Decoding Stigma

Can we create a sex worker imaginarium? Decoding Stigma was selected for the @grayareaorg @sfgoethe C/Change R&D Lab to incubate our project, BROWSER HISTORIES. We are using a large portion of our grant to create a paid SW/accomplice cohort, exploring what it looks like to have sex workers involved and compensated at every level of a digital media project. We also find ourselves part of a coalescence of aligned community-led projects such as ONLYBANS, a direct result of the growing demand for the recognition and inclusion of sex worker genius. It’s been just six weeks since the lab kicked off, and our first phase of project development has been nothing if not intensive. Read all about it in the first of a series of blogs that will document the process of building our first collaborative/interactive platform! Link in Bio @elleperil @cheerioates @goofytoof @bodyofworkers

✨ Thursday, May 5 ✨ join us for an artist talk with Dr. Ayanna Dozier (@dozierayanna ) about deconstructing and subverting media depictions of Black femme sex workers. "When laws are rapidly being passed in which Black women will continue to be affected disproportionately by new means of policing, representation becomes critical. And as such, alternative media and the arts are vital for the production and distribution of counter-visual representations of sex work." In a recent essay for @​​pioneerworks Broadcast, the Brooklyn-based filmmaker, photographer, and writer explores the potent liberatory potential for Black femme sex workers who "seize the means of their own representation" in the face of pervasive surveillance and criminalization. Decoding Stigma and @parsons_dt host Dozier for a discussion about her scholarly and artistic practice, which "seeks to uncover how systems intersect to target sex workers of color, specifically Black femmes"—and the fabulation and counter-archives that can help unmake them. With moderator @liviatronic

On 4.20, 12-1pm ET, join @stabriella , @TinaHornsAss , and @iamsinnamonlove for an oral history roundtable tracing the early days of an internet built on desire, erotic labor, communal care, and animated gifs. From search suggestions to streaming video to encrypted online banking, the internet as we know it today was built on the back of sex work. Yet official histories overwrite the feminized, criminalized labor and communal innovation that made the internet desirable, accessible, and profitable. @liviatronic moderates and @hackinghustling co-hosts this event launching Sex Workers Built the Internet, a publication that urgently retells the internet’s past—and its possible futures—by centering sex workers’ experiences, voices, and activism. Hosted by Decoding Stigma and @hackinghustling . Sponsored by the @thesextechlab (SPE). Funded by the NSSR Dean’s Office.

Mobilizing again to defeat the #EARNITAct of 2022. Check out the #SurviveEARNIT website for the most up-to-date info on the current version, how it *still* harms SxWkrs, LGBTQ+ folks and activists, and WHAT YOU CAN DO to fight it. surviveEARNIT.com #SurviveEARNIT

“The pandemic mainstreamed what sex workers knew all along - when push comes to shove, people will dismantle the status quo in order to survive.” Read the rest of The Cybernetic Sex Worker by @stabriella link in bio

Though just published in September 2021 for @dirtyfurnituremag , this article was originally written over a year ago when Decoding Stigma was just beginning to coalesce on the idea of creating a space for sex worker-led liberatory design. Much has happened in that year, as documented in our Substack archive as well as far beyond what we had the capacity to share, with members of Decoding Stigma pursuing projects independently — or more frequently along an array of ongoing collaborations. In a way this piece is the cumulative theoretical foundation upon which our working group was built. As we observe International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on Friday, December 17th, I hope this article not only serves to help hold accountable the socio-technical designs that perpetuate this violence, but also serves to celebrate the incredible radio imagination of sex workers toward a future in which observing this tragic day is obsolete. #InternationalDayToEndViolenceAgainstSexWorkers #IDEVASW #D17

🔥TONIGHT🔥 7pm ET join us for a conversation with Veil Machine, co-hosted with @parsons_dt as part of their Cloud Salon series. You might not have seen this until now because Veil Machine's account has been CENSORED by Instagram 😡😡😡

Instagram BLOCKED any post, story, or comment where we tagged Veil Machine’s account. They are censoring a conversation about censoring sex workers, happening in an academic space @parsons_dt . Veil Machine is fighting this algorithmic censorship through their liberatory art and activism, in solidarity with other vital anti-censorship work from @elleperil , @hackinghustling and many more. Fuck Instagram, and come hear what Veil Machine has to say.

☁️ Join us Nov. 2 at 7pm ET as we co-host Veil Machine for Cloud Salon with @parsons_dt ☁️ Sex worker artists Sybil Fury, Cléo Ouyuang, and Empress Wu of Veil Machine explore the overlap between artwork and sex work—both of which, at their core, work through the interplay between fantasy and reality, intimacy and lies. Join us to discuss how they explore these dynamics through an intimate, relational approach spanning software, Zoom performance, chat rooms, theater, and zines. 💌Register at decodingstigma.tech for the online artist talk 💌

paid interview study opportunity for onlyfans creators ~ link in bio to fill out the intake survey!

[alt text] 1 In a dramatically lit photo over a jarring neon green background, an elegant hand suggestively caresses the scroll wheel of a mouse with a manicured middle finger. In a visibly pixelated font, a headline reads “Software, communication, and consent: Decoding Stigma hosts Togethernet’s Xin Xin for a talk on building consentful software.” 2 How do we normalize saying ‘NO’ in a culture where saying ‘yes’ is expected? 3 Facilitating consent is where we don’t innovate. There is already so much knowledge, culture, and experience from communities — like those around sex ed and BDSM — who have been thinking about consent between people for a long, long time. 4 Consent is not necessarily about creating a new feature, but about finding ways to encourage it. Can we use elements like user interface language to design a slower rhythm into the software? 5 I’m as interested in building culture as in building software. It’s about starting very local and small, and figuring out how to do things as we go. 6 Dwelling in space is permissive, and rent is the rule. Online, we’re always in borrowed space, unless we have some kind of material stake in the digital. 7 Consent will look different for different communities. There are different sharpnesses around boundaries: with sex and intimacy, they may be a little more fluid, but with something like medical consent they’re extremely sharp. These need to be addressed with specificity, in their own context, and in conversation with communities. 8 Software won’t teach consent. If that intention isn’t already in place for a community, software won’t fix it.

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