Je croyais respirer le parfum de ton sang

I have never shared my thoughts on Tumblr, but given the current state of affairs, I have no recourse. 

I was going through my blog and found quite a few of my images deemed “inappropriate”. Some of them for asinine and profoundly disturbing reasons. One such image was of a couple in bed, under the covers, no “unseemly” body parts exposed, looking at each other longingly. The new prudery is not just aimed at erotics but at romanticism and displays of desire.

While many will be impacted by this act of censorship and silencing, certain groups are impacted far more severely than others. The prevailing global culture and political landscape supports the desires of cishet men only. Cishet men will continue to find and create erotic capital in various corners of the internet and in the real world their sexual expression is not stigmatized, shamed, nor policed. 

The same cannot be said for LGBT folks and women. The channels for their erotic expression are severely limited. The new censorship laws of Tumblr destroy the erotic capital of thousands of LGBT folks and women. Furthermore, it relegates these groups as objects of derision or fantasy instead of creators of their own fantasies. This was the joy so many of us found in Tumblr, we could create a blog that reflected our own desires in a culture that destroyed or objectified them IRL. It was a safe space for erotic expression outside of the cishet male gaze that has no other cultural equivalent online or in real life.

Make no mistake, these changes further marginalize and objectify us and silence our own desires. That silencing is inherently political as the corporate internet demi-Gods refuse to censor actual violent hate speech that is destroying lives and the general happiness and peace of mind of millions.