In Which I Ask Some Questions.

Trying to get some questions answered - via an X campaign. Like, for example, why is it OK to talk about raping lesbians on Reddit?

Screaming into the void. Yes, I know this image is extremely overused.

Reader, I’m mad. Simmering rage has overtaken my thoughts - I’m currently one of those angry dykes the patriarchy warned you about.

Since researching, writing, and posting The Unspeakable Evil of r/Dykeconversion, I’ve been like a pot on the boil. I’m overflowing over the stove; your tea is ruined. Also my tea. Everyone’s tea is ruined by the angry water spilling out all through the kitchen.

It’s a state of affairs that’s just fundamentally disgusting. Reddit is one of the largest websites on the English-language internet. It brands itself as ‘the internet’s front page'. Sports leagues have official accounts, famous people answer questions, creative writing on ‘Am I The Asshole'?’ becomes New York Post articles. It’s a website that was built on the precepts of free speech, when it was founded, at least, and its incredibly mainstream.

Yet it is also a place where lesbians cannot speak freely. If they refuse to include men in their spaces, they are banned for hate speech. They will be banned from participating in a raft of the online spaces that Reddit calls ‘subreddits’. If they try and express their disgust with the situation to Reddit’s administration, they are banned. They hop from private space to private space, desperate to avoid detection. The spaces that claim to be ‘lesbian’ walk on eggshells around men who claim to be lesbians, or are run by and for them.

Meanwhile, those very same men who insist on being included in their spaces can write long and detailed fantasies about raping lesbians. About corrective rape. About committing hate crimes against lesbians. Including in forums that are meant to be for lesbians. Long lengthy posts about some man’s long lengthy penis is apparently ‘lesbian’ these days and perfectly fine to post in lesbian spaces, and if you object, you’re a bigot, a hater, and a TERF.

But on subreddits where ‘lesbian’ is a category of pornography, those men are freely able to ban biological men from being in the videos or posting about themselves. Men are allowed to know what a lesbian is.

Actual homosexual women do not get the same privilege. For them to do such a thing is hate speech. Lesbian is a clearly defined category of pornography, but apparently when lesbian women try defining their identity, it’s ha to be all inclusive or they’re transphobic.

The largest web aggregate in the world seems to behave as if this is an acceptable state of affairs.

You might say - ‘don’t use it’. You might ask why I’m getting upset about a silly web forum. But the fact that this state of affairs is acceptable on one of the world’s largest websites, and particularly on what replaced my beloved message boards (Come back, ProBoards!), is revolting. It’s revolting that a website where the majority of users would probably identify as ‘left-wing’ thinks it’s fine that lesbians can’t post, but posting about committing hate crimes against them because it gives men a raging hard-on is fine. It’s an attitude people take away from the computer and apply in real life, resulting in real world dangers for real world lesbians.

It’s the end result of lesbophobia. Of viewing lesbians as nothing more than a porn category. Of demanding lesbians include everyone. Of forcing lesbians to wade through catfishing straight couples who view them as little more than a sex toy, a prop to get the man off. It’s of viewing lesbians not as people - as homosexual women - but as props, as toys, as fantasies, as something you can opt into and be or as an aesthetic.

It is the end result of viewing lesbians as objects.

It’s condoning through complicity the proliferation of homophobia and misogyny on the platform. It’s saying that some forms of ‘hatred’ are unacceptable, but not others. Let’s put it this way - they banned the Donald Trump subreddit, but posting about correctively raping lesbians because ‘it’s my kink’, is fine?

You’d think the MAGA Hat Donald Trump fans were a lot less of a problem on your website than men posting detailed fantasies of raping women like me, but apparently not. Orange Man Bad, Raping Lesbians Good. Orange Man Bad, Lesbians Have A Penis You Fucking TERF Bitch.

So, dear reader, I’ve had enough. I am not a fucking object, and neither is any other lesbian.

I made a Xitter account to share my articles, maybe tweet the occasional pithy comment, but then a little worm of a thought dug into my head and kept burrowing.

I’m going to try and do my best at getting this outrageous situation some attention. Some traction. I’m not doing this for me - I don’t give two hoots about me. Nothing I do as ‘Sue’ is monetized. I’m just angry. Even if I’m just one voice tweeting into the void, at least that’s one voice saying that enough is enough.

I’ll be asking Reddit’s ownership why this is an acceptable state of affairs, on X. I’ll be tweeting at their major investors. Why on X? Well, that’s because trying to ask these questions on Reddit gets you deleted and banned by their insane administrators and moderators.

If you can give me a retweet, or a bit of visibility, that would be fantastic. Together, if we get some traction, maybe we can get some daylight on the problem. Together, we can try doing something about it.

Sometimes, just asking the question is all you need to do.

And then maybe, just maybe, we can make a difference. At the bare minimum, we can tell the world that this is not right. That there are people who disagree with this state of affairs.

Online spaces are crossing over with reality more and more. The virtual world now perfectly overlays ours. That’s why complaining about this is important. If lesbians can’t freely speak on one of the world’s largest web platforms, but men who fantasize about committing hate crimes against them can, what does that say about us as a society?

This state of affairs should never have been acceptable. It’s like a virtual re-enactment of the film Get Out.

You can read the original article down below. As for me? I’m going to start asking some questions.

The Unspeakable Evil of '/r/dykeconversion'

My X account.