While there is plenty of criticism to be hurled at what music the algorithm serves to us, and how, the real problem with music discovery in the age of algorithmic recommendations is that listening has become a passive activity. It’s too easy to press play and let a pile of code take the wheel. Whether […]
On July 1st, Perez Hilton uploaded a YouTube video with breaking news. “Hello everybody, it is Perez, the queen of all media, the original influencer, and allegedly, I have been subpoenaed by Blake Lively,” Hilton said, stretching out the four syllables in the word “allegedly” as far as they could go. Since the actress sued […]
The internet has long been a source of information and support for transgender people. Now, trans rights and the internet itself are in a moment of crisis. What happens next? How trans visibility became a trap People who have documented their lives online are discovering the dark side of digital permanence. The return of the […]
Ekko Astral is not a trans band. They may have a trans frontwoman in Jael Holzman. Much of their material may deal with being trans. Plus, they may have grown their fan base from word of mouth online in spaces such as trans Twitter. But at the end of the day, they are not a […]
In 2014, Time announced the “Transgender Tipping Point.” The perilous conditions trans people are facing right now probably weren’t the progress the publication had in mind. In the US, state legislators and even the president are on the attack, while in the UK, J.K. Rowling is proudly bankrolling hate campaigns and the government just issued […]
In the early 1970s, long before social media and more than a decade before the earliest internet forums, a woman named Peggie Ames became a human rolodex for trans women in New York state. Born in Buffalo, Ames spent years working for gay rights organizations in the rural and suburban areas of Western New York. […]
I renewed my passport the day after Trump won again. It wouldn’t expire for years, but I did it anyway, along with many trans people I knew who could scrape together the fee. We all had the same thought: get your documents in order now, while you still can. For over a decade, I’ve written […]
A charter boat fisherman was among the first to discover the wreckage – a “mess,” he called it, deep off the coast of Massachusetts. From behind a veil of pea soup-thick fog emerged hundreds of white and green fiberglass and Styrofoam pieces, some as small as a fingernail, some as large as a truck hood. […]
In the last month, the war in Gaza has become an inescapable facet of the public consciousness as a new surge of images of Palestinian children – their faces impossibly sunken, their limbs reduced to skin and bone – flooded the internet. As the pictures became ubiquitous, the outcry became louder than ever. These conditions […]
Microsoft isn’t done celebrating its 50th anniversary just yet. Multiple employees tell me that Microsoft has created limited edition Windows XP-themed Crocs. They even come with a Clippy shoe charm if the Bliss wallpaper on your feet wasn’t enough 50-year nostalgia. The anniversary edition Crocs are currently available for preorder for Microsoft employees, who “get […]