR MONEY TO WOMEN, so many misguided responses involve schadenfreude / envy over the fact that its creators were getting money "for nothing," and many people lashed out defensively saying they would use fintech to accept payments for their "real" work but that demanding reparations/tribute/ or paywalling access to ourselves was "greedy." You have all missed the point, and, as I said then, you would catch up eventually. We are poised on the the brink of war over our right to survive.
Without having the same access to technology that every single civilian has, we are further marginalized. I fought for every person's right to paywall and monetize content, only to be met with sophomoric analysis and the variety of poorly sublimated-envy I've been working against my entire life. It's time to move beyond your experience of ME and deal with the information that I present. I've proven my forecasting abilities again and again. I'll not defend them anymore. I know what I'm saying, I can see where most cant. I'm never going to be sorry about.
I'm never going to shut up.
My new twitter account is @ICONOCLASTIAE, and shortly my tweet archive from @bardotsmith will be mirrored in html FOREVER. I know I have influenced many people to demand more for themselves, and if that alone renders me an outlaw, so be it. I was born a revolutionary, every abuse I've defeated has brought me to this point. I accept this. Come what may.
Beneath this mask there is more than flesh, Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.
When I began writing under @bardotsmith at the end of 2013, I knew that the world would always be able to dismiss any individual woman's perspective...but that in creating virality out of my ideas...by letting them live outside of me and beyond me, they would auto-propagate, and take hold in others. They would outlive me.
This has never been about a name.
The last thing they want is for us to realize how powerful we are.
I want you to understand this, too.
#ONWARD,
xx, Ms Smith.
UPDATES:
- I WILL BE IN LOS ANGELES FROM JULY 14-20. I have limited time for appointments, good boys can also offer to take care of errands and tasks for me while I'm there.
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- Lauren Chief Elk and I will also be teaching the 4th installment of INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, called INTERLOCKING SYSTEMS. Stay tuned to twitter or this space for an announcement.