I feel like I need to be transparent with my community, my followers, my friends, and anyone who follows my content - so I'm going to tell EVERYONE in advance before I enact this decision entirely. I've announced this in my Discord, but I will be sharing this here as well.
Let's talk about the recent news about payment processors and censorship, and why that affects us, and in the end, people like me. In fact, all of your queer friends, and even non-marginalized creatives could possibly suffer from this and be affected like this.
If you are not aware, a very brief summary: An Australian hate group known as Collective Shout reached out to payment processors, targeting distributors including Steam and Itch.io to ban NSFW content. Following this, many SFW/all-ages games that were labeled "LGBT" or "queer" were de-indexed and payments have been denied to a large number of developers on Itch.io. A number of these games were de-listed from Steam as well, affecting their developers. This affected both 18+ creators, and SFW queer creators/game devs caught in the crossfire.
The right-wing playbook is very blatant here. Their goal is to criminalize the existence of queer people, erotic content, and other things in art and creativity that make us human. This is fascism, bottom line.
Sex and sexuality are normal, and part of many people's adult experience. Some people are not into sex at all. Some people are even repulsed by sex, and that's okay! Sex, kinks, and the like are nothing to be ashamed of if you do like them or participate in them. Consuming erotic content is also not shameful and does not make you "dirty" or "impure"; such mindsets are Christo-fascist white supremacist views that are necessary to unpack. You can value consent, respect, and safety, all while engaging with kinks, sex, or erotic content/media.
And yes, asexual and aromantic people, regardless how they feel about sex, are affected by matters like this too. They are queer. Why do I say this? Because, in the state's eyes, ANYONE who isn't cis, white, and heterosexual is the enemy. We are not their constructed definition of "normal." But "normal" shouldn't be white, cis, heterosexual, and thin. Humans are so diverse and varied, there really IS no "normal."
I will not bend to censorship. I will be moving my adult content and artwork to my main account on BlueSky. I will keep NSFW content labeled and separated otherwise, but I am done being held back and being afraid about it. Allowing myself to be open and unashamed about this is an act of resistance to me.
Please don't worry - my adult content won't be appearing on this website.
I have a separate domain and will be making a completely separate website for that.
IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE NSFW CONTENT ON BLUESKY, MAKE USE OF THE MUTE SYSTEM. I recommend muting the following terms/tags and settings:
Turn on your adult content filter in your Moderation Settings. Set Adult Content and any other topics to "hide" if you do not want to see it at all. "Warn" gives the option to show it, with a clear and clickable/tappable content warning. I always label adult content. Consent is super important to me, and I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.
Mute #nsfw. This is the tag NSFW artists on BlueSky primarily use. I also tag #nsfwart, and any specific subject matter if needed. Seriously, mute out anything that you do not like or will make you uncomfortable! The beauty in being online is curating your experience. It is MUCH easier to block + mute terms so you do not see things you don't like!
If you do end up seeing things you don't like, it's okay to mute/unfollow/block. But exercise good etiquette online (and self-control!) and do not make comments to people about their content. It is okay to dislike something or be grossed out, but the mature way to handle it is muting/blocking, not harassing others.
I will never post content that is considered "problematic" in nature, so please rest easy that any content that has triggering topics will be properly labelled, with warnings, and context. I don't judge people who use fiction to cope with their traumas and experiences, because I do not live their experience; and frankly, that's not my business. But that's not the route I go when expressing myself, for clarity's sake.
Thank you for listening. I may talk about this further, but this is how I feel for now.
Remember, fascism is the enemy. Censorship is part of fascism. We went through this before, the pendulum WILL swing back... And hopefully we will never have to deal with this again.
Organize and resist here: VoidDebris on BlueSky's post has contact information, instructions, and even a template to use when contacting payment processors. We outnumber those who want us gone HEAVILY, so it's time to band together and fight back to create positive change.