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Elizabeth Minkel

@elizabethminkel.bsky.social

2.5K followers 260 following 1.4K posts

Writing about digital communities, books, and fandom. Co-host/editor of Fansplaining & co-curator of The Rec Center ✨ elizabethminkel.com // fansplaining.com // https://buttondown.email/the-rec-center

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 14d

Why yes, I did respond to @bookshop.bsky.social's news about no longer being at Vox with a) a great deal of sympathy and support b) a very loud WOULD YOU WRITE FOR ME. 😅 I'm thrilled to publish such sharp reporting on these complicated fandom intersections—all editors should do the same!

Fansplaining @fansplaining.bsky.social · 14d

Our September piece is live! 💞 @bookshop.bsky.social digs into the smash success of Kpop Demon Hunters, the complicated state of the K-pop industry, and why, despite media narratives, the fictional and real streams of K-pop might not actually be crossing.

Read or listen to a full audio version:

K-Pop’s Demons, Real and Fictional — Fansplaining

Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters has seen massive mainstream success in the U.S. What does that mean for real K-pop artists and their fans?

www.fansplaining.com

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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 14h

the only thing people want to do on Sora, it seems, is generate images of copyrighted characters. now that they can't, they're crashing the fuck out www.404media.co/sora-2-conte...

People Are Crashing Out Over Sora 2’s New Guardrails

OpenAI’s Sora 2 platform started just one week ago as an AI-generated copyright infringement free-for-all. Now, people say they’re struggling to generate anything without being hit with a violation er...

www.404media.co

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Gavin, Small Beer, long covid, &c. @gavingrant.bsky.social · 15h

economy of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 16h

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 1d

combine with absolutely bonkers driving—giant u-turns at full speed on Atlantic, people blithely driving through stop signs and, increasingly, red lights...it's so clear that drivers in this city have utterly zero regard for other humans. Which is kind of required to keep a giant city functioning!

Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 1d

lol luv my City Council member 💕

(tl;dr a substantial number of city employees believe it's a-ok to park in front of fire hydrants, in bike lanes, and as the lone vehicle on the side of my street where no one is allowed to park outside street-sweeping—for *days*: hellgatenyc.com/downtown-bro...)

Text reading: Restler has been pushing for the nuclear option when it comes to New York's Wild West of placards, which have been given out mostly at the discretion of individual agencies. His bill would get rid of 60,000 city-issued parking placards and narrow them down to agencies whose workers have collectively bargained for them, or cars that have official city plates.

"I imagine this bill would make me very popular with City workers who drive into work every day from Rockland, Nassau, and Suffolk," Restler told Hell Gate sarcastically. "Fortunately, they're not my constituents."

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Drew Schnoebelen @dschnoeb.bsky.social · 1d

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Grem, of 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐏 🔜 MCAtlanta! @gremlin.world · 3d

I will never not repost this

(Sound on for maximum effect)

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David Buchanan @retr0.id · 2d

how to deactivate torment nexus

torment nexus deactivation tutorial

torment nexus deactivation tutorial working 2025

deactivate torment nexus no survey

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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 2d

The grand unified “Everyone is Twelve” theory is a legit contribution to contemporary thought and critique. We really are ruled by evil adult children!

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 2d

The Sora AI disinfo nightmare is here

For more like this:
tiktok.com/@drewharwell
instagram.com/bydrewharwell

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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 2d

Doing a sober, serious-minded TV interview about Bari Weiss's appointment to head up CBS News in which I make evidence-based arguments but say her name in the Borat "very nice" voice every time I mention her.

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 2d

I've been enjoying the "she made this bad on purpose because it's part of a larger secret plot" response which I saw someone correctly compare to the response from a particular contingent of conspiratorial BBC Sherlock fans around the final season lol.

Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 2d

There's def writing on this within the fan journalism/fan studies space, though I can't think of anything great off the top of my head—not unique to Swifties. It ties to a sort of internalization of fandom, particularly standom, aka "my identity IS a Swiftie," and the default position is defense.

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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 3d

Amazed at the number of guys who are willing to give interviews about how since they didn’t find love with women they found love with the computer that’s poisoning people in black neighborhoods

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 3d

We Have at least 70? years of science fiction exploring this proposition and all reaching the same conclusions as Josie.

Which I only bring up because everyone involved in this AI thing is a science fiction fan, but not one who understands what they read.

🏳️‍⚧️ Josephine Riesman @josie.zone · 3d

It is morally wrong to want a computer to be sentient. If you owned a sentient thing, you would be a slaver. If you want sentient computers to exist, you just want to create a new kind of slavery. The ethics are as simple as that. Sorry if this offends

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 3d

The fact they jumped straight to AI actors modeled after women when, if I’m not mistaken, male actors are a higher labor cost kind of says it all doesn’t it,

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 4d

Like… it's kind of right there, no?

"AI" generated image of woman with dark hair sitting in a chair in front of posters with random shapes and symbols meant to look like images and text on movie posters, all superimposed with a post from k.w.bogen reading
"AI actresses can't negotiate. They can't say they'd prefer their bodies not be shown certgain ways. They can't refuse degrading scenes. They can't express distress about disturbing content. They can't ask the creators :why would you do that to me? Why put any woman through watching that? If AI film winds up being the path, we're about to see an entirely new generation (and more brutal depiction) of media misogyny."

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 3d

Imagine a world where people went "you and me and this fictional character are all equally real and valid and deserving of love and respect" lol. Funny how the other human in the argument doesn't usually get....a lot of....consideration as a real being........

Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 3d

Also funny this person is arguing that there's a sort of direct pairing between dehumanizing language towards humans and non-humans when in fact we have eight trillion examples of people being horrific to other real humans as they fall over themselves to "protect" their favorite fictional character.

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 3d

You know, after laughing out loud at the wording of this post, it really unlocked something for me. We've been watching "cartoon characters can't consent" for at least a decade. That cartoon characters can now have a ~convincing months'-long convo with you is truly reality-shattering for people.

Even Spookier Malloy @spooksmalloy.bsky.social · 3d

The OP she’s quoting is just as lost in the sauce and it’s beautiful, just a new generation of people asking if cartoon characters can consent but this time they’re running a website and actively marginalising vulnerable people

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matt’s slutty lil halloween name @windows98support.bsky.social · 3d

Is there a carbon monoxide leak in Bsky HQ or something?

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Tim Price @timprice.bsky.social · 5d

I like a number of songs on the new TS album, but there’s just no getting around the fact that it’s hilarious to fall deeply in love with Travis Kelce. It couldn’t be funnier if you wrote a set of romantic pop-ballads about Michelangelo the Ninja Turtle.

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doctor eek [free link arc] (alt decorative gourd season) @absolutely-not.bsky.social · 6d

i looked at the methodology for this and it is
a. sex addiction counseling group in texas did a surveymonkey and extrapolated the results to the entire us population which is the sort of research design that earns you an ff on an intro methods class (the extra f is for extra effort), and
b. p-hacked

The Independent @the-independent.com · 6d

Nearly a third of Americans have had a ‘romantic relationship’ with an AI bot, new survey says

1 in 3 Americans have had a ‘romantic relationship’ with an AI bot, new survey says

www.independent.co.uk

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Brian Grubb @briancgrubb.bsky.social · 5d

probably the most fun i've had reading something online in weeks

defector.com/name-a-28-ye...

Name A 28-Year-Old | Defector

Here is the challenge before you: Name a famous person who is 28 years old. Go ahead. No cheating, no looking it up. Off the dome. Pure, uncut 28-year-old naming. I bet you can’t do it. Zendaya? 29. ...

defector.com

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 5d

yes but you are talking about a few hundred people seeing something on LJ vs TikToks with HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF LIKES. They are not the same to me ahaha

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Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 5d

I just cackled lol. Honestly if the romance/romantasy world wants to argue about this book internally, go with God. It's just the way fandom and fic is getting invoked across the spectrum that is driving me....just a little bit.......

Elizabeth Minkel @elizabethminkel.bsky.social · 5d

haha OK that's good. I shouldn't paint the whole platform with a broad brush because my friend is deliberately bringing me ones that will drive me mad. But it'll be like some basic statement about fandom history delivered with SO much confidence. I'm aware this is a....broader TikTok problem ahaha.