Erin Elkin
shadell.itch.io
Erin Elkin
@shadell.itch.io
Disaster trans woman with a PhD in media studies. I write stuff sometimes. (she/her)

Buy my book: https://linktr.ee/Shadell13
You don’t use anti-USian slurs like “USian” enough. You’re probably on the Americaphile list.
November 27, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Extremely rude to have an Ameriphobe list that doesn’t have e most people I respect on this platform tbh.

Just because we don’t call USians USians enough…
November 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Oh, just that the percent of people who endorse rabidly transphobic attitudes is lower than the percent who think that more should be done to mitigate transphobia.

Which, tbc, absolutely just shows the limits of these kind of items to get at complex attitudes; but is kinda amusing on its face.
November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
TBC, this isn't something I think your work really contributes to. You're very clearly offering a corrective, and one that is substantively a lot better in all these aspects.

It's mostly then, just some fairly small concerns about emphasis.
November 25, 2025 at 6:56 PM
the same spaces very often seen as lifesaving for people like me; or where Brianna Ghey can be murdered by her peers and somehow we're now seeing fairly regular (if smallish) news stories that make it sound like her death was related to using her phone too much.
November 25, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Or rather, I think there's a lot of skepticism 'in the community' for anything which can't foreground that, for a pretty substantive number of people, the status quo is, if not good, probably better than it's been before.

Particularly as interventions like KOSA in the US take very direct aim at...
November 25, 2025 at 6:51 PM
In that there's a very widespread belief that online communities are somewhere between a net positive and literally lifesaving for trans adolescents.

In the context of mental health and social media, I do worry then about starting from the proposition that we need to do something or start somewhere
November 25, 2025 at 6:45 PM
At least as a trans person, looking at how people I know and the broader community/the limited academic literature on trans adolescents and online community treat these spaces vs how popular and academic discussion treat them often feel like living in mirror worlds.
November 25, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Thanks for the thoughtful and charitable responses!

I guess, sorting through my mess of a thread; I do agree and understand that you mean this mostly as a tool for theory generation; and I'm sympathetic to these kinds of evolutionary arguments in other areas (e.g., the media equation), but...
November 25, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Erin Elkin
"It is easier to accede to these unconscious desires if it keeps him focused long enough to escape. Let him blame me for the lie when we’re back in the real world."

Rainy Autumn Nights by @shadell.itch.io
November 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM